These delicious pastries from Brittany – pronounced “quee(n) a-MAHN” – are similar to croissants, except they have sugar in them. And somehow even more butter. They are absolutely delicious, especially if you, like me, like almost-burnt dark caramel and flaky pastry. These were not difficult to make, although they are a bit time consuming, since you have to roll out and stack up the dough and butter to create the many flaky layers, and each step of the process involves returning the dough-and-butter stack to the refrigerator at the end to firm up. Otherwise, it’s too easy for softened butter to squirt out of the sides of the dough as you roll it out.

One pic below. Read more to see a couple more.

For the month of October we got to take on one of many bakers’ deepest, darkest kitchen nightmares : macarons. Our talented bakers Korena from Korena in the Kitchen and Rachael from pizzarossa made the intimidating task of mastering these French beauties a breeze.

For this batch, I used Trader Joe’s almond flour (which explains the speckled appearance of the shells), just a bit of red dye (giving it a pinkish color), and dulce de leche as the filling. As always, I used the Italian (cooked sugar) meringue method, as it’s almost failsafe. And, as always, they were absolutely delectable.

For the month of September Meredith from the Poco Loco Olsons challenged us to experiment with soda bread.

For the August challenge Susan from The Kiwi Cook dared us to make Seed & Nut Loaf – a super-healthy and gluten-free alternative to standard wheat-based bread.

I do not avoid gluten or think that most people who obsess about it should either, but this bread was delicious in its own right. It was best with ripe avocado smushed on top, and a sprinkling of sea salt and cracked pepper.

A couple of our guests avoid gluten and dairy products, so I also made a variant using Pamela’s gluten-free all-purpose flour and Earth Balance buttery sticks (instead of the conventional AP flour and butter in the normal lamingtons I made). They tasted excellent. The gluten-free cake was considerably more fragile than the conventional cake, but still very delicious. It just made the dipping in chocolate sauce and rolling in coconut a more tentative affair.

For the May challenge Marcellina from Marcellina in Cucina dared us to make Lamingtons, an Australian delicacy that is as tasty as it is elegant.

Would I make them again? In a heartbeat.

Photos after the jump.

The conventional cake held together much better – I guess that’s why gluten is called that.

Conventional to the left, gluten- and dairy-free to the right

A close-up of the crumb.

The kids were ready! And they loved them as much as the adults.

We had a choice of variants to try out, and I went with a sourdough version. I didn’t have enough time to make a true sourdough (a pity considering I live in San Francisco and the right mix of yeasts and bacteria is apparently just waiting in the air), but I did make a starter that got a good 14 hours of fermentation before I officially began the process of making the focaccia and I think it did make a difference in terms of the taste.

For the month of April Rachael of pizzarossa and Sawsan of Chef in Disguise took us on a trip to Italy. They challenged us to try our hands at making focaccia from scratch

I didn’t add anything in terms of toppings except a lot of coarse salt, and having tried the finished product, I can’t say this is a decision I regret. If I were to make this again (and why wouldn’t I?), I might give some rosemary or olives a shot. Or I might just add some za’atar and make some manaeesh. Yummmm. I also cut the recipe into a quarter, and it still yielded a nicely-sized round. The full recipe could probably have fit on a couple of large cookie sheets.

Photos after the jump.

Right out of the oven.

A gorgeous color right out of the oven. No, those aren’t sesame seeds, they’re coarse salt crystals.

Up close. Oh and, yes, those dimples all have a bit of olive oil in them. That’s what makes the crust so delicious!

The crumb was great: yeasty, the good kind of chewy, and nicely greasy (almost like a Chicago deep-dish style pizza crust).

For the March Daring Bakers’ challenge, Korena from Korena in the Kitchen taught us that some treats are best enjoyed upside down. She challenged us to make a tarte tatin from scratch.

Pics after the jump.

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• a “Chinese” bun, filled with Napa cabbage, tofu, ginger, sesame oil and scallions
• a “Thai” bun, filled with roasted kabocha squash, scrambled eggs, basil and jalapenos (aka pad faktong)

The February Daring Bakers’ challenge is hosted by Julie of One-Wall Kitchen. She challenged us to an easy, simple filled bun using no-knead dough.

They turned out pretty damn good. I preferred the Chinese-style bun, although I wish I had seasoned it a bit more with some salt and white pepper, or maybe something spicy. The Thai-style bun was too dry. I had oven-roasted the kabocha for the first time, and it really desiccated the squash; dousing it in lime juice and soy sauce was really too-little, too-late. I’d probably just make pad faktong the traditional way (basically braising the squash) next time.

Anyway, here are the pics (after the jump):

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The “Thai-style” siopao

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The “Chinese-style” siopao

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For the month of January Jelena from A Kingdom for a Cake invited us to start this year with a dreamy celebration cake. She challenged us to make the Esterhazy cake a.k.a the Hungarian dream. What better way to start the year than with a sweet dream?

However it looks on the top, I’m sure the taste will be fantastic: how could toasted hazelnuts, both in meringue and cream layers, with lemon and a touch of chocolate go wrong? It can’t. EDIT: We had a slice. Then two. It is absolutely delicious. If you like hazelnuts, you’ll love this.

Pics after the jump.

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For the month of December, Andrea from 4pure took us on a trip to the Netherlands. She challenged us to take our taste buds on a joyride through the land of sugar and spice by baking three different types of Dutch sweet bread

I went with Andrea’s kruidkoek (“spice cake”) recipe, mostly because I had plenty of cinnamon and nutmeg on hand. I have to say it was delicious, a bit dry (but from what I remember from my time in the Netherlands, the store-bought version was considerably more dry, so this was downright moist by comparison) but aromatic and just the right level of sweetness. It made breakfast fun for a few days.

Pics after the jump.

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A gorgeous golden brown. Of course I didn’t wait too long before cutting into it, resulting in some smushed crumb.

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A day later – you get a better sense of the texture here.