DB Meringue Coffee Cake

Time check! It’s 10:30 p.m. on posting day and here I am… taking it all to a whole new level of procrastination! I started this challenge just after 5:00 p.m. this evening after waffling back and forth about whether or not I should just skip this month for much of the afternoon. Had I just pried myself off the couch a few hours earlier, I could be in bed by now… but at least I have a yummy dessert to keep me company as I write and edit.

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

Naturally, when you start later than late, you’re prone to make some snap decisions. I decided I wasn’t much interested in making a ringed coffee cake because I have such challenges finding ways to plate and store them. The original plan, then, was to make two pans of coffee cake rolls in the spirit of cinnamon rolls. However, after trying to cut the first pan with meringue oozing out ALL over the place, I decided to switch gears halfway through and make the second half of the roll into a loaf.

I also took the two end pieces and threw them into a ramekin… for testing right out of the oven!

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness… I’m so, so happy I sucked it up and made these. They’re unbelievable. I topped both the rolls and the loaf with a coffee cream cheese glaze that took these to a whole other level.

I like to think my photos this time around lend to the feel of this post – considering I took most of them well after dark (and, let’s be honest, couldn’t be bothered to drag out my good light to combat the darkness).

Do you see this? How in the world am I going to have enough willpower to stay away from these things? I mean, really. Chocolatey, moist, light… mmmm. Thank you, thank you to our hosts this month for rocking out another amazing Daring Baker Challenge!

DB Panna Cotta & Florentines

Apparently I’ll never NOT procrastinate my way through the majority of our DB challenges. I’d like to say I work best under pressure, but in actuality it mostly makes me cranky. Sadly (as I told my dear husband the other day), whatever pain I inflict upon myself in procrastinating on these things is apparently not painful enough for me to change my behavior. So, here I am again on posting day… rushing around the kitchen trying to get it all done while there’s still a little good light to be had for photos. I tried to pass it off as great planning for Oscar night, but really it’s just a little bit of insanity.

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Luckily for me, panna cotta – an eggless custard desert – LOOKS fussy but is surprisingly anything but. (And to think that all of these years I’d steered away from it thinking it was complicated!) I used two of the recipes provided (the vanilla and the chocolate, of course) and both came out beautifully without a single glitch (I love it when that happens) – and set up very nicely in just a few hours rather than the recommended eight to overnight. Both also halve nicely, just in case you were wondering – but you’ll be sad that you did because they’re so yummy.

My florentines, on the other hand, didn’t spread as much as they should have leaving me with thicker/softer cookies rather than thin/crisp. More than likely user error, of course. (This is what happens when you hurry, Michelle!) They were also just a bit sweet for my taste, though my husband thought them quite tasty (and, hey, anything sandwiched with chocolate deserves at least a moment of glory in my book).

The next time I’m looking for an impressive dessert that doesn’t take a tremendous amount of effort, I know where I’m turning! Check out the DB blogroll for some really amazing panna cotta/florentine photos – seriously, these people are crazy-talented! Thank you, Mallory, for a wonderful challenge and another recipe in my arsenal! (See Mallory’s write-up for the florentine recipe.)

Panna Cotta
(recipe courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis)
Ingredients
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (one packet) (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) granulated sugar
pinch of salt

Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.

Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).

Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn’t boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.

Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.

Chocolate Panna Cotta
(adapted from Bon Appétit)
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
2 cups (480 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
½ cup (115 gm) (4 oz) sugar
¾ cup (145 gm)(5 oz) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) vanilla extract

Pour milk into a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over the top, set aside for 2-5 minutes.

Place a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, sugar and vanilla. Bring to a low boil. Add chocolate and whisk until melted. Whisk the milk/gelatin mixture into chocolate cream mixture. Whisk until gelatin has dissolved.

Transfer to ramekins, or nice glasses for serving. Cover and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight

Daring Bakers December Edition – Stollen!

Hi. I know, I know. I’m not even going to attempt excuses. Just focusing on 2011 here. A new year… and stollen. Yeah. (Did you have a good holiday? I hope so!)

Soo… I didn’t think I’d like stollen, which isn’t terribly true to my German heritage. I remember getting it in various “care packages” from family over the years, but was fairly sure I also remember not liking it.

Good news? I was SO wrong. Not only do I like stollen… I love it. Or, I will the next time I make it… now that I know what it’s all about and what few things I’d do differently. Oh yes. Welcome to our new Christmas tradition.

I waited until Christmas Eve to even start this challenge, finishing it up Christmas morning while we prepared to head out to my parents house. Procrastination sometimes pays off… the baking stollen made our house smell positively AMAZING while we opened gifts and got ready to go.

I used the fruitcake fruit mix you can buy in the store (because clearly I waited until the last minute to do this!) – and that’s the big thing I’d change. I remember now that I’m not a fan of that stuff… so I’ll be sure to plan ahead to make my own candied citrus peel next year. I’ll also soak my raisins longer… because you just can’t have enough rum in your life. And I’ll either buy a big platter… or I’ll make two smaller wreaths – because the only thing in my house that this monster fit on was my ugly-ass, older-than-dirt pizza stone – not so great for presentation purposes!

All in all, though, I call this DB challenge a smashing success! My German mom gave it her seal of approval, too… which I call a really, really good sign (and maybe even a bit of a compliment).

The fine print: 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.

Be sure to check out the DB blogroll to see what all of the other DB’ers were up to this holiday season! Thanks, Penny, for a wonderful challenge!

Daring Bakers go nuts for doughnuts!

Mmmm…. doughnuts. Is there anything better? Yes. Freshly made… homemade… doughnuts. Oh my. I love being a Daring Baker.

That’s right… the Daring Bakers are doing doughnuts! The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

It’s been just about two years since I made my first (and, until now, only) homemade doughnuts. Something I always wanted to do again, but somehow just never got around to it. So, when I saw the October challenge pop up, I was pretty excited!

Since October officially kicks off pumpkin season in our house (pumpkin granola, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin pie shakes, etc.), I opted to go with the pumpkin doughnut option given as part of the challenge.

I prepped the dough the night before so that all I’d have to do the next morning would be to cut and fry. Sadly, the dough was uber soft and sticky, making it generally a big pain in the butt to work with. After adding lots (and lots) of flour, and uttering more than my fair share of expletives over goop-covered hands, oil that wouldn’t stay at temp, a lack of oil (always double check ensure you’ve got all of the ingredients you need!)… I gave up on the traditional doughnut shape and launched straight into doughnut hole production.

After whipping up a big bowl of cute little doughnut holes (more than we could possibly eat), we enjoyed a nice Sunday breakfast of doughnut holes and coffee. And it was wonderful! Thanks, Lisa, for a great challenge!

September Daring Baker Challenge and hope for an end to the hiatus

Ummm…. hi. It’s been a while, I know… longer, actually, than intended. Sorry about that. As if life wasn’t already hectic enough, then came the layoffs. Thankfully, I secured a new position within my same division quickly… and walked straight into a re-org that, luckily enough for me, fell right in the midst of one of our busiest times of year. So, after fourteen hour days and working six days a week, blogging  fell pretty far back on the priority list. A shame, really, because (I’ve discovered) the last thing one should do during a time of general upheaval is to stop doing the things you love. What can I say? Work-life balance has never really been my strong point.

So. The upheaval is FAR from over, but – with some encouragement from a friend – I’m doing my best to get back to the things that make me happy. Posts here may be shorter and a little further between than I’d like for a while longer, but it’s time to get back into the swing… to catch up with all of my wonderful food-blogging friends (you should see my blog reader – you’ve never seen someone so far behind)… and, of course, to get back on the Daring Baker bandwagon.

So… here we go!

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

This was a crazy easy recipe to throw together, though I was quite surprised to note that it didn’t call for any salt. After tasting a bit of the raw dough before throwing it into the fridge, it was pretty apparent that it needed something. So, I threw in a little salt and re-kneaded it a bit before separating it into two gallon-sized ziplocs, rolling the dough out to the desired thickness, and throwing the disks into the fridge to chill.

The dough holds together easily when cutting and I actually didn’t bother to re-chill it before baking. Everything held together just fine and they didn’t spread at all while in the oven.

Considering I waited until the eleventh hour again to make these (old habits die hard), I didn’t have what I needed to make a traditional royal icing so I opted for a glaze that I’m crazy-in-love with. End result? My September-themed sugar cookies — beautiful, orange maple leaves ready to welcome fall with open arms after a long and miserable summer. Thanks, Mandy, for a great challenge… and Happy Fall, y’all!

Daring Bakers make Pavlova

You can’t make this stuff up.

I made this Pavlova on June 2nd. That’s right… pretty much immediately after reading the challenge. I was turning over a new leaf. I was whipping it into shape! No more procrastinating!! Now please note today’s date. Yep. One day after the due date… again. Sometimes, there just aren’t words to describe how much I annoy myself. I don’t even have any kind of good excuse.

In any case, this pavlova was awesome. I made four individual-sized pavlovas and one medium-sized for sharing. Unfortunately, I didn’t heed the warning that certain parts of these really should be made and eaten same-day. Refrigerating the mousse left it rock solid and it just never really came back to its original form. (You can see it’s a little lumpy.) So, if you choose to make these, make the meringue and creme anglaise ahead, but make the mousse just before you’re ready to serve.

Now, the fine print. The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard. Big thanks to Dawn for providing us with such a wonderful – and tasty – challenge!

Chocolate Pavlova with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse
Chocolate Meringue
(for the chocolate Pavlova)
3 large egg whites
½ cup plus 1 tbsp (110 grams) white granulated sugar
¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.

Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.)

Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)

Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Pipe the meringue into whatever shapes you desire. Alternatively, you could just free form your shapes and level them a bit with the back of a spoon.

Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse
(for the top of the Pavlova base)
1 ½ cups heavy cream
grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
9 ounces 72% chocolate, chopped
1 2/3 cups mascarpone
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Put ½ cup (120 mls) of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.

Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK.)

Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse. Again, you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova.

Mascarpone Cream
(for drizzling)
1 recipe crème anglaise
½ cup mascarpone
2 tbsp (30 mls) Sambucca (optional)
½ cup heavy cream

Prepare the crème anglaise. Slowly whisk in the mascarpone and the Sambucca and let the mixture cool. Put the cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Crème Anglaise
(a component of the Mascarpone Cream above)
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split or 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 large egg yolks
6 tbsp sugar

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.

Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.

Pour about ½ cup of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.

Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight.

Assembly:
Pipe the mousse onto the pavlovas and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and fresh fruit if desired.

The Daring Bakers Challenge and More Timing Fail!

It’s really no secret any more… I’m a huge procrastinator in my personal life. I can’t really tell you why I procrastinate — maybe it’s because I don’t really have the luxury of procrastination in my work life — but I continue to be challenged with breaking the habit. So, in spite of the fact that I was really very excited about this month’s Daring Baker Challenge, I still found myself taking the execution part of things right down to the wire. And then, something happened which had never happened before… not only did I get right down to the wire… after a miserable thirteen hour day at work, I watched the wire pass right by! That’s right, I intended to do my challenge last night after work and… I didn’t.

In my own defense, I HAD already made the pastry cream, so I just (just!) needed to make the puffs, fill and assemble. Sadly, after a very long day on the heels of a very long week that was wrapping up a very long month, I flatly didn’t have the will to spend any time in the kitchen… deadline or not.

So… fast forward to Friday. The day AFTER the deadline and AFTER yet another long day at work. It’s so bad I had to start writing this post while I was still in the midst of making the challenge. Why, you might ask? Because not only did I completely blow my deadline, my wonderful husband… who so sweetly took it upon himself to clean out the fridge the day before trash day… mistook my pastry cream for I’m-not-sure-what and threw it away yesterday. So, when I said “well, at least I’ve already got the pastry cream!” and I was greeted with a look of panic and fear and a curious “what kind of container was the pastry cream in?” I knew it was time to worry.

So, back to the kitchen I went to make a second batch of pastry cream. The up-side? Instead of going with the regular, vanilla version like I’d  made the first time, I opted for a chocolate mocha version which – at least while warm – tasted really, really, REALLY great. It’s chilling in the fridge right now and, hopefully by the time I finish writing this, filling the choux, assembling the piece montée, shooting pictures and finishing this entry (so… about MIDNIGHT) I’ll be able to report that, in the face of adversity, I actually came back with a better product and a successful challenge!

Anywho… back to the challenge. [11:00pm] I had a much better go of the choux than I did with the eclair challenge, we’ve already established that the pastry cream was brilliant and the assembled piece montée, though rushed, was really cute in a minimalistic sort of way. And, considering I’ve been wanting to try my hand at a croquembouche for years I’m very excited to have given this a go — and I can’t wait to try a more complicated version!

(The fine print: The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri. Big thanks to Cat for a great challenge, and if you’d like to see how everyone else interpreted the challenge… head on over to the blogroll!)

Daring Bakers, Traditional British Puddings and Taking the Easy Way Out

Hmmm… it’s been a while, eh? Yeah. The crickets and the tumbleweeds may be the only ones who come by here any more. As I said in my last post, we’re getting back to our regular 2x per week posting schedule beginning today. No more excuses! More on all of that soon… today we have Daring Baker Challenges and more great procrastination techniques to discuss!

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

The two basic types of this pudding are a suet crust pudding with a filling or a suet sponge pudding. Examples of a pudding with a crust are a steak and kidney pudding or a Sussex pond pudding and examples of the sponge pudding are spotted dick, Christmas pudding and college pudding.

Hmmm… in spite of the fact that I’ve had little problem using lard or Crisco in recipes if absolutely needed, I had a really hard time getting my head around suet — even the “veggie” variety. So, after lots of waffling back and forth, I decided that I’d skip the challenge. Then I proceeded to deal with my guilt by avoiding the DB website completely and pretending that the days of the month weren’t whizzing past, straight toward reveal day.

And then, on Sunday night, I sheepishly admitted to my husband that I hadn’t even really tried to find a way to make the challenge work for me. Not very Daring Baker-like, right? I know. So, knowing that I had a busy day coming up on Monday, I slunk off to the kitchen to see what I could make work on short notice and before bedtime. After all, trying to find an easier way to at least semi-successfully complete the challenge is better than skipping and not even trying… so that’s what I did.

A little Google searching for a chocolate steamed pudding brought back lots of options. They all contained what seem to be the basic elements of the sponge-type pudding: self-rising flour, sugar, eggs and butter, but one really caught my attention at 8pm on a Sunday night — it was made in the microwave. No doubt this was anything but traditional, but it was truly my saving grace. And, even though it was made in the microwave, it was still steamed… sorta.

The recipe made enough for about six individual servings, so I had enough batter to try a few different cooking vessels (coffee cup, ramekin, mini-ramekin) as well as a few different cooking times. As it turned out, our favorite was the smallest vessel, the mini-ramekin, at the shortest cooking time (30 seconds), which left the pudding just a tad undercooked (which we found preferable to the fully-cooked version).

Did we love it? I wouldn’t say that. It was solidly okay, but to be honest — I liked the raw batter better than any of my cooked versions. (To be fair, the original recipe says it’s written to make two larger cakes, so I probably needed to play around more with the cooking times for the smaller versions.) However, in the interest of at least pulling off a non-traditional version of the challenge, I’m glad I gave it a go. And, with summer on its way, maybe I’ll set aside a little time to play around more with the recipe and cooking times. After all, there’s definitely some merit to not having to fire up the oven to make dessert when it’s 100 degrees outside!

Thanks to Esther for putting together this month’s challenge and to The Passionate Cook for a recipe that helped me when I was in a bind! Check out how all of the other DB’ers fared by heading over to the blogroll.