make life sweeter!

In two weeks time the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is celebrating another World Breastfeeding Week to commemorate the Innocenti Declaration (1990). World Breastfeeding Week was first celebrated in 1992. Now it involves more than 120 countries and is endorsed by UNICEF, WHO and FAO. To celebrate this special week I'm organizing a food blogging event like I did last year. I nearly opted out to organise this because I've been pretty busy last month and a half with giving birth and moving the Vienna. In the end I felt I couldn't miss the chance to promote breastfeeding. So I'm a bit late but I hope you can still join me with this event. Rules are as simple as last year: prepare a sweet dish with milk as an ingredient and post it on your blog if you have one, if not you can still enter. (you can find the specifics on this event below).
I'm currently breastfeeding my youngest of 6 weeks and everything is working out well (just like with my two other boys that I both breastfed for about 18 months). J's already nearly gained 1 ½ kg (3 lb) and grew 9 cm (3 ½ in) on my milk :)
If you want to read a little about my breastfeeding experiences check out the post I did last year.

Every year WBW has a different theme and the theme for 2009 is:

BREASTFEEDING: A VITAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE



OBJECTIVES OF WORLD BREASTFEEDING WEEK 2009

- To draw attention to the vital role that breastfeeding plays in emergencies worldwide.
- To stress the need for active protection and support of breastfeeding before and during emergencies.
- To inform mothers, breastfeeding advocates, communities, health professionals, governments, aid agencies, donors, and the media on how they can actively support breastfeeding before and during an emergency.
- To mobilise action and nurture networking and collaboration between those with breastfeeding skills and those involved in emergency response.

RATIONALE

- Children are the most vulnerable in emergencies – child mortality can soar from 2 to 70 times higher than average due to diarrhoea, respiratory illness and malnutrition.
- Breastfeeding is a life saving intervention and protection is greatest for the youngest infants. Even in non-emergency settings, non-breastfed babies under 2 months of age are six times more likely to die.
- Emergencies can happen anywhere in the world. Emergencies destroy what is ‘normal,’ leaving caregivers struggling to cope and infants vulnerable to disease and death.
- During emergencies, mothers need active support to continue or re-establish breastfeeding.
- Emergency preparedness is vital. Supporting breastfeeding in non-emergency settings will strengthen mothers’ capacity to cope in an emergency.

(from: http://worldbreastfeedingweek.org/themes.htm)

DETAILS FOR Got Milk?

- Got Milk? is open to bloggers and non-bloggers.
- Entries submitted to Got Milk? must be made specifically for this event (pictures can be submitted to things like DMBLGiT though)

How to enter?

1. Prepare a sweet dish with milk as an ingredient.
You can use any type of milk (cow, goat, sheep, ...), non-dairy is allowed as long as is something that is generally substituted for milk.

2. Blog about it between August 1st and August 7th and link back to this post

3. Send an email to: linda AT kovacevic DOT nl with your:
- name
- approximate location
- blog name
- blog url
- name dish
- permalink dish
- picture (maximum dimension of 150 pixels)

Non-bloggers: email me your name, location, name of your dish and a picture of your dish

Looking forward to your entries :)

Oat-choc-nut cookies (adapted from Good Food magazine March 1998)

200 g (7 oz) butter at room temperature
40 g (1 ½ oz) caster sugar (very fine sugar)
90 g (3 oz) light muscovado sugar or ‘lichtbruine basterdsuiker’
160 g (5 ½ oz) self-raising flour
140 g (5 oz) porridge oats
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped
100 g (3 ½ oz) bitter sweet chocolate, chopped
100 g (3 ½ oz) pecan nuts

Preheat the oven at 180ºC (350ºF).
Beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and oats. Stir in the chocolate and nuts. Shape into 20 balls and put them on baking sheets lined with baking paper. Flatten them slightly. Bake for 20 minutes.

I did a trial version of this month's Daring Bakers challenge half way through the month. I made 3/5 of the recipe (as in I used 3 eggs instead of 5). This was plenty to fill two 15 cm (6 in) springform pans. I baked them less than the designated 25 min but this turned out being too much. The inside was still moist but the sides were pretty crumbly and dry-ish. I used bittersweet chocolate with a 56% cocoa content but I thought the end-result turned out on the bitter side. In sum: I wasn't swept off my feet.
So at the end of the month I repeated the recipe and this time only used 2 eggs and baked it in a small square baking pan. I used the same bittersweet chocolate but only used ⅔ of it. For the remaining ⅓ I used milk chocolate. This time I tried to get it out of the oven when it had the right temperatur. It turned out somewhat higher but at least high enough to not pose a salmonella risk and not too high to make it dry. The combination of bittersweet and milk chocolate was just right, not too bitter, not too sweet. This version was much better than the one I made earlier in the month.
To accompany the cake I made Arabic coffee ice cream aka coffee and cardamom ice cream. This was so good I only ate 1/3 of the slice of cake and continued with just the ice cream. Didn't want to spoil the ice cream experience by eating the cake ;) And I'm not even an ice cream person! Coffee ice cream used to be my all time favourite but now it's definitely Arabic coffee ice cream.

You can find the recipe for the flourless chocolate cake on the blogs of this month's hosts: Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.



Arabic coffee ice cream

350 ml (1 ½ cup) heavy cream
150 ml (⅔ cup) milk
4 cardamom pods, crushed
2 ts Turkish coffee (or coffee ground to a powder)
4 egg yolks
100 g (3 ½ oz) sugar

Bring the cream, milk, cardamom and Turkish coffee to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow to steep for 30 minutes.
Mix the egg yolks and the sugar until smooth.
Bring the milk and cream mixture to a boil again. Temper the egg yolk and sugar mixture with some of the hot cream and milk. Add the mixture to the hot milk and cream whilst stirring. Allow to cook gently for 2 minutes whilst still stirring.
Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve and allow to cool down. Don't forget to stir whilst it is cooling in order to prevent the development of a skin. Chill the custard in the fridge. Churn in your ice cream maker. Put the ice cream in your freezer.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

I wish I finished this month's Daring Baker's challenge on the day I intended: on Christmas eve. This was the evening I invited family for a Christmas diner. I already did some preparations to make it but just before going to bed on the 23rd I discovered that I wouldn't be able to finish the entremet in time because of lack of time. I didn't register that you had to freeze it overnight in between :( Lucky for me that this dessert was one of the desserts I planned on making so it was no problem from my guests. But I was sad that I didn't have this showstopper to serve along with the rest. In the end it turned out I wouldn't have been able to make it in time anyway even without the overnight freezing. I wasn't going to make this dessert for just the 4 of us so I finished it today to take with us to friends of ours who have recently moved to the US and are back in the Netherlands for the Holidays. We're spending the last days of 2008 with them in a holiday home near Apeldoorn. I don't think there will be an internet connection over there so you'll have to manage with only a picture of the outside. Will provide the inside when we get back on the 31st.
I didn't do extravagant things with the flavours, I left the dark chocolate mousse as the recipe, same for the crème brûlée and crispy chocolate insert. The only things I flavoured differently were the ganache that I flavoured with orange essential oil, yum! Added about 15 drops. For the dacquoise I used 10% bitter almonds to get a stronger almond taste and flavoured it with ½ ts of cinnamon. The end result was just delicious! It tasted like good marzipan flavoured with cinnamon, definitely a keeper! I'm curious how the complete dessert will taste.
So how was the process? A quick recap:

- The crème brûlée took a LOT longer to set, I think it took double the time, besides that it was easy to make (was the first time I made crème brûlée :)

- The crispy chocolate insert was easy, I used a butterscotch chocolate bar (with small pieces of crunchy caramel bits) in addition to the praline.

- I couldn't find glucose of corn syrup (not common in the Netherlands, the shop I knew where to get it was sold out from Thanksgiving and were only able to get a new batch at the end of January!). Instead I used something could corn/malt syrup, someting I found in the health shop. Didn't taste the same but I guessed it more or less had the same qualities. Worked out fine.

- I heated the pâté à bombe in a double boiler after adding the mixing in the sugar syrup because according to my calculations there was no way the egg yolks would be cooked enough to make it pregnant woman and children proof. This also makes the pâté à bombe even more stable. While checking the temperature I ruined my electric thermometer, it got stuck between the whisks of my hand mixer :( The hand mixer is in bad shape too :(

- Mousse worked well, though it was a bit on the bitter side because I used 70% chocolate.

- Ganache was easy and tasted very good (have left-over :)

- Assembly wasn't difficult but I'm curious if the layers will be parallel

- I added an extra layer of crunchy chocolate against the ganache.

- I was distracted during the making of the chocolate icing so it nearly boiled over. Ended up with small lumps too. Removed them when possible after icing.

- Though the icing covered the back of a spoon I think it was still too liquid when I poured it over the mousse. Well better too liquid than too stiff.

- I used marzipan dipped in cocoa for decoration

Like I said, I'm curious about how all components taste together. Also curious about the textures in frozen state. Will update about that on the 31st , together with a picture of the inside.



Update:
I tasted the entremet and thought it was good but like I already said, the mousse was a bit on the bitter and not so sweet side. Would use a chocolate with less cocoa content next time. The orange ganache was a delicious addition. The dacqoise didn't come through like it did on it's own but was still a good base. My layers were pretty level, so I was happy with that. Above the crème brûlée is a not so visible crispy chocolate layer. The picture is not very clear but from the bottom there is almond cinnamon dacqoise, orange ganache, crispy chocolate, chocolate mousse, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, crispy chocolate, more chocolate mousse and chocolate glaze.
Sorry about the not so clean cut ;)

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

I'm keeping this post short otherwise I won't be able to make the deadline for Meeta's Monthly Mingle. This months theme is chocolate and fruit.
I made some medium sized puffs from the choux dough that was left over from last month's Daring Baking challenge. The boys and I visited A's grandmother today and I wanted to bring something sweet to eat. The puffs were in the freezer so all I needed was a filling and a glaze. With the Monthly Mingle theme in mind I settled for strawberry mousse puffs with white chocolate glaze. Ingredients I had on hand.
The mousse I made the same way I made the mango mousse, and raspberry mousse. Just whipped cream, strawberry puree, icing sugar and gelatin.
The puffs were delicious, the filling was not so sweet so that was great to compensate for the sweet glaze. If you like sweet than I'd suggest you use more icing sugar in the mousse.
Unfortunately I didn't have much time making pictures as A's grandmother, her neighbour, my MIL and my two boys were eagerly waiting for a puff. I did make a few but those were out of focus. This was the only one that was ok, doesn't actually show much of the puff itself though.

Strawberry mousse (adapted from Mango Mousse Mirror cake)

enough to fill 11 medium sized puffs

250 ml (1 cups) whipping cream, chilled
5 g (1/6 oz) gelatin
50 ml (¼ cup) cold water
250 ml (1 cups) strawberry puree
30 g (1 oz) icing sugar (or to taste)

Whip the whipping cream until soft peaks. Cover and put it in the fridge.
Soak the gelatine in the water for a few minutes. Meanwhile mix the strawberry puree with the icing sugar. Heat the gelatine/water mixture in the microwave until dissolved. I popped it in for 30 seconds.
Add the gelatine mixture to the strawberry puree and mix well. Add the strawberry mixture to the whipped cream until well combined. Chill for at least 4 hours.

Choux dough

I used half the recipe wich makes at least 12 medium puffs

½ cup (125g) whole milk
½ cup (125g) water
1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
¼ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
5 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat your oven to 220°C (425°F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.
Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium
and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very
quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You
need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough
will be very soft and smooth.
Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your
handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time,
beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough.
You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do
not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you
have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it
should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon. (I chilled my dough and baked the puffs a few days later).
Using a small ice cream (or cookie dough) scoop, scoop 11-12 medium sized half spheres.
Bake the puffs for 15 minutes and rotate them. Reduce the heat to 190°C (375°F) and continue baking until golden brown (5-10 minutes). Allow to cool on the baking sheets.
Fill the puffs with the strawberry mousse.

White chocolate glaze

50 g (1 ¾ oz) heavy cream
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth and combined. Dip the puffs in the still warm ganache.

The end of the month means another Daring Bakers challenge. This month's challenge is Pierre Hermé's chocolate éclairs, éclairs filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with a chocolate glaze.
Even though I've made éclairs before (filled with lavender white chocolate mousse) I was still looking forward to making them again. I don't own Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé but I do own her Desserts by Pierre Hermé and the recipe for the chocolate glaze is in that one too. It has been on my to-do list to try out. Usually I make a simpler chocolate glaze but this particular one is said to retain its shine...sounded interesting :) Haven't made it up till now because it's more time consuming than the more regular chocolate glazes.
At first I wanted to play around with the flavours, make a raspberry pastry cream, stick with Hermé's glaze and top with a raspberry. I even made the pastry cream last week but I was not satisfied with the colour and look of the pastry cream. I added raspberry puree for taste but also for colour but instead of pink it turned into a sort of brownish pink colour....not pretty. I didn't want to use artificial colours to masquerade it either. Besides the ugly colour there were tiny bits of egg yolk visible. I guess I should have used the finemeshed sieve. The taste was very good though but I decided not to use it for the éclairs. It was the first component I made so the rest was put on hold until yesterday. By that time I felt like staying true to the recipe and only needed some kind of pretty decoration. Gilded marzipan balls sounded good, only I wasn't able to gild the balls completely so the orange marzipan that was left over from Rein's birthday was showing through. I felt I needed to somehow match that to the éclair and ended up adding some orange essentail oil to the chocolate glaze (I added ¼ ts). That way the orange colour was more part of a whole.
The glaze was easy to make though a bit time consuming with making a chocolate sauce first. At first I wasn't sure the sauce was going to work because the chocolate didn't melt completely. But after heating and stirring for 15 minutes it turned out beautifully. And although I didn't use the same chocolate Hermée using I thought the sauce tasted delicious. For the final glaze we had to make a ganache first. After adding all the chocolate the ganache had difficulties staying emulgated (emulsified?) and looked sort of curdled. This problem was solved after adding the butter and chocolate sauce and I ended up with a beautiful glaze. I chilled it to use today.
Making the chocolate pastry cream went smoothly if you don't count the fact that at the last moment before taking it out of its ice bath some of the ice water got into it. I was able to pour most of it out and had to blend in the little bit that was left. I'm not a fan of chocolate custard but was hoping that maybe this pastry cream with egg yolks, butter and good chocolate instead of cocoa powder would change this. Unfortunately not :( not that I dislike it, I mean, it's sweet and tastes like chocolate but it's still not my favourite.
I wanted to bake the puff dough yesterday evening as well but I discovered that I was out of flour! Well not out of spelt flour, whole wheat flour, self raising flour and quinoa flour but out of the flour I actually needed for this challenge. I didn't feel like going to the supermarket so I postponed making them until today. And today being a busy day I was glad that I managed to make them. I baked about half of the dough, the rest I put in the fridge. Most of the 13 éclairs weren't very pretty, only a about 3 looked good enough to feature in the photograph.
Assembling the chocolate éclairs didn't go smoothly unfortunately. The first thing I ran into was the fact that I didn't have enough pastry cream to fill all of the éclairs. Ok, so I halved the recipe, still I should have had enough to fill 12. I could only fill 7. I used a cookie dough press that also had a nozzle to fill stuff with and never realised how fast it was empty. I started with the ugly ones and never got to fill the pretty ones. So the éclair in the picture only has the chocolate glaze and no filling he he!
When I heated my glaze to the designated temperature it started to separate a little bit :( I hoped it wouldn't be that visible but when I dipped the éclairs it just looked ugly. I didn't cry but it didn't make me happy either. I was pressed for time so that didn't help either. I tried whisking it but that didn't help enough. Than I remember a tip Astrid of La Cerise gave me to save a separated ganache: add a little hot cream and stir. The glaze was sort of ganache-y so I gave it a try: it worked! I was so relieved...at least the glaze would be ok. I didn't have time to photograph the éclairs until after our picknick in the park and after the youngest was in bed. By that time daylight wasn't all that much anymore. The éclair you see in the picture was the only one of the three ok looking ones that also had ok looking glaze. The only problem was that didn't dip it on the top so it tilted when I put it down. I had to insert a toothpick to stabilize it. So maybe it the picture it looks like an ok éclair, in reality it was an empty éclair that needed a toothpick to stay upright ;) Oh well, another challenge done, and in time too...just in time that is ;)
Oh yes, how did it taste? It tasted delicious if you actually like chocolate pastry cream so to me it was just ok. I did like the taste of the glaze, you could really taste the orange taste. I still have some left-over glaze....it might have a second life as truffles, that is if I don't just spoon it out of the bowl :)



You can find the recipe at What's For Lunch Honey? and Tony Tahhan who host this month's challenge.

To see how all the other Daring Bakers did, check out this link.