Mint Chocolate Petit Fours

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I had all the intention in the world to do this challenge at the beginning of the month, even possibly doing both challenges.  But as usual time got away from me and here I am the day the challenge is due finally finishing it and posting my results.  Better late than never.

I was really happy with this challenge, even if my petit fours didn’t quite turn out like I had planned.  I started by making mint ice cream, which is one of the most refreshing ice creams I have ever made.  You know it is real mint ice cream when 1. it isn’t a fake green colour and 2. when it actually tastes like a bowl of fresh mint.  Mint and chocolate go great together so I knew it would complement the chocolate glaze

Like I said above I had planed to do this challenge weeks ago so the ice cream was made 2 weeks ago and my husband and I have been slowly eating the ice cream since then, thankfully there was still some left when it came time to make the brown butter pound cake.

Oh my goodness, how have I never made browned butter pound cake before?  It was absolutely amazing.  I knew when the butter was browning that it was going to be great, the smell alone just made you want to eat the dough.  I was surprised just how easy it was to make, within 30 minutes I had freshly baked brown butter mini cupcakes cooling.

Since neither my husband I need to eat the quantity of petit fours this recipe would have created I made a half batch and just baked 12 mini cupcakes that I planned to cut in half and put a layer of ice cream in between.  My plan worked out pretty good, even if the ice cream layer was a bit thin.

The chocolate glaze came together even faster than the brown butter cupcakes, within 5 minutes I already had my glaze cooling.  Since the glaze turned out quite thick I decided just to throw the petit fours in it and get them covered in chocolate and fish them out with a fork.  They were left with a nice thick layer of chocolate glaze.

What a great recipe and a great challenge.  I look forward to doing part two of the challenge, baked alaska, another time.

Mint Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk

pinch of salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup mint leaves

2 cup heavy cream

5 large egg yoks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Add mint leaves.  Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for 2-3 hours. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, add mint leaves then let steep for 2-3 hours.)

Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to directions.

Brown Butter Mini Cupcakes

19 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a mini cupcake pan.

Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.  Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.  Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

Scrape the batter into the greased and floured mini cupcake pan. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 10 minutes.

Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze

9 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.

British Pudding

I was reminded again tonight while I hastily put together my daring baker’s challenge the night before it was due that I should not, I repeat should not rush through a recipe when I am cooking or baking.

Typically my mistakes revolve around either not reading the directions and just putting stuff together, changing a protein in the recipe but not the stock or my newest one using seasoned bread crumbs instead of plain in what is suppose to be a sweet dish.

You can imagine my frustration as I am pouring the bread crumbs into the mixure and I realize that they are in fact seasoned not plain and now my dessert is going to taste funny.  So I did what any normal person would do when they realize they messed up the recipe and don’t have time to start over, you just start adding random things hoping it will turn out.

The following things were added in an attempt to mask the almost italian flavour I was left with: vanilla extract, almond extract and honey.  The addition of these things resulted in an almost strange combination of italian and sweet, but not necessarily in a good way.  I also added coconut and white chocolate chips which were the original plan prior to the breadcrumb fiasco.

While they were steaming, since apparently a proper british pudding is steamed for 2-3 hours, I made some chocolate sauce since really anything with chocolate sauce can’t be that bad.  I just have to say they looked much better than they taste.

I look forward to trying this recipe again but with the correct breadcrumbs because I can see how this dish would be really good.

British Pudding

4 ounces flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/5 teaspoons baking powder

4 ounces breadcrumbs (not seasoned)

3 ounces sugar

3 ounces crisco

1 large egg

6-8 tablespoons milk

white chocolate chips

coconut

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into bowl.  Add breadcrumbs, sugar and crisco.  Mix to a soft batter with beaten egg and milk.  Spoon into a buttered dish or ramekins and cover securely with foil.  Steam steadily for 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Turn onto a plate and drizzle with a sauce.

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.

Nanaimo Bars

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.

Gingerbread House

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

]]> http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/2009/12/26/daring-bakers-december-challenge/feed/ 2 http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/2009/11/27/daring-bakers-november-challenge/ http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/2009/11/27/daring-bakers-november-challenge/#comments Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:47:08 +0000 Kimberly Payne http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/?p=353

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.

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.

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.

I 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

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

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).

]]> http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/2009/11/27/daring-bakers-november-challenge/feed/ 5 http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/2009/10/27/daring-bakers-october-challenge/ http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/2009/10/27/daring-bakers-october-challenge/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:42:05 +0000 Kimberly Payne http://www.seanandkimberlypayne.com/thereluctantchef/?p=303

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…

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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