Our December Daring Bakers Challenge was themed for Christmas: a German stollen! I have tried one that my Mum has bought before and I knew I didn't like it so I was a bit apprehensive about completing the challenge. However, after reading the comments from the other bakers I became excited by all their positive reactions and thought I better give it a go, as that is the point of the whole challenge in the first place!
The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.
I pretty much followed the recipe exactly. The only change I made was to add orange juice instead of extract (I'm not sure if the even sell extract here, I've never seen it) and also to use mixed fruit (raisins, sultanas, currants, cherries, lemon and orange peel, ginger, craisins) instead of just the raisins, peel and cherries as in the recipe.
I was pretty successful in making it. I decided to be lazy and use the dough hook on my new kitchenaid (xmas pressie to myself!). It rose heaps and I didn't seem to come across any big problems. I guess I wasn't too suprised when I realised I actually really enjoyed the stollen. Everything that is homemade always tastes tons better than when you buy it and it really isn't too time consuming to make. It kinda reminded me of hot cross buns which I have only recently decided that I like as well, haha I've always had a bit of a thing with dried fruit.
Unfortunately I have left the cord for the camera behind. We have travelled to our new house for the Christmas season and had to remember to pack everything to take with us. Somehow the cord managed to be forgotten in our city apartment. I asked my Mum to buy me the Paris Patisseries book and Michel Roux's pastry recipe book for Christmas, and she also managed to forget them and leave them in the apartment as well!! Oh well. I will have to update the post with pictures of my beautiful wreath stollen. But all in all it was an extremely successful challenge and I am sure the stollen will be gobbled up quickly!!!
28 December 2010
27 November 2010
Berry Frangipane Crostata
Finally I managed to actually complete another daring bakers challenge this month.
The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
I followed the advice of some other bakers on the forum and grated and froze my butter for 15 minutes. This was a great tip because my house is very warm and humid (and at the moment it is really hot!). The pastry turned out really light and flaky, it was a great recipe that I will probably use again. The only thing I did not really like was the sweetness, especially because my filling was also sweet. Next time I will try removing the sugar and increasing the flour.
The recipe for the frangipane filling I used was from the Australian Masterchef show. I also found this filling very sweet and quite rich but it was very very tasty, especially when it was hot from the oven. However, only a small slice of the crostata is necessary.
As it is summer at the moment I used fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. It was incredible! The freshness of the fruit means that the richness of the filling is not such a problem. The tartness of the raspberries also cut throught the sweetness a bit.
I really wish I could improve my presentation of the food and photographs which I take. I love looking at all the other daring bakers photos. Everyone is so inspiring with both their flavour ideas, their presentation and focus of their photographs. I really love the group and how everyone is really encoraging and gives tips to others.
I have missed the last couple of challenges (but I promise I will catch them up because they were really interesting!). The reason for this is because most of my cooking appliances and utensils are packed up, as we were in the process of moving house. We have now moved in successfully. BUT...we are renovating the kitchen. It is so exciting! Here is a photograph of the empty shell of the kitchen. I can't wait until they start installing it!! It is going to have amazing appliances and storage as well as lots of bench space and floor space. I will keep you updated.
The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.
I followed the advice of some other bakers on the forum and grated and froze my butter for 15 minutes. This was a great tip because my house is very warm and humid (and at the moment it is really hot!). The pastry turned out really light and flaky, it was a great recipe that I will probably use again. The only thing I did not really like was the sweetness, especially because my filling was also sweet. Next time I will try removing the sugar and increasing the flour.
The recipe for the frangipane filling I used was from the Australian Masterchef show. I also found this filling very sweet and quite rich but it was very very tasty, especially when it was hot from the oven. However, only a small slice of the crostata is necessary.
As it is summer at the moment I used fresh raspberries, blueberries and strawberries. It was incredible! The freshness of the fruit means that the richness of the filling is not such a problem. The tartness of the raspberries also cut throught the sweetness a bit.
I really wish I could improve my presentation of the food and photographs which I take. I love looking at all the other daring bakers photos. Everyone is so inspiring with both their flavour ideas, their presentation and focus of their photographs. I really love the group and how everyone is really encoraging and gives tips to others.
I have missed the last couple of challenges (but I promise I will catch them up because they were really interesting!). The reason for this is because most of my cooking appliances and utensils are packed up, as we were in the process of moving house. We have now moved in successfully. BUT...we are renovating the kitchen. It is so exciting! Here is a photograph of the empty shell of the kitchen. I can't wait until they start installing it!! It is going to have amazing appliances and storage as well as lots of bench space and floor space. I will keep you updated.
27 August 2010
Brown Butter Cupcakes
Blog-checking lines: 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”.
Everything has been so hectic for me this month. I am in the midst of moving house and the majority of my cooking equipment is packed up in storage. Despite this, I still really wanted to try the brown butter pound cake component of the Daring Bakers' Challenge. However, I had to take the liberty of not actually making a baked alaska or petit fours. Instead I made brown butter cupcakes, this was easy to do and my am I glad I tried that recipe! It was heavenly! I admit it was a lot more butter than I would usually use in a cake but as a special treat it was delicious! Thanks so much for the challenge. Hopefully I'll soon have a wonderful new kitchen and all my equipment to use!
27 July 2010
Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake
The July 2010 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita's world - life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled swiss roll that's then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.
Mine is based on a traditional Australian cake - the lamington. For those who don't know, a lamington is a sponge cake covered in chocolate icing and covered in desiccated coconut. Sometimes it will also be filled with cream and raspberry jam.
I made a plain sponge with a chocolate icing and coconut filling. My first ice cream was the challenge recipe for vanilla ice cream. However, I added raspberries for extra tartness and symbolically as the jam. I also used the challenge recipe for the chocolate fudge sauce and made my own recipe for coconut ice cream.
It was a great challenge and everyone who tasted it really loved the flavours and believed it was reminicent of a lamington. Unfortunately I had trouble with the challenge recipe for the sponge and had to redo it with my own trusted Women's Weekly Cakes cookbook recipe. The second version was much more successful. I followed some other members' advice and added a tablespoon of alcohol to the fudge sauce and this made it nice and runny, maybe even too much so.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)