make life sweeter!

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.

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.

Today is the first day of World Breastfeeding Week and like last year I'm organizing a food blogging event to celebrate. Joining is easy, just make a sweet dish that contains milk (either dairy or non-dairy). Could be as easy as making muffins :)



I'm currently on holiday in Croatia and between the kids and the heat I didn't feel like standing in the kitchen too much so I'm reusing a recipe I blogged about 18 months ago ;) You too can use a dish you already blogged about as long as you repost the recipe and link back to the event. You have until next Saturday...looking forward to your entries :)

Ginger and orange semolina pudding with blood orange sauce

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.

This rich and sweet bread is baked for Easter in Croatia. Funny enough I've never eaten this bread before, even though I'm half Croatian. I guess it's because I've never been in Croatia during Easter. There are lots of variations on this bread and I made my own recipe mixing and matching from several recipes and then preparing it the way I thought it should. All the recipes I looked at were in Croatian and my Croatian isn't that good, especially not when technical baking stuff is described ;)
What I did was just mix the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Mix the liquid ingredients in another bowl and add this to the dry mix. Worked for me :) I guess 'real' yeast bakers would have done it differently and not melt the butter. But hey, I'm not a 'real' yeast baker :D
I let the dough proof in the fridge overnight (about 14 hours). I cut the dough in four and shaped the pieces into balls. They looked like balls but by the time they did a second proofing the shape they had after I cut them reappeared. So in the end they weren't as round as I liked.
The dough itself already smelled like heaven, during baking it smelled even better...YUM! And the taste was very, Very, VERY good! More of a cake than a bread. It took me 36 years to finally eat this typical Croatian Easter bread but I know I will be making it every year for Easter from now on. Beats the traditional Easter stollen we have in the Netherlands (not that I've ever made that myself).
My mum and dad will be here on Monday, see how my father reacts to the sirnica...

Oh yes I had some news too :) As of the beginning of July we will be relocating to Vienna, Austria for a period of 4 years. We're all looking forward to that! So we have some busy times ahead. First son number 3 will be born (my due date is May 21st) and soon after we'll leave for Vienna. We'll be living in an appartment hotel until we find something more permanent so unfortunately I won't be doing a lot of baking as my stuff will still be in boxes waiting for us to move to a real house. So maybe I should post a lot about fruit salads ;)
My eldest son R who is nearly 4 is really exited about the whole thing. Besides the move it will also be the first time he will be going to school. I don't know who is more excited about him going to school, him or me ;)

Oh yes, Happy Easter to those celebrating!



Sirnica (Croatian Easter bread)

makes 4

1 kg (2 lb 3 ½ oz) bread flour
250 g (9 oz) cane sugar
1 ts salt
14 g (½ oz) instant yeast (50 g / 1 ¾ oz fresh yeast)
250 g (9 oz) butter, melted and cooled (but still liquid)
2 tbs rakija (or grappa)
2 tbs dark rum
1 tbs rosewater
1 tbs vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon
8 egg yolks
400 ml (13 ½ fl oz) milk, room temperature

1 egg, mixed with a little water
coarse (cane) sugar

Mix the flour, sugar, salt and instant yeast in a large bowl.
Mix the butter, rakija, rum, rosewater, vanilla extract, orange and lemon zest, egg yolks and milk together.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until mixed as good as you can. Continue mixing by hand until all the flour is incorporated. Take the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface. Knead for about 5 minutes, adding flour as needed so that the dough won't be very sticky.
Lightly oil a large bowl (large enough to hold the dough and have room for it to double in size). Put the dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to proof in the fridge overnight.
Take the dough out of the bowl and press on it to release part of the gas. Cut the dough in 4 equal parts. Shape each part into a ball. Place the balls on a large baking tray or sheet that is covered with baking paper. Put the baking tray in a large plastic bag and allow the shaped dough to proof for another 2 ½ hours at room temperature or until grown 1 ½ times in size.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
Cut the top of the dough balls with a cross using a very sharp serrated knife. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle some coarse sugar on top.
Bake for about 45-50 minutes.
Allow the breads to cool on wire racks.

This post is submitted to Yeastspotting hosted by Zorra.

I made this tea blend as part of the care package I gave to my family to conclude Christmas diner. The blend consists of black tea, dried orange peel, dried rose petals and crushed cinnamon sticks. Instead of searching for ready dried orange peel I made my own from organic navel oranges. It costs a few days before you can use the dried peel but it is so worth doing. The orange smell is intoxicating...yum! Especially when the peels are drying. The oranges themselves were the best I've eaten in years. I have a sort of love-hate relationship with oranges. I love pretty much anything orange flavoured, I can even say it's my favourite flavour but when it comes to eating oranges I'm very hesitant. As long as I can remember oranges have been disappointing many times. They usually turn out either dry, not sour enough, not fragrant enough or with seeds (I hate that). After many disappointing oranges I sort of stopped eating them a long time ago. When I was very nauseaus whilst pregnant with my oldest son I tried eating oranges. We lived in Tel Aviv so the only oranges you could buy were locally grown and they were fantastic! Maybe they tasted even better because I didn't like eating anything besides yoghurt with banana ;) Well the organic oranges tasted as good as the ones I ate back then. So whenever I buy oranges in the future in the Netherlands I will buy organic. They were so much better than regular ones. Probably because they were picked at the right stage of ripeness.
I'm degressing, I was talking about tea...so you dry your own orange peel. Chop them up and add them to the black tea, crushed cinnamon and rose petals.
The first blend I made didn't have enough rose and orange taste so I added more. Unfortunately the tea didn't taste very rose-y but I already doubled the amount and didn't feel like buying more. Visually it does look very rose-y though. Maybe a different type of rose petals would have worked better but these were the only ones I could find.
The smell of this blend is so very good that you could just use it as a potpourri (if you are a potpourri kind of person) I couldn't stop sniffing it and loved opening the cupboard my private little stash was in.



Dried orange peel

makes about 35 g (1 ¼ oz)

about 4 organic oranges

Cut of the peel, try cutting off the oranges part only (a little white pith is ok though). Let the peel dry on a cooling rack until dry. Can take up to a few days.

Winter tea

makes a lot ;)

500 g (1 lb) black tea
50 g (1 ¾ oz) dried rose petals
35 g (1 ¼ oz) dried orange peel, finely chopped
15 g (½ oz) cinnamon stick, crushed

Mix everything together and keep in an airtight container.
Steep the tea for about 5 minutes to get the best taste.