Bagels!!

   This was incredibly fun!  So my grandmother gave me these VHS tapes that she had recorded awhile ago with 'Baking with Julia' episodes on them.  And since I'm taking an extended break from cable (I was really addicted, no time for baking, and we just couldn't have that!), I have nothing to watch, so I popped one in and decided to see if it was good.

   It was her later show where she is in her late 70's and had co-hosts on.  A segment came on with this wonderful lady (will post her name later) that was making bagels.  And I was like, this sounds awesome and fairly easy to do.  So I was very gungho to do it.

  I got the cookbook with the recipe in it, also from my grandmother, and started the dough the night before.  Then in the morning I rolled them and added the ingredients.  I made 2 cinnamon raisin (funny enough, you don't have to add extra sugar just around 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/8 cup of raisins), 2 plain, and one potentially good parmesan and oregano.  We'll see if it turns out, I mostly just did it quickly because I wanted to make another flavor and just happen to have those ingredients.

   Another semi important thing too, you can use ground cornmeal in a pinch but it makes a really crunchy layer on the bottom of the bagel.  Which, if you like crunch I guess wouldn't matter, but it is much better to have the bigger cornmeal that usually comes on bagels.

   With the plain too, they had a nice teensie flavor of yeast.  I love the taste of yeast in rolls, so I like this feature.  I know some people don't like it, but it's only a small hint of it.  Especially if you add cream cheese or butter.

  The tops of the bagels in the picture are a little darker on the top because I put an egg wash finish on them (including the yolk), which I didn't mind, but the recipe calls for egg whites and water.  Eh.. it worked out and it tasted lovely, that's the important part.

   So I hope you got an itch to go make fresh bagels for yourself one day, they are delicious and well worth the trouble.  I have all of the ingredients anyway, and it's definitely better than spending lots of money on bagels at the grocery store!

The Know-How

Hello all,

   It's been awhile since I've actually posted anything on here besides just recipe posts.  Today I figured I'd say HELLO! and greetings to those that have viewed my blog.

    I hope you have enjoyed everything you've seen and that some of you have actually baked some of these things yourself.  Being an amateur baker I love when I can find new and interesting recipes from fellow bloggers that are just like me and are trying it for the first time.

 So I'd just like to say that I'm hoping to start really being vocal on this blog.  Not just recipes anymore.  One of the reasons that I have decided this is that I'd like to share with everyone (and mostly get advice/comments) the new project I'm starting.

Just a little backstory:

    I majored in Film Studies in college, and have since graduated, to find that not many people are hiring in my field.  So as many young fresh-out-of-college students are finding menial jobs to take up their time, and pay their bills, I have done just that.  I'm working at a restaurant here in Raleigh, and it's hard work, but it's suiting all of the needs I have for my bills and what not.  But I'm not really gaining many skills from it.

My project:

     I'be started a little baking home business.  Nothing big just to people in my neighborhood, and maybe at work.  But it would be something to occupy my time and it would make me feel like I'm doing something good.

    **  I know I'm probably saying exactly what you bakers and chefs out there know, but baking is such a passion for me.  It makes me feel good inside, and it calms me down after a stressful week, much like meditation would for others.  I love that people smile when they taste my pastries and it makes them happy or gives them something that brightens up their day.  It's a fabulous thing to be able to bring people that little moment of happiness in a crazy day.

    So I want to bake more.  I want to be able to bake for other people besides just coworkers.  And not to be rude but the money wouldn't be bad either.

   Working in the food industry is ok, but I'd at least like to be learning and practicing what I want to do in my free time: like baking.  AkA I'm trying to get a job that will be something I like doing and it will help me get better.

To get to the heart of the matter I'm going to teach myself how to master- class decorate cakes and cupcakes!    

  I will be practicing with different icings (because I want to find the best one).  I will also be making more gumpaste flowers and getting better with gumpaste.  This is where the comments and advice come in.  So as I go along here teaching myself and decorating the heck out of some cakes, if you'd like to send me a comment and get in your two cents, I'd love to hear it!

    I hope you all are having a great start to the week and will hopefully be posting soon.

Megan

White Chocolate Truffles

This is the second time I've made these and they turned out much better.  I'm not very good with chocolate but the ganache was fantastic.  I made rose and orange flavored chocolates; some coated in white chocolate, and some coated in a coco powder (which is my favorite!).  When the bitter coco melts with the sweet white chocolate, it's sooo amazing.


It takes a few stages but it is well worth it.

(more later)

Fondant & Gum Paste

I've been really wanting to try doing more fondant cakes and gumpaste decorations.  This one was only an experiment which is why it looks a little rough.  I wanted to try out decorations so I used half the batter for the cupcakes, and half the batter for the cake.  It's a gold cake with a strawberry jam center.  I did a crumb coating then lay the fondant on top.  The cake is so soft that I think the fondant weighed it down a little too much, which is why it's better to have two layers I'd imagine.

The cupcakes on the right are the gold cake with a chocolate ganache topping and fondant decorations. The buttercream frosting next to it wasn't the best recipe (I have since tried others) but it's a vanilla buttercream frosting.  The consistency was very strange, but I've found a whole bunch of different frosting recipes that are much better suited for what I was trying to do.  Boiled icing is very much interesting.  It has a really great texture, and it's completely fat free.  It's more like marshmallow texture, so some might not like that, but it's got a really nice look when you ice the cake because of the structure of the mixture.  It holds up very well.


Gumpaste is pretty interesting to work with.  I bought gumpaste powder to mix together with fresh ingredients to make the gumpaste that I used.  It was really fun and definitely a learning experience.  I tried for carnations.  They were pretty though a little 'wilted' looking.  Another thing that might have affected all of the decorations was the humidity.  It's been terrible lately with all of this rain so that might have been why all of the decorations were a little iffy.  I will be practicing more, since practicing is definitely what it takes.  And I'll hopefully be able to post more on it.


**To all of the creative types who have always wanted to try these things**

  If you want to try gumpaste and fondant but you're scared of what might happen, do it anyway!  I always believe that people should do something and figure out how to fix things on their own, just trying different things until you find a solution.  Not everyone can be trained on these things or just know how to do it.  So if you want to, you should go ahead and do it, if it turns out bad, gumpaste is just a little sugar, you can always make more.  You dont always have to buy the powders in the store, you can make it from scratch, but I hear it's a little difficult that way.  But the powder you buy makes quite a few flowers so you have leeway if you do buy that.

Good luck!  ....  I'll need some myself :)
                                                   

Easter Bread

      Thankfully Easter was here faster than I knew it so I gathered all of the recipes I wanted to do and got to work.  There were two big ones that I wanted to try.  The pictures are my first and second baking of easter bread.  I got this recipe from keikos-cake.com


  I'm on here monthly newsletter, and even though you have to subscribe to her site for most of the recipes, she does send out free ones every now and then.

  This bread recipe is fantastic!  It turns out nice and fluffy, and is best eaten slightly warm.  If you can't eat it right off the cooling rack, you should heat it up for 20-25 seconds.

  The next was a hollow chocolate easter egg with candy filling which I will be writing about soon.

On to the bread:

                   
Keiko's-Easter-Bread.pdf

Above is the pdf of the recipe.  It has all of the pictures following along with the recipe, which I found very useful when I was kneading the dough.  This is the second recipe that I've added the butter post batter creation.  The first was puff pastry dough, which is why I think this batter is so fluffy, or at least a contributing factor.  It also rises about 3 times which was not as bad as I thought it would be.

  It's a pretty simple batter, thought the ingredients are all in ounces and grams I believe, but she's local to Germany so that's why.  You will need a food scale for this, but they are pretty cheap at walmart and places like that.

  *helpful tip* I found out recently that it's actually better to weigh ingredients out on a scale like that because some things like flour weighs differently depending on how you add it.  For instance if you pack it in to a measuring cup, or are you supposed to have it loose in the measuring cup?  ect.

  Ingredients
Flour                  100 g (3.5 oz.)
Bread flour         400 g (14.1 oz.)
Sugar                  50 g (1.8 oz.)
Salt                     10 g (0.35 oz.)
Dry yeast           8 g (0.28 oz.)
Milk                   280 g (9.9 oz.)
Egg                    30 g (1.1 oz.)

Butter                 80 g (2.8 oz.)   - let your butter sit out for some of the day so it can get soft and easy to                work with when you start kneading it.  

    In the beginning to dissolve the yeast you'll want to heat the milk up, but just to body temperature so that you don't kill the yeast.  Heat will kill yeast if it's too hot!!  Then you use half to dissolve the yeast, and stir it just enough to break up the yeast clumps so that you wont have to dig them out of the bowl with your fingers and maybe lose some of the yeast.

  You will be getting your hands 'dirty' on this one so just prepare for a fun food sculpting day.  As you can see from the photos there are several different ways to braid or design easter bread, and I've only used two here.  The bunny is really cute, but I still haven't mastere the bunny's head.  The first batch came out ok, but then the second .. well let's just say they didn't really look like bunnies so much any more.

I also wanted to experiment with the second batch and try to simulate fur on the bunny with almond slices and this is how it came out:

   My family let slip something about porcupines but I didn't really listen, it was good with the almonds and it looked pretty cool compared to the other bunnies.





*Tip*  Some things to serve with the easter bread:  I've found that you can eat it plain if you want, especially if there are almond slices or crushed up almonds, also jam and butter are favorites for this type of yeast bread.

   BUT the best I've found is a light Icing.  The reason I suggest this is it will soak into the bread and keep it moist so you don't have to heat it up for it to be soft.  It doesn't even make it too sweet either.  It's just a small hint of sugar for the yeast dough.

  I just mixed up about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and a table spoon of milk I believe.  It's sort of a 'make it until it looks like you want it too' kind of icing.  Be careful! when adding the milk though because a little goes a long way.  It takes ALOT of powdered sugar to get it close to icing if you've aded too much milk.  

  

   I hope you all enjoy!!  

   

Baklava Tartlets

Finally I was able to take a picture that looks really fancy!

  I really wanted to make something for my new boss so I was looking around online and found this lovely recipe for tarts.  It's basically like baklava minus a lot of the syrup and sugar.  The recipe called for toasted almonds but I'm not sure I'll toast them as long next time, they were really bitter.

  The filling is a combination of a few things.  The recipe called for sour cream and greek yoghurt, but I used sour cream, mascarpone and whipping cream instead.  So it turned out to be a kind of creamy tangy cream cheese type mixture.  It was delicious, if not a little bit for the adult palet (aka a gourmet taste)...

   With the tartlets I used mini pie pans instead of tart pans, which I think made them a little bigger than they should have been.  In the picture the one on the right has just dried a little.  While waiting to make all 6 the others kind of dry up (not completely because I put ALOT of butter on there) but still.  I think they turn out the same in the end, so if you see this, just put a little more butter on and it should be fine.

   It's a little tricky too because the bottoms puff up even when I pricked the raw bottom with a fork.  I'm not sure if pie beans would work and still cook the filo but I'm going to try the next time I make them.  And if anyone tries this and they find a way that works please let me know! They really did taste like backlava though, so it was fantastic.  Like having two desserts all at once.

  Another thing I was adventurous enough to do, was to try the chocolate swirls. Unfortunately all I had the courage to do was a U-shape but they turned out fun, and looked like shavings so it wasn't half bad.    I also had some shards of chocolate but the shavings looked cooler so they got eaten faster.

  Instead of copying and pasting the whole recipe I thought I might put down the link to the website.  Even if you just glaze over this recipe you should check out the rest of the site.  It's kind of amazing; there are all kinds of tips on there, and new and different recipes (since it's an Australian site).  For instance I didn't know what Pavlova was, or Panforte, but both look crazy fun to make.  And the Pavlova is I believe, really similar to the meringue swirls I've made, but the guy in the video has some cool techniques to go with it.  Anyway I digress..

 http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/21183/baklava+tarts+with+berries                                                                                            

Birthday Cake!!

     I've been thinking about making a mousse cake for a while now, and so finally I had the chance since my birthday is this week.  The cake was a wonderful gold cake that was incredibly good.  Basically like a sugar cookie but in cake form.

  The mousse was good, but it was too gelatenous, so I'll find a new recipe for the second time I make this.

  I baked the cakes, 3 layers, though only two survived.  Then I made the pate a choux and put those away to rest until the next day when we would put them on the cake.  The mousse was fun to make, though the gelatin was being obstinante.

Assembly:

   I put some wax paper on the bottom of a springform pan, running it outside of the pan before I locked it.  Then I put down the first layer of cake and then layered some cubed strawberries on top, then put the mousse on top, and then more diced strawberries.  The last layer of cake went on and I put cling wrap and then alluminum foil on top.  It needed to go in the fridge for at least three hours for the mousse, but we ended up putting in overnight because we weren't going to have the cake until the next day.

Strawberry Mousse

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 tablespoons powdered gelatin or 5 sheets gelatin
• 1/2 pound fresh strawberries, stems removed, plus extra, for garnish
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

If using sheet gelatin, soak the sheets in cold water for 15 minutes.

Puree the strawberries in a food processor. Drain through a fine strainer to eliminate the seeds. Heat the lemon juice and dissolve the powdered gelatin into it. Or, if using sheet gelatin, drain and dissolve the softened sheets into the warm lemon juice.

Blend the lemon juice into the pureed strawberries, add the powdered sugar, and mix thoroughly. Cool the mixture completely until it thickens.

Whip the cream and gently fold into the strawberry mixture. Pour into a lightly buttered mold and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Remove from mold, and garnish with cleaned and sweetened sliced strawberries.

Gold Cake

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter flavored vegetable shortening, 140 grams
• 1 1/4 cup sugar, 300 grams
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour, sifted, 300 grams
• 3 teaspoons baking powder, 14 grams
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 egg yolks, beaten, 130 grams
• 3/4 cup milk, 180 grams
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 (9-inch) cake pans with shortening and set aside.

Cream together the shortening and the sugar. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly alternate adding the egg yolks and milk with the dry ingredients and mix until well combined. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Pour into the prepared pans, about 550 grams of batter for each cake. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Pate a Choux 

 -  the recipe is in my blog archive.

Agave Frosting

-  coming soon.

Fanciful Pate a Choux

Daring Bakers Challenge August - Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

I've done Pate a Choux before, and it was good but it didn't work out perfectly.  This time I made a few different creations:  Swans, Cream Puffs, and Paris-Brest Cake.  A little history about the cake:

The pastry was created in 1891 to commemorate the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race. Its circular shape is representative of a wheel. It became popular with riders on the Paris-Brest cycle race, partly because of its energy-giving high calorific value, and is now found in pâtisseries all over France.

 The swans were fun, but the heads did not work out very well.  I guess I didn't pipe them out thick enough and proportional because they cooked unevenly.  Some people said they looked like scorpions which was unfortunate.

The Paris-Brest cake was really fun.  I watched a You-Tube video about it, although the man who baked it; his puffed up a lot more, but mine still tasted good and was big enough to put the vanilla creme and whip cream in.  

I cut off the top of the cake, then pressed down some of the insides so that I could fit the vanilla creme inside the trenches then piped the whipped heavy cream on top of that and put the 'lid' back on.   Before I put the 'lid' back on I cut them into about 1 inch pieces so that when you put it back on and want to cut the pieces, you wont press on the whip cream and have it come out the sides.  So you cut it up into about 12 pieces and put the pieces back on top and when you go to cut it it still looks beautiful.  

   With the cream puffs I finally got the insertion of the whipping cream right.  The last time I made cream puffs they were pretty big and so when I tried to pipe the cream in the side it only filled up a little because of the air pockets.  This time I made smaller ones and used chopsticks to poke a hole in the bottom then kind of made room in the cream puff for the cream, then piped it in.  So it filled up all the way and wasn't only in a small air pocket.

Pate a choux

(cannot be doubled)

Ingredients

1⁄2 cup (120 ml) (115 gm) (4 oz) butter 

1 cup (240 ml) water 

1⁄4 teaspoon (11⁄2 gm) salt 

1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) all-purpose flour 

4 large eggs

Directions:

1. Line at least two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper, or grease pans well. 

2. Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F/190°C/gas mark 5 . 

3. In a small saucepot, combine butter, water, and salt. Heat over until butter melts, then remove from stove. 

4. Add flour all at once and beat, beat, beat the mixture until the dough pulls away from the sides of the pot. 

5. Add one egg, and beat until well combined. Add remaining eggs individually, beating vigorously after each addition. Resulting mixture should be somewhat glossy, very smooth, and somewhat thick. 

6. Using a 1⁄4” (6 mm) tip on a pastry bag, pipe out about 36 swan heads. You’re aiming for something between a numeral 2 and a question mark, with a little beak if you’re skilled and/or lucky. 

7. Remove the tip from the bag and pipe out 36 swan bodies. These will be about 1.5” (40 mm) long, and about 1” (25 mm) wide. One end should be a bit narrower than the other. 

8. Bake the heads and bodies until golden and puffy.  This is usually around 20-25 minutes, it all depends on how big you make the pastries. The heads will be done a few minutes before the bodies, so keep a close eye on the baking process. 

9. Remove the pastries to a cooling rack, and let cool completely before filling.

  Video for the Paris-Brest cake:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeRQA6cNLR0

•  Though I would also follow his Pate a Choux recipe because this recipe didn't puff up like his did.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOb_d-2o5Vw&feature=relmfu

Battenburg Cake (AKA almondy goodness..)

This was a really exciting cake to do!  One I think it's one of the most complicated cakes I've ever done, not necessarily because of the complication of the recipe, solely because of the assembly once it's finished.  The marzipan was the most difficult thing I did that night only because I'd never done it before and it took sooo much muscle to roll it out.  Though it tasted delicious after, and with so little ingredients!

  The cake unfortunately didn't turn out, I think, like it was supposed to.  It was very crumbly!  I did manage to get it into its shape and once the marzipan was on I wrapped it really tightly and put it in the fridge and I think that all helped it to become more stable.

  I used almond extract for one of the cakes, and then vanilla extract for the other to sort of mellow out the large amount of almond.  Then I put raspberry jam in between the cakes; applied liberally.  That really added a nice flavor to the almond and vanilla.

(more later)

Traditional Battenberg:

Servings: +- 8

Ingredients
¾ cup (1½ sticks) 175gm / 6 oz Unsalted Butter, softened & cut in cubes
¾ cup / 175gm / 6 oz Caster Sugar
1¼ cups / 175gm / 6 oz Self-Raising Flour (***see end of doc on how to make your own)
3 Large Eggs, room temp
½ cup / 65gm/ 2 1/3 oz Ground Almonds (Can be substituted with ground rice)
3/4 tsp / 3½ gm Baking Powder
½ tsp / 2½ ml Vanilla Extract
1/4 tsp (1¼ ml) Almond Extract
Red Food Colouring, paste, liquid or gel

To Finish
1/3 cup (80 ml) 100gm /3 ½ oz Apricot Jam
1 cup / 225gm / 8 oz Marzipan, natural or yellow

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/160°C Fan Assisted/Gas Mark 4
2. Grease an 8”/20cm square baking tin with butter
3. Line the tin with parchment paper, creating a divide in the middle with the parchment (or foil)
- Tip: See photos or watch video above for detailed instructions
4. OR Prepare Battenberg tin by brushing the tin with melted butter and flouring
5. Whisk together the dry ingredients then combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth
6. Spoon half the mixture into the one side of the prepared baking tin
7. Add a few drops of red food liquid/gel/paste to the remaining batter, stir until the colour is thoroughly distributed, add more colour if needed
8. Spoon the pink batter into the other half of the prepared baking tin
9. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula, making sure batter is in each corner
10. Bake for 25-30mins until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and a toothpick comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan)
11. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack
12. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a long serrated knife
13. Cut each coloured sponge in half lengthways so that you are left with four long strips of sponge

14. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is as neat and even as possible
15. Gently heat the apricot jam and pass through a small sieve

16. Brush warmed jam onto the strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of that, one pink next to one yellow)
- Tip: See photos for detailed instructions
17. Dust a large flat surface with icing sugar then roll the marzipan in an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and long enough to completely wrap the cake
18. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam
19. Place the cake on the marzipan, jam side down
- Tip: Either in the middle or to the one side of the marzipan
20. Brush the remaining three sides with jam
21. Press the marzipan around the cake, making sure the join is either neatly in the one corner, or will be underneath the cake once turned over
- Tip: If you put the sponge to the one side of the marzipan, I found it easiest to "roll" the sponge over and over onto the marzipan instead of lifting the marzipan up onto the sponge
22. Carefully flip the cake over so that the seam is under the cake and score the top of the cake with a knife, you can also crimp the top corners with your fingers to decorate
23. Neaten the ends of the cake and remove excess marzipan by trimming off a small bit of cake on both ends to reveal the pattern

   Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

Daring Bakers July: Your Crackers for Crackers!

 

Our July 2012 Daring Bakers’ Host was Dana McFarland and she challenged us to make homemade crackers! Dana showed us some techniques for making crackers and encouraged to use our creativity to make each cracker our own by using ingredients we love.











   This was a fun experience.  Personally my mother is the cracker fanatic so she was excited to see how they turned out.

   I tried the Pepper Jack Oregano crackers which was a wonderful taste, but the only problem was that I  added too much oil so it was oily even when it was baked.  I even made a herb cream cheese spread to go with it, which was very delicious.  It might have overpowered the crackers a little bit, but with the cayenne on there it was pretty potent on it's own.  I loved the cayenne on there with the little bit of taste from the pepper jack.  I was sad that you can't really taste the pepper jack cheese as much, but with all of the other flavors it was really good by itself.  


  I liked the spice combination so much in fact that I steamed a chicken breast with garlic powder, minced onions, oregano; and then at the last few minutes I put on the last of my pepper jack cheese from the crackers on top to melt.  That was soo good.  The oregano and pepper jack really is a great combination.  


  But after making the pepper jack, I felt more confident with the Sesame Seed Health crackers.  These I put in my freezer.  My mother loved those, especially since she was on a diet and they weren't as bad for her. The one thing I did with those was twice bake them.  They still ended up a little softer than what I think a cracker should be.

Challah, the way Challah is supposed to look...

  So I joined the Daring Kitchen, which I've talked about on here before.  But this was my first assignment, though I didn't make it in time to put it with the rest.  The next challenge for June I'll put up soon.  This recipe was provided by Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood.

  So anyway, I made it once and I killed the yeast completely! with searing hot water.  The bread was so dense and hard it was embarrassing.  Here, I made it again finally.  This time I took extra caution not to burn the yeast, and it turned out pretty well if I  say so myself.  :)

Six Braided Challah

I wasn't even sure it would turn out this well because twisting those braids are really hard to do.  They always ended up too skinny at the end and then it didn't braid well.  But you get used to it when you do it twice.

  This is the honey white Challah, and tomorrow I'm bringing it to work to share with my coworkers and  I made a cinnamon cream cheese spread. It tastes just like cinnamon toast that you put in the oven and bake with butter.. mmm that was such a nice treat growing up.


Cinnamon Cream Cheese Spread


1 package (8 ounce size) cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons brown sugar

*** A helpful hint, though I didn't try this yet, is not to roll the braids in too much flour, but to roll them on a surface that is not too floured, it's not as easy to roll them with all that flour.  

Honey White Challah

Ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 cups warm water, separated 
• 1 Tbsp. sugar 
• 2 Tbsp. (2-2/3 packets) dry active yeast 
• 1⁄2 cup honey 
• 1 Tbsp. oil (light colored vegetable oil, or olive oil if you prefer) 
• 4 large eggs 
• 1 1⁄2 tsp. salt 
• 5 cups  all-purpose (plain) flour, plus more as needed (up to 8 or 9 cups total) 
• 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water

Directions:

1. In mixer bowl/large mixing bowl combine 1⁄2 cup warm water, 1 Tbsp. sugar and 2 Tbsp. yeast. Allow to proof approximately 5 minutes until foamy.

2. To the yeast mixture add the remaining water, honey, oil, eggs, salt and 5 cups of flour. Knead (by hand or with your mixer’s dough hook) until smooth, adding flour as needed. Knead for approximately 10 minutes.

3. Transfer dough to a clean, oiled bowl, turn to coat or add a bit more oil on top. Cover bowl with a kitchen/tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 1⁄2 hours.

4. Punch down the dough, divide it into two sections. Use one half to make each loaf (shaped or braided as desired).

5. Place loaves on parchment lined or greased baking sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise 30 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 7. Brush tops loaves with egg wash. (Sprinkle with seeds or toppings here if wanted.) 8. Bake loaves 30-40 minutes until done. 9. Cool on wire racks.

Making strands: There are two basic methods for forming the strands used to braid challah. The first, and easiest, is to simply roll snakes between your hands like when working with clay or play dough. The second method is to use a rolling pin to roll out a flat disc of dough, then using your hands to roll the disc into a snake, rolling the snake on the counter with your fingers to achieve the length you need. This second method does result in a better rise, but either way works well. Whichever method you use, form your strands such that they are thinner at the ends and fuller in the middle. This will help your challah rise in the center.

There are some good video tutorials online about bread braiding techniques.  

Meringue Swirls

     These next little treats were really fun to make, and actually worked out exactly as they were supposed to.  They came from the monthly Martha Stewart catalogue my grandmother gives me.  There's usually at least one cool little dessert that sparks my interest.  These looked delicious and easy to make.  So tomorrow my coworkers will get to have a taste.

   I haven't ever made meringue cookies or eaten them, so these were a really good recipe to start with.  I know that most meringue cookies are usually 'crunchy' all of the way through, but these have a nice soft middle which melts in your mouth; it's fantastic.  

       The flavors I used were Orange, Lemon, and Rose.  

Meringue Swirls

3 large egg whites

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

Large pinch of Salt

Large pinch of Cream of Tartar

1 teaspoon finely grated fresh orange zest

Gel-paste food coloring

    * I used flavor oils instead of the zest (though I did use some lemon zest in the lemon cookies)  

    * I also doubled the recipe and was able to make several flavors

-  Preheat oven to 200

- Combine egg whites and sugar in a heat proof bowl.  Add vanilla bean seeds.  Set bowl over a pot of simmering water, and stir until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, about 3 minutes.  Add salt and cream of tartar.  

- Beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form and meringue is mostly cooled, about 7 minutes.  Beat in zest or flavoring.

- Using a small paintbrush, paint 3 vertical stripes of food coloring inside a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch round tip (decorative or not).  Fill bag with meringue, and pipe circular droplets 2 inches apart on a 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. 

-  Bake meringues until crisp on the outside but still soft inside, about 1 hour 15 minutes.  Let cool on a wire rack.  

Puff Pastry Cups with cream and fruit

So who doesn't love the classics?  A little puff, a little cream, and a lot of fruit.

  I wanted to get rid of the puff pastry that I've had in my freezer for forever.  So I rolled it out cut it into little squares and placed it in a muffin pan, the small muffin cups.  I put some pie beans in the centers so that there would be room for the cream.  Don't fill the puff with too many beans because they will become pushed into the bottom of the puff.  They will already but it's bad when they get really cooked in there.


I sprayed the pan with a little cooking oil so they came out really easily.



                

For the whipped cream I wanted to try a new recipe.  I wanted to stabilize the whipped cream with some cream cheese.     

 Cream Cheese Whipped Cream

yields about 5 cups

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened at room temperature (and cut into cubes)
2 cups whipping cream
4 tablespoons powdered sugar (or to taste)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  Add a few of the cubes of cream cheese in a kitchen aid mixer, until all of the cream cheese is creamed.  Then add the powdered sugar and vanilla.  Mix that together until it is stable again then add the whipping cream as you whip on medium speed with the whip attachment.  Let it go on medium to high speed until there are stiff peaks.  

  Then I just added a box of strawberries together with a few tablespoons of sugar and a few teaspoons of lemon juice.  I let it sit in the fridge over night and then added those to the top.  I also washed some blueberries and put those on another cup.  They were both delicious.  It's a nice fresh kind of dessert for those that were stuffed full of chocolate over Easter.  

                               

                        

Lemon Blueberry Entremet

Hello everyone!

   I'm hopefully back again from last year.  Baking for me is like meditation so the more I do the better I feel.   I've recently joined The Daring Bakers  http://thedaringkitchen.com/
   They are a community of bloggers and non-bloggers that once a month bake according to a challenge presented by a 'host'.  It sounded like a wonderful opportunity to stretch my legs and try and learn a few things from experienced bakers, and those that would be floundering right along side me with the challenges. (no offense to you amateur bakers out there :)  )  So every month I will be posting a new creation on here for those that occasion my blog.  Hope you enjoy the trials and tribulations right along with me.

  The only reason I found Daring Bakers is because I've been hankering to do an Entremet.  I first learned about it from Top Chef.  They had to create a dessert table using all different kinds of baking and sugar techniques.  One of the items they had to complete for the challenge was an Entremet.  And as I watched them making this Delicious looking dessert I was instantly hooked.

  So I decided to use one of these recipes and actually do it this time.  I had been talking about it forever.  And as lovely as it was, the dishes that it created... whew!  But hey, it's the price you pay for getting to eat all of those lovely desserts.

  I found a recipe for a Lemon Passionfruit Entremet with Biscuit Jaconde.  Let's just start with the passion fruit.  That is one of the coolest/weirdest fruits I've ever seen and it was amazing in it's taste.  It was like eating 3 different fruits all at the same time, so that was an awesome trip.  But unfortunately they didn't get ripe enough in time for the finishing of the cake so I just used some blueberries.  Because blueberries and lemon in my opinion are like a match made in heaven.

  Here's the biscuit joconde recipe:

For the Joconde Décor paste: (Recipe Courtesy: Deeba of PAB)

I reduced the quantity from the original recipe.

Unsalted butter      --   2 tbsp, at room temperature
Powdered sugar    --   ¼ cup
Egg white                 --   1 large egg
All purpose flour   --   3 tbsp
Cocoa powder        --   2 tsp
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid (optional)

Joconde Décor paste:

Sift the all purpose flour and cocoa powder.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.Gradually add the egg white.Beat continuously.Fold in the sifted flour.

Add the coloring gel, if using. Mix well.

Prepare the parchment paper / silicone mat.Keep it on an inverted cookie sheet. Pipe the paste on the prepared paper. Another option is to spread the paste on the prepared paper and make designs on it, like vertical/horizontal lines or dots or ..... Your creativity works here.

I piped the design on the paper. Freeze this for approximately 15 to 20 min until hard.

For the Joconde: (Recipe Courtesy: Deeba of PAB)

I reduced the quantity and made some variations too.

Egg whites             --   2, large eggs
White granulated sugar --   1 tbsp
Ground almonds  --   3/8 cup
Icing sugar            --   2/3 cup
All purpose flour --   1/8 cup
Corn starch            --   1 tsp
Melted butter        --   1 tbsp
Large eggs             --   1

Joconde:

Start preparing the joconde batter once the décor paste is in the freezer.

Preheat the oven to 475 F.

Beat the egg whites along with the white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Keep aside.

Sift almond flour, icing sugar, all purpose flour and corn starch. Add the whole egg and mix well until smooth and light.

Divide the whipped egg whites into 3 and fold in to the almond mixture. Do not over mix. Fold in the melted butter.

Remove the décor from the freezer and quickly pour the joconde batter over it.Spread it evenly so that it completely covers the design pattern.

Bake for approximately 5 - 10 minutes (It took 8 minutes for me)  or until the cake springs back when touched gently. The baking times varies depending on the oven. So take that this is not over baked. Keep a close eye on it.

Let it cool to a touchable temperature. Invert it on to a board or a parchment paper. Apply powdered sugar on the board or parchment paper. This helps to prevent sticking. The cake should be with the right side up. You should be able to see the design.

The green decoration is the Joconde Paste.  I ended up making the Joconde but I didn't have enough to fill the whole recipe.  I left out the melted butter by accident, but I don't think it made that much of a difference.  So You might want to make a little bit bigger batch or make a smaller decoration in a smaller pan (I think I used a 9x13).    

     Then it was ready for the entremet.  I had too big of a springform pan so it didn't really fit right.  And because of that the first picture I included was of a really small entremet.  So definitely use the 15 cm pan like it said.  

 Here's the recipe for the Lemon Mousse - though it came out a little too sour for the people who ate it at work.

http://rosas-yummy-yums.blogspot.com/2008/06/lemon-mousse-mousse-au-citron.html

  Then because I didn't use the passion frui I just boiled down some blueberries and mixed it with gelatin.  I let it cool in the fridge for a few minutes before I put it on the lemon mousse.  

  It was pretty good dessert for my first time, but I would have liked it to be a little sweeter and easier to cut.

  I hope you all enjoy it if you make it! and do a better job than I did.  :)

"There's always room for Divinity..."

   I feel like to start this post it needs a story to back it up. One day my family and a few of their friends went up to Gaffney, Tennessee to see the sights. I guess I was about 10 or 12. We were all walking downtown looking in the shops and we happened by a candy store; one of those signature candy shops that make fudge in front of you or pull taffy in the window.
    I'm not sure who in the group liked it and got it but someone did and I tried it. Apparently I was all candied out and tired so when they started asking me about it I became the annoyed little teenager. So for a joke they kept saying "There's always room for Divinity..."
     At the time I remembered it sort of sent the hairs on the back of my neck to stand straight up but I do not for the life of me understand why. So since I've been getting into candy lately I decided that I would use this inside joke to my advantage.
     I am sending this family that we know a box of the stuff for Christmas with a single note in the box saying the catchy line. They'll know who it's from and have a really nice treat to snack on during the holiday.

     Alright, so anyone can do divinity, you just have to be patient and organized.


 The ingredients are:


 4 cups of Sugar 
1 cup White Corn Syrup 
3 egg whites 
3/4 cup cold water 
1 cup chopped pecans 
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 

 You want to get ALL of the ingredients ready to go because you're going to be busy checking on the eggs whites and the sugar. It's always good practice anyway. Also get wax paper and two spoons (4 if you have a partner) ready because you will spoon the divinity onto the wax paper. 


    In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, stir together sugar, corn syrup, and water. Stir ONLY until sugar has dissolved, after that just walk away. You're going to want to get the sugar to 250° F. (My old glass candy thermometer ended up being wrong so I had to purchase a digital one, and I have not had a mess up since) 


   Allow the sugar to do its thing while you beat the egg whites in a large bowl of an electric mixer. If you're using a Kitchen Aid, I used the beater attachment on 5 and 6 for most of this recipe. Although it took a little longer, but I have a small mixer so I always think I'm breaking it if I go any higher. Anywho,


   * You want the egg whites to be very STIFF * 


    Once the egg whites are finished and the sugar has reached 250 then you're going to pour the mixture in the egg whites WHILE it's beating on High and in a SLOW and STEADY stream. Take care to use hefty gloves or oven mits because it will be hot. 


    You'll want to beat it slow and steady and add the vanilla once you're done pouring the sugar. The mixture needs to hold its shape and then you can add the pecans. It might take 5 minutes until it holds its shape. You'll notice when the mixture starts tearing on the sides of the bowl, that's when it might be close. 


    Then stir in the pecans and get ready to spoon it in the pan. It might help to have a partner to help because as you see with mine they get less glossy and more grainy the longer it takes to spoon them on the pan to cool.


    Using two spoons drop divinity onto waxed paper using one spoon to push candy off the other. I didn't try to do that yet since this was only my second time making them. I just made them semi round and dropped them on the paper. (They taste Just as good :) 


     -- If candy becomes too stiff to work with add a few drops of hot water and I imagine you will want to incorporate the water in the mixture. Then spoon the mixture, let it cool slightly and then keep it in a cool, dry place in a container for storage.

      And ENJOY!!!! :)

(this bottom picture is of the ones that I did during the end of the spooning process.  Notice they are more grainy and less shiny than those in the photo above.)

Lonely Chicago Pie

So I'm back for another pie summer. I'm at a new job and have new people to test my pies for me.

To start off the summer I made the Lonely Chicago Pie from Waitress. Though I realized last night that the pie in the movie would have tasted interesting (in a bad way probably) if they made it the way they were putting it together. But the recipe that I have actually turned out to be a custard.

It was interesting pulling it out of the oven to find out that it was a custard, not knowing ahead of time. I suppose I could have guessed with the ingredients, and pretty soon I will be able to know things like that.

So this was a really cool pie to make. One I haven't had Blackberries (the key flavor in the pie) in a really long time, so I was really excited to finally have them in a pie. Thankfully they were in season. I tend to not realize these things until I can't find it in the grocery store, it's not ripe, or it just looks terrible on the shelf.

They were a little odd, some were riper than others, but in this recipe it calls for them all to be crushed so it mixed together the sweetness with the bitterness and made a nice flavor all together.

One thing that I'm not sure what caused this is dealing with the cinnamon. I got some really GOOD cinnamon from a spice place here in Raleigh and used that last night. But I'm not sure if the overpowering (to me) of cinnamon was because of the quality or quantity of cinnamon. (I might have accidentally put too much or too little... it was hard to navigate without spilling)

The other thing was the chocolate on top. Chocolate has not been my friend the last couple of pies I've made with it. The Strawberry Oasis pie looked bad because of the way I layered the chocolate and the strawberries (just trying something new) and it also was really messy when the chocolate didn't want to cut right.
That was the main concern with the Lonely Chicago. The layer of chocolate on top is a little too thick (the chocolate a little overpowering, so I think I'm going to either cut it with something or scale it down next time). But the problem was with cutting the pie.

**You have to cut the slices almost immediately after the chocolate comes off the stove because as soon as it cools, it just breaks really badly into thick big chunks instead of nice pie slices**

Of course I thought of this after I had already put it in the fridge, but now I know for next time.

Also I used corn starch instead of tapioca flour and it seemed to do ok but it might have needed more corn starch. I couldn't find the tapioca flour anywhere so hence the substitute but I'll have to make it the correct way eventually so I can see if the consistency of the custard was right.

Here are the conversions for tapioca flour if you don't have any:

1 tablespoon of cornstarch or corn flour = 2 tablespoons of instant tapioca flour
1 tablespoon of potato starch or rice starch or flour = 2 tablespoons of instant tapioca flour
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour = 2 tablespoons of instant tapioca
1 tablespoon of Arrowroot = 2 tablespoons of instant tapioca flour

And as a side note I already put more blackberries than was called for but it could definitely stand some more, though you have to worry that you don't overload your pie dish, because there wasn't a ton of room left at the top, but it could use more than the 1/2 cup it calls for. I was debating last night when I was looking at the not so great selection of blackberries, and thought that blueberries might actually be good in it instead of blackberries, but that will have to be next time that I try that.

Rookie Fruit Crepes

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've been on here but I finally made something again. I've been back at school so not much time to do any baking though I would definitely like to do more.

Anywho I decided to make Crepes! I've never made them before hence the 'rookie' part. It was an interesting experience and sooo much fun. Especially swirling the pan around until the crepe batter coated the buttered pan. Magnificent stuff.

I have a ton of filling left over too. The recipe I found for the filling (you can not believe how hard it is just to find a simple cream and fruit filling for crepes) wasn't very specific so I just did what I thought it said and it turned out delicious. Even though I didn't use my hand mixer to cream the cream cheese and it was a little lumpy, made no difference what so ever. It still tasted gloriously of vanilla goodness.

I chose raspberries and blueberries for my fruit, but of course ya'll can choose what ever strikes your fancy. The filling holds up well if you let it sit out (I had to while I was cooking the crepes because we have absolutely no room in our fridge for the bowl :-D )

The crepes were a little tricky at first because of the proportions. I didn't want to use a tablespoon to pour out three little pours of batter while I was trying to swirl it around (talk about hand twister) so I just used a ladle, but it all worked out in the end... you learn how much to put in there by eye after the ... 1..2..3... 5th one or so :)

But yes they were delicious, got lots of approval from the roommates (my taste testers).

I'll post the recipe later if I have time, but if you all want to know sooner it's from Julia's Kitchen Wisdom book under All purpose Crepes