The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

I only did half the recipe and still ended up eating Lasagna for dinner 3 days in a row. But this recipe is so yummy, I could have had it for a whole week without complain.

Although all the cooking and even step-by-step photography was made way ahead of time, due to all the work and events going on, I managed to miss the posting deadline. Shame on me! Still, better late than never, so here’s the fantastic recipe , well worth all the hard work.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

In tone with my anti-valentine attitude, I went for bitter flavours in individual portions. Dark chocolate Valentino in ramekins, topped with lemon cheesecake ice-cream.

The original Valentino recipe can be found here.

Lemon cheesecake ice-cream

1 can of evaporated milk
260g full fat cream cheese (like Philadephia)
1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice, strained

In a large bowl, whip the evaporated milk with a hand held mixer and then slowly add the sugar and the cream cheese. Finally add the lemon juice.

If you have an ice-cream maker, just follow the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t, pour the mixture in a shallow container and place it in the freezer. Every half an hour, bring it out and beat it to make it smoother.

This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

The challenge allowed us to choose from a few different tuile recipes, and to create something light and fruity to go with it. So wonderfully vague! In the end, after some enlightening online chatter with my friend Fleur, I decided to go for the chocolate-orange combo. And I’m quite glad i did.

Chocolate Tuiles

I chose Angélique Schmeink’s recipe, and you can find it on Karen’s original post. Instead of butterflies, I did some tulip shaped cups, by baking 13cm diameter dough circles and pushing them gently into a small bowl while still soft. The recipe yielded 10 of them.

Orange Mousse

1/2 whipping cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Mix all the ingredients in the top of a double boiler. Use a wire whisk to make the mixture foamy while it slowly cooks over the simmering water. Keep whisking until it doubles in size and coats the back of a spoon and chill.

Whip the cream with the sugar in a separate bowl, and when chilled, fold in the orange cream. Keep refrigerated until serving time.

Orange Syrup

1/2 cup fresh orange juice, strained
2 tablespoon yellow/demerara sugar
1 cinnamon stick

Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until slightly thickened. Chill.

Right before serving, spoon or pipe the chilled mousse into the chocolate shells, drizzle with the syrup, and sprinkle with chocolate confetti.

Check out what all the others have done!

Back then, I would make a big fuss to eat any soup. Nowadays, I want nothing other than a delicious and warming bowl of guilt-free comfort food to compensate for the cold weather and make it sunny inside. And while most of my soups are a random concoction of whatever veggies I have at hand, Avó Lena taught me the precise recipe for what is my favourite soup of all time, so now I can share it with the world.

Carrot Puree

1Kg potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
1Kg carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 big onion
5 garlic cloves
100 ml olive oil
Salt to taste (roughly a tablespoon)

Add all the ingredients in a big pot and cover with water. Boil for about an hour, until the potatoes and carrots are soft when we prod them with a knife. Liquefy with a hand held blender until velvety smooth, and then correct the seasoning.

I like it thick and creamy, but you can mix in some boiling water if it’s too thick for you.

But then something happened… the most delicious cake popped out of th oven. I could hardly believe it.

Then I tasted the frosting. It was interesting too, but an absolute overkill. The cake was perfect without it, moist inside, crunchy outside, and quite sweet. I was afraid the frosting might ruin it. I ended up decorating just a portion of the cake - mini cakes are all the rage around here - and ate the rest of it plain and unadorned. Yummy.

And to my surprise, again, the mini cake wasn’t spoiled at all by the caramelised butter icing. The combination worked very well, I’m definitely baking this cake again.

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting
by Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater

This challenge was hosted by Dolores, of Culinary Curiosity, Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo) and Jenny of Foray into Food.

As usual, you can check all the beautiful creations coming out of this on the Daring Baker’s Blogroll and on foodgawker’s new Daring Bakers Gallery

Last, but not least… here’s the link to the recipe.

I really had to try to bake one, but the occasion always seemed to escape. If I didn’t have a party or dinner to take it to, or some friends over to share it with, I would easily have ended up eating a whole cheesecake on my own. And we all know why that would be a bad idea!

Addiction is a powerful thing, though, so in the end, I decided to create a miniature New York cheesecake, just for one. Technically, it’s still quite a big portion, so you can share it… But do so at your own risk, as you may end up fighting for the last bite.

The main challenge was to find a mini springform pan. I decided to go all McGyver and improvised by wrapping the bottom of a 9cm metal cooking ring in foil and holding it with a string. It worked out quite nicely.

Mini New York Cheesecake

Top it with strawberry jam, or simply sugared strawberry puree, and sour cream.

Apparently, it all started in New York, in Jim Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery in Hell’s Kitchen (which I didn’t visit, by the way, as I only discovered this when I got back from my holiday). Then Mark Bittman, aka The Minimalist, wrote about it in his NY Times blog, which caught the attention of another of my favourite food bloggers, Tony Tahhan.

And when I read Tony’s post, I knew I had to try it myself. It really is very easy, and the results are fantastic. Midway through the process, looking into that blob of sticky dough, a hint of a doubt may have started creeping up, but good things come to those who wait… And that fragrant loaf of bread coming out of the oven sure was a good thing!

No-Knead Bread, by Jim Lahey

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cornmeal, wheat bran or plain flour to dust

Place the flour, yeast and salt on a large bown, and slowly stir in the water, until uniform.
Cover the bowl with cling film and forget about it for 12-18 hours, while if ferments and gets all bubbly.

Dust thoroughly the work surface and your hands with flour, and then take the extremely sticky dough out of the bowl and fold it a couple of times over it self. Wrap it in a flour coated cotton towel , and let it rise for two more hors.

Preheat your oven and a lidded pan or pot inside to 260ºC - 280ºC. The pan can be metal or ceramics, as long as it can stand the high temperature. When the oven is really hot, invert the dough into the preheated vessel and cook covered for 30 minutes, and then uncovered for another 15 minutes, until golden and beautiful.

Yummy as it may look and smell, don’t be too impatient and let it cool a bit before going for it, or you might burn your tongue and fingertips - don’t say i didn’t warn you!

I’ve been meaning to do my own pizza dough for ages, finally I’d have a chance to try it.And the challenge was very clear, we had to toss it in the air like a real professional. I was so excited I gathered some friends around and called it a pizza party.

The pizzas were declared a success, but in the end I was a bit sad… I didn’t manage to toss the dough as I should. Not that I was clumsy or anything like that. The dough was simply untossable. It was so soft it started stretching as soon as I held it, and looked like it was going to break apart and open holes if I didn’t place it at once on the baking sheet. I did everything by the book, so I wondered if they had just waited outside for too long.

I didn’t get any photos of the party pizzas either… with all the people waiting to be fed, it seemed a bit rude to whisk them away to be photographed first. So on the next day, I gave it another go. Sadly, the result was the same. Even the dough straight out of the fridge was too soft to toss. I had failed.

It was crispy and tasty all the same, and I did get some shots of my 4-in-one pizza, so it wasn’t a waste. But I’ll keep experimenting with pizza dough recipes and I’ll learn to toss them properly, I’m stubborn that way.

Having said that, here’s the link to the dough recipe, from Rosa’s Yummy Yums, who hosted this great challenge. And don’t forget to check all the other daring bakers!

And so you don’t go away from this post empty handed, here’s my super douper recipe for pizza sauce:

Tomato Sauce for Pizzas:

and my secret ingredient:
2 streaky rashers of bacon

Place the olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.

Chop the garlic and the onion very thinly and add it to the oil.

When the onion starts to soften, add the bacon rashers and let it cook for a few more minutes.

Finally, add the tomato puree, the sugar, salt, pepper and oregano.

Cook for about five minutes over high heat, and then reduce to low, cover, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste it and correct the seasoning if needed.

Discard the bacon rashers and let it cool for a bit before spreading on the pizza dough. Remember, a little goes a long way…

Regarding the toppings, below are some of the combinations I used:

- Bacon and onions
- Fresh mushrooms and corn
- Ham and fresh mushrooms
- Pineapple and parma ham
- Tomatoes, mozzarella di buffala and basil

Such a cool vegan or gluten-free challenge (which I’m posting late again, sorry!) was hosted by Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl, and you can find the recipe for the crackers here or here.

Guacamole

2 small avocados
1 tablespoon red onion, thinly chopped
Juice of one lime
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon coriander, chopped

In a bowl, add the lime juice to the chopped onion and chilli powder, and let it marinade for a few minutes.

Halve the avocados, remove the seeds and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Chop them into small pieces to help with the mashing and add them to the ingredients in the bowl.

Mash and mix it all with a fork, until smooth (or leave it course if you prefer) and then add the chopped coriander.

Keep it in an airtight container, and refrigerate it until it’s time to serve.

Apple Chutney

2 large apples, cored and diced
1/2 red onion, thinly choped
1/4 cup apple vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon cummin

Mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan and let it simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes. Then uncover and cook for a bit more, until the excess liquid evaporates.

Keep it in an airtight container, and refrigerate it until it’s time to serve.

Slow Roast Mediterranean Dip

500g small tomatoes on the vine
1 red onion, sliced
1 garlic head
1/4 cup olive oil
50g roasted pine nuts, finely chopped
A few leaves of basil

Halve the tomatoes. Add the olive oil to the bottom of a baking tray, and spread the tomato halves, sliced onion and non pealed garlic cloves. Season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Cook in the oven at 100º for about 2 hours. Peal the garlic cloves, move the mixture to a medium bowl and process it with a blender until smooth.

Mix in the pine nuts and the roughly chopped basil leaves. Keep it in an airtight container, and refrigerate it until it’s time to serve.

As it turns out, if you whip the evaporated milk before incorporating the condensed milk and the fruit pulp, instead of creamy and dense, the mousse is light and fluffy, as if you were using egg whites. My friend, quite an exigent eater, thought it was yummy. Mission accomplished!

Passion Mousse

450g passion fruit pulp
1 can of evaporated milk
1 can of condensed milk

Strain the passion fruit pulp into a small bowl, and reserve the seeds for decorating.

In a large bowl, whip up the evaporated milk with an electrical mixer until it’s all foamy and at least doubled in size.

Slowly incorporate the condensed milk, followed by the fruit pulp and beat until fully blended.

Divide into small pots and decorate with the reserved seeds. Chill for a couple of hours before serving.