Archive for the ‘Baking’ Category

Daring Baker’s February Challenge

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Valencia Mocha Tiramisu

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.

Just days before this challenge was posted I was telling a friend that I had never had tiramisu.  I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t enjoy the soggy biscuits or the strong coffee flavour.  Even with these doubts I was excited to try my hand at making it.

My Valencia Mocha Tiramisu is inspired by my husband who I think is one of the few people who ever got a valencia mocha at Starbucks.  He loves the flavour combination of chocolate and orange but I am not a huge fan of chocolate and orange.  Because I love him (and I need him to help me eat it) I decided to go with chocolate and orange.

The first element of this challenge was making our own mascarpone choose.  I was happy that I had made cheese before so that it wasn’t a completely new task, although mascarpone is different than the paneer that I made before.  After a bit of struggle getting the milk to heat up I finally decided it was close enough and added the lemon juice to have it start thickening up.  After straining in the fridge overnight I was left with my first batch of home made mascarpone cheese.

While the mascarpone was in the fridge straining I made the zabaglione.  Zabaglione is something I have heard is easy to make but have never actually given it a try.  I decided to make the zabaglione citrus flavour by adding fresh squeezed orange juice instead of the wine or coffee.

For the mocha part of my Valencia Mocha Tiramisu I made chocolate pastry cream.  By adding some cocoa powder and chopped semi sweet chocolate it gave the pastry cream a nice rich flavour.

While all of the elements that needed to be cooled were in the fridge I went to making the savoiardi biscuits.  Having only worked with whipped egg whites on a few occasions I was a bit nervous about folding in flour for fear of over mixing.  The end result were pretty tasting an overall relatively easy.  If I was to make a tiramisu again I would probably make my own biscuits again.

I was a bit worried with the chocolate pastry cream when it was all chilled, because it was very rich but when it was mixed with the zabaglione and the whipping cream it toned down the flavour quite a bit and you were left with a wonderful orange chocolate flavour.

I was pretty happy with this months challenge.  I actually completed the challenge at the beginning of the month but didn’t end up actually blogging about it today, hence the very last blog post in the day.  I look forward to trying different combinations of flavours for future tiramisu in the future.

Mascarpone Cheese

2 cups whipping cream

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a wide skillet. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl, then place the bowl into the skillet. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F. If you do not have a thermometer, wait until small bubbles keep trying to push up to the surface.

It will take about 15 minutes of delicate heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream curdles. Do not expect the same action as you see during ricotta cheese making. All that the whipping cream will do is become thicker, like a well-done crème anglaise. It will cover a back of your wooden spoon thickly. You will see just a few clear whey streaks when you stir. Remove the bowl from the water and let cool for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, line a sieve with four layers of dampened cheesecloth and set it over a bowl.

Transfer the mixture into the lined sieve. Do not squeeze the cheese in the cheesecloth or press on its surface (be patient, it will firm up after refrigeration time). Once cooled completely, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate (in the sieve) overnight or up to 24 hours.

Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

Zabaglione

2 large egg yolks

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup fresh orange juice

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

Heat water in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler, place a pot with about an inch of water in it on the stove. Place a heat-proof bowl in the pot making sure the bottom does not touch the water.

In a large mixing bowl (or stainless steel mixing bowl), mix together the egg yolks, sugar, the orange juice, vanilla extract and lemon zest. Whisk together until the yolks are fully blended and the mixture looks smooth.

Transfer the mixture to the top of a double boiler or place your bowl over the pan/ pot with simmering water. Cook the egg mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 8 minutes or until it resembles thick custard. It may bubble a bit as it reaches that consistency.

Let cool to room temperature and transfer the zabaglione to a bowl. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

Pastry Cream

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup whole milk

Mix together the sugar, flour, lemon zest and vanilla extract in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. To this add the egg yolk and half the milk. Whisk until smooth.

Now place the saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling.
Add the remaining milk a little at a time, still stirring constantly. After about 12 minutes the mixture will be thick, free of lumps and beginning to bubble. (If you have a few lumps, don’t worry. You can push the cream through a fine-mesh strainer.)

Transfer the pastry cream to a bowl and cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until thoroughly chilled.

Whipping Cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer or immersion blender until the mixture holds stiff peaks. Set aside.

Assembling your Tiramisu

Have ready a rectangular serving dish (about 8″ by 8″ should do) or one of your choice.
Mix together the warm espresso, rum extract and sugar in a shallow dish, whisking to mix well. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone cheese with a spoon to break down the lumps and make it smooth. This will make it easier to fold. Add the prepared and chilled zabaglione and pastry cream, blending until just combined. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Set this cream mixture aside.

Now to start assembling the tiramisu.
Workings quickly, dip 12 of the ladyfingers in the sweetened espresso, about 1 second per side. They should be moist but not soggy. Immediately transfer each ladyfinger to the platter, placing them side by side in a single row. You may break a lady finger into two, if necessary, to ensure the base of your dish is completely covered.

Spoon one-third of the cream mixture on top of the ladyfingers, then use a rubber spatula or spreading knife to cover the top evenly, all the way to the edges.

Repeat to create 2 more layers, using 12 ladyfingers and the cream mixture for each layer. Clean any spilled cream mixture; cover carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate the tiramisu overnight.

To serve, carefully remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle the tiramisu with cocoa powder using a fine-mesh strainer or decorate as you please. Cut into individual portions and serve.

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Daring Baker’s January Challenge

Wednesday, January 27th, 2010

Nanaimo Bars

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

As a resident of British Columbia Canada I was excited to see a dessert that is not only a Canadian favourite but also a very BC oriented dessert.  Nanaimo bars are not something that I had heard of prior to moving to Canada, and even the first time I tried them I wasn’t all that impressed.

Not only was I new to nanaimo bars but also to gluten free baking, something that was a great element to this months challenge.  Lauren did a great job of finding a recipe that would challenge many of us to try a form of baking we hadn’t tried before.

Making our own graham crackers but gluten free was my favourite part of this months challenge.  I was happy to find all of the flours needed and was pleasantly surprised to find that the graham crackers were sooo yummy.  Gluten free baking tastes just as great, if not better, than regular baking.  After making the graham crackers I found myself sneaking bites because they were seriously that good.

Who knew?!?

As I was putting together the custard middle layer I thought I would try and make it even more ‘Canadian’ by making the middle layer a maple custard.  Something I have learned since moving to Canada is that people here are serious about their maple syrup.  And rightly so, it is really rather good.

This was truly a challenge this month as half way through the custard layer I realized that I was out of powdered sugar.  After a bit of researching on the internet I found that I could simply put regular sugar in my cuisinart and pulse it until it became powder.  How exciting!  If I was do make my own powdered sugar again I would make sure to pulse it longer as my sugar was still a bit granular.

A big thank you to Lauren for creating such a great challenge I really felt like my baking was challenged this month.  For the first month since starting Daring Baker’s I made them within the first week of the challenged being posted.  I was just so excited to try something new and exciting.

Gluten Free Graham Crackers

1 cup Sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)

3/4 cup Tapioca Starch/Flour

1/2 cup Sorghum Flour

1 cup Dark Brown Sugar, Lightly packed

1 teaspoon Baking soda

3/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt

7 tablespoons Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)

1/3 cup Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.

5 tablespoons Whole Milk

2 tablespoons Pure Vanilla Extract

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade, combine the flours, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pulse on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal. If making by hand, combine aforementioned dry ingredients with a whisk, then cut in butter until you have a coarse meal. No chunks of butter should be visible.

In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the honey, milk and vanilla. Add to the flour mixture until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky.

Turn the dough onto a surface well-floured with sweet rice flour and pat the dough into a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, about 2 hours, or overnight.

Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of sweet rice flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be quite sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into 4 by 4 inch squares. Gather the scraps together and set aside. Place wafers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

Adjust the rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius).

Gather the scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and reroll. Dust the surface with more sweet rice flour and roll out the dough to get a couple more wafers.

Prick the wafers with toothpick or fork, not all the way through, in two or more rows.  Bake for 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Might take less, and the starting location of each sheet may determine its required time. The ones that started on the bottom browned faster.

When cooled completely, place enough wafers in food processor to make 1 ¼ cups (300 mL) of crumbs. Another way to do this is to place in a large ziplock bag, force all air out and smash with a rolling pin until wafers are crumbs.

Nanaimo Bars

Bottom Layer

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter

1/4 cup Granulated Sugar

5 tablespoons Unsweetened Cocoa

1 Large Egg, Beaten

1 1/4 cups Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)

1/2 cup Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)

1 cup Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

Middle Layer

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter

2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons Heavy Cream

2 tablespoons Vanilla Custard Powder

2 cups Icing Sugar

Top Layer

4 ounces Semi-sweet chocolate

2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter

For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.

For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.

For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

 

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Auntie Dort’s Peanut Butter Fudge

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Peanut Butter Fudge

Auntie Dort is a sort of adopted Grandma who has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.  As my grandparents friend she has always been around for all of lifes big events.  Since my grandparents have passed away she has continued to be the grandma in our lives.

Every year Auntie Dort makes her famous almond roca and peanut butter fudge which are both amazing.  We try and visit her around the holidays and she always has a plate of fresh peanut butter fudge waiting for us.  My older sister is convinced that the fudge is for her, but I know that regardless of who she is making it for I will eat it until my stomach hurts.

So this year I decided that I was going to try my hand at making her peanut butter fudge.  Come to find out that it is actually very easy.  All these years I had this idea about her fudge being only something she could make with all of her baking experience.  Now I know that I can make it and it tastes just as wonderful as hers.

It is always nice to learn new things in the kitchen especially when for years you thought you couldn’t do it.  My skills continue to expand and thanks to encouragement from my family and friends I slowly becoming a more confident cook.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Courtesy of Auntie Dort

3 cups sugar

3 tablespoons White Corn Syrup

1 cup milk

1 cup chunky peanut butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cube butter

Mix together sugar, syrup and milk.  Cook over medium heat without stirring except once around the edge with a wooden spoon.  Cook to soft ball stage,235 degrees, and remove for the heat.  Add the peanut butter, vanilla and butter and cool to luke warm.  Beat until creamy and put in a pan to cool.  Cut and serve.

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Daring Baker’s December Challenge

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

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Gingerbread House

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.

I had very mixed feelings about this months challenge both excitement and dread.  At first I was really excited to make my first gingerbread house from scratch.  I had all these lofty ideas of recreating a famous building from here in Vancouver, but that was very short lived.  After a few weeks of thinking I finally decided to make the dough and that was when I realized maybe I should be a bit more realistic.

Over the first couple weeks of December I was following along with others that were having problems with the dough, which wasn’t very encouraging.  I was convinced that mine was going to work out great.  As I put the wet ingredients together in my kitchenaid I was feeling pretty good, that was until I saw that the recipe called for 9 cups of flour!  How did I miss that?  I don’t even have 9 cups of white flour, so I ended up using 4 cups of whole wheat flour as well.

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As you can see from the picture, there was so much flour, I was pretty skeptical that all of that flour was going to fit in my mixer.  As I began adding the flour I realized half way through that I was in trouble, there was no way it was all going to mix with the little amount of liquid the recipe called for.  And it definitely wasn’t going to fit in my mixer.  I found myself going back to the recipe to make sure that I had included everything.  Sure enough I had, but goodness it is so dry.

I decided the only way to mix it all together was to move the wet ingredients to the large bowl the flour was in and just mix it with my hands.  A word of advise though would be to take off your rings before you start doing that, I was left with some very messy rings.

IMG_3974

After finally getting the dough mixed together I again was skeptical that it was going to stay together enough to actually roll out.  Anna assured everyone that after you let it rest in the fridge for 4 hours it comes together, so that is what I did.  After 4 hours of resting in the fridge I was a bit discouraged because it was just as dry as when I put it in the fridge.  I decided to just go ahead and freeze the dough and deal with it the following weekend.

Thankfully over the week that I waited to tackle the dough again, many more of my fellow Daring Baker’s had tried different things and came up with some great solutions for the dry dough.  Come to find out that it was better to weigh the dough than to use it by volume.

After thawing my dough I added a bit more whipping cream, kneaded it a bit and it was ready to be rolled out.  Since I scaled back my plan I definitely didn’t need all the dough that was made so unfortunately I ended up tossing half of the dough.  If I was to do this again I would plan a little better and make a half recipe instead.

House Plan IMG_4018

Thanks again to more of my fellow Daring Baker’s suggestions I rolled out the dough between pieces of saran wrap and then cut them while on pieces of parchment so that I didn’t have to move them after cutting.

At this point in the process I was kind of just ready to be done but I pushed ahead to make some royal icing while the gingerbread was cooking so I could start assembling.  After the gingerbread cooled a bit I was ready to assemble which surprisingly was done in record time.

After 20 minutes or so I had a finished gingerbread house that didn’t look too stable, probably because I put it up so quick.  If I was to do this again I would do it with another person, it is just a bit boring to do all these steps an sit there and decorate alone, I should have had my husband make one too.

The end result was a cute gingerbread house that my husband almost immediately started eating after taking the pictures.

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2 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 1/4 cup molasses

9 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons baking soda

1 tablespoons ground ginger

In a very large bowl, with wire wisk, beat frown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth.  In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and ginger.  With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until all the flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.

Divide dough into 4 equal parts, flatten each into a disk to speed chilling.  Wrap each disk well in plastic wrap and refridgerate atleast 4 hours until doug is firm enough to roll.

Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time between two pieces of plastic wrap and cut into desired shapes.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Chill for 10 minutes prior to baking if the dough seems soft.  Bake for 25-30 minutes until pieces are firm to the touch, do not over bake.

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Afternoon of Baking

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Black Bottom Coconut Bar

Baking is something that I really enjoy the only problem I find with baking is that I really don’t want to have all the baked goods in my house.  I am weak when it comes to sweets and I know that I would eat them all and I am really trying to be good over the holiday season.  My solution to that problem is to bake lots of things and then give them away to either family or coworkers.

For a second weekend in a row I did some serious baking, but this time I was fortunate enough to go over to friends house and use her big kitchen for all things baking.  We weren’t sure what we wanted to make since we are tired of making all the usuals, so I set out on the internet to get some good ideas of holiday treats and came across Martha Stewarts suggestions.

I am not normally a Martha Stewart fan, but she had some really good ideas so I thought I would make our baking afternoon a Martha Stewart themed day and make 4 of her top holiday recipes.  The recipes for the day were black bottom coconut bars, pecan bars, ginger cookies and almond ginger biscotti.  All of these recipes seemed to have really good potential but as with any recipe you start coming up with the ways you would do them differently the next time around.

Since these recipes pretty much called for basic ingredients there were only a few things we had to pick up at the store.  So after a quick trip to the store we were ready to start baking.  As the recipes were coming together they were both quick and easy, which is always nice.

Pecan Bars

I find that baking is much more fun when you have a warm cup of coffee and a friend to visit with.  We had a great time baking and ended up with two really good recipes and two duds.  I would definitely make the coconut and pecan bars again but pass on the ginger cookies and biscotti.

Biscotti

The unfortunate part about the ginger cookies was that they ended up very flat and tasting a bit too much like molasses.  The biscotti didn’t cook all the way through so when we cut it up it just never got crunchy.  I am beginning to wonder if I am destined to keep making bad biscotti, considering my biscotti last weekend didn’t turn out either.

Ginger Cookies

We had a great time regardless of the results and look forward to doing some more baking together in the future.

Black-Bottom Coconut Bars

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

For Chocolate Base

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup all purpose flour

For Coconut Topping

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

1 package sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place butter in a large microwave-safe bowl; melt in microwave. Add sugar and salt; whisk to combine. Whisk in egg, then cocoa and flour until smooth. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake just until sides begin to pull away from edges of pan, 10 to 15 minutes (do not overbake). Let cool slightly while preparing coconut topping. Keep oven on for topping.

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs with sugar and vanilla. Gently mix in flour and coconut (except 1/2 cup reserved for sprinkling). Drop mounds of mixture over chocolate base; spread and pat in gently and evenly with moistened fingers. Sprinkle with reserved 1/2 cup coconut. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Lift cake from pan, peel off foil, and cut into 24 bars.

Pecan Bars

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

For the Crust

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg, lightly beaten

For the Filling

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces  pecans

1/2 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil. In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar, and salt to combine. Add butter; pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg; pulse just until a dough forms. Transfer dough to prepared pan; with floured fingers and an offset spatula, press firmly into bottom and 3/4 inch up sides. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. Prick bottom of dough; bake until lightly golden, 22 to 25 minutes. Let cool while preparing filling.

In a large saucepan, bring butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup to a boil over high heat, whisking constantly, until smooth; continue boiling, without stirring, until slightly darkened, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Whisk in cream and salt; mix in pecans.

Spoon hot filling evenly over crust, using spoon to arrange and press in nuts so they fit snugly (create as flat a surface as possible). Bake until bubbling and amber-colored, 18 to 22 minutes. Cool completely in pan. Using foil, lift cake from pan; peel off foil. With a sharp knife, trim edges (if desired). Cut into 6 even strips; cut each strip crosswise into 4 even strips to make 24 bars.

Ginger Cookies

Courtesy of Martha Stewart.com

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/2 teaspoon pepper

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

6 tablespoons molasses

1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, allspice, and pepper. With an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg. With mixer on low, gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Flatten into a disk, wrap in plastic, and freeze for 20 minutes.

Divide dough into twelve 2-inch balls. Place remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a bowl. Roll balls in sugar to coat; place at least 4 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Flatten into 3-inch rounds. Sprinkle with sugar remaining in bowl. Bake until brown, rotating sheets halfway through, 12 to 15 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

Almond Ginger Biscotti

Adapted from Martha Stewart.com

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 tablespoons grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups slivered almonds

1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, zest, and salt. Stir in almonds and ginger. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and vanilla; stir into flour mixture. (Dough will appear very dry but will come together when kneaded.) Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface; knead until smooth. Divide dough in half; shape into two logs, each about 1 inch high and 3 inches wide. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet; sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake until logs are puffed and outside is firm (the tops may crack), about 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice the logs crosswise,1/4 inch thick. Lay slices on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until crisp and lightly golden, rotating pans and turning biscotti over halfway through, 20 minutes total. Cool completely before serving or storing.

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Holiday Baking

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Holiday Baking

This last weekend Sean and I headed over to Victoria to his mom’s house to celebrate an early Christmas with his family.  With all of us going in different directions around Christmas we decided to celebrate early so that everyone could make it.  We were all very happy to have Sean’s youngest brother fly over from Nelson to join us.

Other than my mother in laws famous rum ball we weren’t going to be exchanging gifts so I thought I would bake up some holiday treats to bring over with me.  But in the interest of keeping them fresh I decided to get up early Saturday morning before we left and bake.

With only 3 1/2 hours available for baking, I could only get up so early, I got started on my mom’s brownies.  These brownies are really amazing.  They are quick and easy and the perfect base for just about any add ons.  For today’s brownies I decided to add mint chocolates since my mother in law like mint chocolate as does my husband.

Once the brownies were in the oven I started working on the pumpkin biscotti, a recipe that I got from older sister.  Having only made biscotti once before I wouldn’t say that I was confident about this.  I mixed everything together and formed my dough and popped it in the oven.

The recipe said to cook it until it is firm in the middle, which I thought I knew what firm was until I started cutting up my biscotti.  I didn’t want to over cook the biscotti so I pulled it out when apparently it wasn’t quite firm in the middle.  I had a dilemma on my hands do I put the pieces back together and put it in the oven to cook a little more or do I move on to the next step and just hope that it finishes cooking.

In the interest of time I decided to move onto the next step and keep my fingers crossed that it would not be gooey.  My finished biscotti were cooked but really lacked that crunch you would normally see in a biscotti.  The taste was good and when dunked in some coffee or tea you wouldn’t know the difference.

Now on to the final recipe, peanut blossoms.  These cookies are something that I have been making for as long as I can remember.  They are one of my dad’s favourite cookies so I remember making them for him on various occasions over the years.

As was a theme in that morning I hit a snag when I realized I didn’t have any baking soda.  Thanks to google I did a bit of research and found that if I added extra baking powder it should still work…

Unfortunately I was led astray by my information and ended up with some very flat cookies.  But I have to say I wasn’t too upset because they tasted soooo good.  That warm peanut butter cookie with a hershey kiss on top can’t be beat, they really are great cookies even if they were flat.

So after my marathon baking we hit the road with the cookies still on the cookie sheets hoping they would cool while on the ferry so I could package them up.  Fast forward 2 hours and you find me in the back seat of my car, down the street from my mother in laws house, packaging everyones fresh baked goods.

No one would be the wiser :)

You may notice there is a lack of pictures, I was so busy baking I didn’t have time to stop and take any more pictures than the first one.

Mint Chocolate Brownies

Adapted from my Mom’s recipe

3/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Chopped up mint chocolates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla.  Add remaining ingredients.  Put in an 8×8 pan and bake for 40-45 minutes.

Pumpkin Biscotti

Adapted from Simply Recipes

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, ginger and cloves

Pinch of salt

2 eggs

1/2 cup of pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350

Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and spices into a large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, melted butter, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Give it a rough stir to generally incorporate the ingredients, the dough will be crumbly.

Flour your hands and a clean kitchen surface and lightly knead the dough. Lightly grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper. Form the dough into a large log, roughly about 15-20 inches by 6-7 inches. The loaves should be relatively flat, only about ½ inch high. Bake for 22-30 minutes at 350ºF, until the center is firm to the touch. (Feel free to also form two smaller logs for cute two-bite biscotti; just cut the baking time to 18-24 minutes.)

Let biscotti cool for 15 minutes and then using a serrated knife cut into 1 inch wide pieces. Turn the oven to 300ºF and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Cool completely.

Peanut Blossoms

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup shortning

1/2 cup peanut butter

Hershey’s kisses

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl except the kisses and mix with electric mixer.  Make balls of dough and bake 10-12 minutes..  Remove and place 1 hershey kiss in the center.  Press down until edges crack.  Let cool.

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Daring Baker’s November Challenge

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Nutmeg Cannoli with Eggnog Mousse

Nutmeg Cannoli with Eggnog Mousse

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.

As the holiday’s roll around I find that I want to use holiday ‘ingredients’ as much as possible.  Athought I know that nutmeg is a year round spice I find that when I use it I think of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The ingredient that is truly a holiday ingredient is eggnog something I knew I had to use for this months Daring Baker’s Challenge.  Since this round of Daring Baker’s let us have much more creative control over the recipe I thought I would go for a free form cannoli with some mousse between the layers.

I started making my dough with the flavours just as I wanted them and then I went and added the wine.  I wasn’t even thinking when I decided to use Shiraz wine which then turned the dough purple.  Even with the coloured dough it still had a great taste and a different look than your average dough would.

Dough

Having never done deep frying I was a little hesitant about the whole process.  I knew that the oil shouldn’t get too hot and I had to be really careful when putting in the cannoli dough.  Other than that I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  All I knew is that I didn’t want to have a frying accident and end up burned.

Deep Frying

Thankfully my deep frying was a success and I was left with squares of cannoli in varying size.  They really did turn out great and had a little added something with the shiraz in the dough.  I have come to realize that as long as you are careful with the oil, deep frying is not as scary as it seems.

Now we come to the part of the recipe that seemed like a great idea in my head but turned out to not to work as I thought.  Having never made mousse before I though it would be a great filling for my cannoli’s and why not make eggnog mousse.

Mousse IngredientsI figured I could take a basic mousse recipe and just substitute the whipping cream for eggnog, thinking that the fat content would be close enough for it to still whip up.  I was unfortunately wrong and was left with a bowl of eggnog, sugar, and an egg white that never made it to soft peaks.  It was at this point that I had to improvise and create my own version of eggnog.

After a quick trip to the store for some whipping cream I was ready to make my eggnog, or atleast whipping cream flavoured like eggnog.  I added a bit of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla and was left with a very close replica of eggnog.

Mousse is something I can check off the list now, because it really wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be.  My whipped egg whites turned out much better this time than they did for my macaroons last month.  It is always nice to be improving in my skills.

After assembling the ingredients and sprinkling with a little powdered sugar I was left with a successful version of stacked cannoli.

Cannoli Dough

Courtesy of Daring Baker’s November Challenge

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

1/2 cup wine or any variety

1 large egg, seperated

4 cups oil

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, nutmeg 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.

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).

Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 – 190 °C).

Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.

Eggnog Mousse

Adapted from Katy at Sugarlaws.com

1/4 teaspoon cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla

2/3 cup sugar

2 egg whites

1 cup heavy cream

Whip heavy cream with spices and 1/3 cup sugar until soft peaks form (err on the side of slightly overwhipped). Set aside. Next, in a medium mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/3 cup sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

Fold together the whipped cream mixture and the egg mixtures (I folded the eggs into the whipped cream).

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Belated Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 11th, 2009

As I am going through the many pictures on my computer I come across a picture of the dessert I made for thanksgiving dinner back in October and for some reason never blogged about.  Better late than never.

Pumpkin Pecan Cream Cheese Tart

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Tart

For my first Canadian Thanksgiving Sean and I went over to his dad’s house for dinner.  Since I wasn’t the one in charge of making all the food I thought I would contribute by making a cold green bean salad with a roasted onion balsamic vinaigrette and dessert.

For dessert I knew I wanted to do something with pumpkin and to take another stab at pastry so I settled on adapting my lemon curd tart to a fall recipe with classic flavours.  I quickly decided that I would make the same cream cheese base and mix in homemade pumpkin puree and then sprinkle some pecans on top which would be a play on a pecan pie without all the fat.

Making the pumpkin puree was a pretty easy process but not always necessary when you can just buy canned pumpkin puree.  My thought on the whole thing is that making it yourself is a fun part of the process so if you have the time you might as well do it.  The method I used was cutting up the pumpkin after discarding the seeds and stringy bit and removing the skin.  I then steamed the pumpkin until it was soft and transferred it to my food processor to create the puree.

It was at this point I realized that pumpkin doesn’t have much of a flavour so out came the cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.  Once adding these spices I was left with the taste I have always associated with pumpkin.  It was ready to be added to the cream cheese mixture.

Once it was all mixed together I was ready to add it to the shell sprinkle with pecans and put away in the fridge to set.

Pastry making…

Pastry is something that has eluded me for quite a while.  Last thanksgiving I made a great apple cranberry pie with a homemade shell that turned out pretty good, unfortunately that must have been a fluke.  I have failed to make a sucessful flaky crust since then.  Every time I try I psych myself out and end up cheating by just pressing the crust into the pan instead of rolling it out.  This is another one of those times.

The first attempt at this crust was pretty good, except that the bottom was thick with the sides crumbly.  I decided to abandon the crust and try out more of a shortbread crust my mom had given me.  Unfortunately the bottom of that crust was too thin and it ended up cracking.  So this left me with 2 options: try a third crust or go back to the first one and make it work.  Since we were going over to dinner later than night I went with crust number 1.

In the end a very yummy dessert was enjoyed by everyone at dinner and little did they know the crust dilemmas I had through out the day.  I am convinced that I will conquer the pastry crust one day, even if it means dozens of failed attempts between now and then.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Tart

2 oz. cream cheese

3 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/2 C heavy cream or whipping cream

1/4 C pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg

With a whisk attachment, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Fold in the spiced pumpkin puree.  Place in tart shell and top with pecans.

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Daring Baker’s October Challenge

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Masala Chai Macaroon

French Macaroons

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.

For months I have been watching Daring Baker blog posts and secretly wanted to be a part of it.  I went back and forth on whether or not I should join feeling that my baking skills were pretty beginner and many of the recipes seemed much more advanced.  After thinking it over for a bit I made the decision to apply to Daring Kitchen and become a Daring Baker.

I am happy to announce that I have completed my first daring baker challenge, Macaroons, and am very happy with the results.  Although my macaroon is not super fluffy the taste makes up for it.  I decided to go with a masala chai macaroon with a pumpkin cream cheese filling.  What an amazing taste!

It seems like I am always looking for a way to use chai in a recipe but never end up doing it because I have been unable to find a good chai powder, similar to a matcha powder.  After putting it off for far too long I ended up just taking some masala chai I got while in India last summer and put it in the spice grinder, making sure to sift it before putting it in the recipe.  It worked much better than I thought it would and the end result was a macaroon with a hint of chai.

The filling was my tried and true base of cream cheese and sugar whipped in the stand mixer with some whipping cream mixed in.  Once the stiff peaks form you fold in some pumpkin puree with spices added.  The end result is a creamy light filling that can be used in a variety of ways.

Macaroons seem like a recipe that take a bit of practice and finesse.  Making sure your egg whites are beat just right before folding in the almond flour, but then making sure you don’t over mix to lose the fluffiness.  There are many things I have learned in this first attempt at macaroons that will improve the results for my future tries.

But I have to say…

Feet on a Macaroon

Nothing is better than when you watch the feet form on your macaroon and know that atleast one part of your recipe is going according to plan.  My husband who is always supportive came over and gave me a high five when he saw how excited I was.

I have decided with baking that even if it doesn’t go according to plan there is always something great that results from your baking, who knows it may become a new favourite recipe.

Masala Chai Macaroon

2 1/4 cups confectioners sugar

2 cups almond flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

5 room temperature egg whites

1 tablespoon masala chai powder

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.  Combine the confectioners sugar almond flour and masala chai powder in a medium bowl.

Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks.  Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine.  Sift the remaining flour in two batches.  Be gentle!  Don’t over fold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plan half inch tip, or use a ziploc bag with the corner cut off.  Pipe one inch sized mounds of batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 35 degrees.  Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pan back in the oven and bake for an additional 7-8 minutes, or lightly colored.

Cook on a rack before filling

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filling

2 ounces cream cheese

3 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream or whipping cream

1/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves

With a whisk attachment, using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium high speed until fluffy. Slowly drizzle in the whipping cream and whip until stiff peaks form. Mix pumpkins and spices and then fold into the cream cheese mixture.

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Daring Bakers

Tuesday, October 6th, 2009

When I began my obsession with following food blogs back in the spring I kept noticing Daring Baker posts every month.  I always though it was something that would be fun but to be honest I was a bit intimidated by the whole idea.

I like to bake but thinking outside the box and creating my own spin on a recipe is not something I have really tried before.  After going back and forth on whether to join or not I finally took the plunge and applied last month.

I am happy to say that I am now a Daring Baker!!!!

My mind is already thinking of how I can take this months recipe and make it my own. 

Check back on the 27th for my first attempt at being a Daring Baker.

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