the barmy baker

Nothing Says "Happy Valentine's Day" Like Tiramisu (Really, Nothing says "Happy Any Day" Like Tiramisu )

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:06:00 +0000

Yes G and I are one of those sappy couples that got engaged on Valentine's Day. I never was a fan of sap, but really, this kind of sap was quite all right for me. So, this year I wanted to be nice and sappy and make one of our favorite desserts, tiramisu. Tiramisu is yum. Tiramisu is comfort dessert. Tiramisu can be made with store-bought ladyfingers, but why use those, when you can make your own fresh ones at home with loads of egg whites, yolks, a piping bag and whipping utensils?

If you want more information about this wonderful dessert, you can check out this entry about Tiramisu at Wikipedia, they also have an informative entry about LadyFingers.

So, to begin your tiramisu, you will need to make (or buy) some ladyfingers (I chose to make them because well, I'm a bit nutty and I like the fresh ones). There is no shame in buying these already made:

Ladyfingers: (I decided to make more of a tiramisu cake then just plain ole tiramisu, so this will make 2 piped layers of lady fingers and then enough fingers to line the outside of the "cake")

8 egg whites
8 egg yolks
7 1/2 ounces granulated sugar, divided in two parts, one being 3 ounces and one being 4 1/2 ounces
6 ounces sifted cake flour (I confess to having no cake flour on hand, so I am using all-purpose, shhhh don't tell the lady finger gods)
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-Preheat oven to 425F.
-Line a few sheet pans with parchment. If you are going to to make this like a cake you will want to pipe circles of the ladyfinger batter the size of your springform pan (or a little smaller actually) by tracing the pans onto the parchment and placing that parchment on the sheet pans marked side down (you don't want ink in your lady finger cake..well, you might, but I don't recommend it). Have a piping bag with a large plain tip ready to go.
-In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whipping attachment (Or you can whisk by hand if you are strong of wrist, I whisked these by hand because, well, as I said earlier, I'm just plain nuts) place the egg yolks and 3 ounces of sugar. Whip on high until the mixture is thick and light lemon colored. This is called a "cold sabayon".-Place the egg whites in the bowl of a mixer with a whip attachment (I used my mixer for these, cause I'm not that crazy, my arm was unhappy with me after doing the sabayon..geesh, I'm out of practice). Begin whipping the whites until they start to become a little foamy and then start to slowly add the 4 1/2 ounces of sugar. Whip a bit between each addition. You want your whites to be a medium peak, like so:-Take 1/4 of the whipped egg whites and fold them into the yolk mixture to lighten it (this is called "sacrificing" always sounds neat to "sacrifice 1/4 of the whites"). Gently fold the remaining whites into the yolks until it is just about blended, then add the sifted flour and fold until it disappears into the batter.-Fill your piping bag with the mixture and pipe out the cake rounds (I'm doing 2 thin ones)

and then pipe out your fingers (you want them to be fairly even in length as they will be used to decorate the outside of the cake). Pipe the rounds so they are about 1 inch smaller than the diameter of your springform pan. You can just make all fingers if you want to go for a more traditional tiramisu layered in a square pan.
-Lightly sprinkle the tops of the ladyfingers with powdered sugar, and bake for about 5 to 10 minutes at 425f.
-Cool on a rack and if not using the same day, store in an airtight container with parchment paper between the layers.
*Please note, I had forgotten that my original recipe was more of a production recipe (I haven't made these in ages) so the amount of batter I have is insane. I have halved the recipe here for you, so don't worry if your batter appears to be a bit less than what I have. I have ladyfingers coming out of my ears.....I'll be freezing them. No wonder my arm hurt from whisking the yolks. Don't be surprised if you see them show up in the future*

Now that you have your dainty little ladyfingers, you can make the tiramisu soaking syrup and the wonderful loverly insides.

Soaking syrup for the Ladyfingers:

2 cups of coffee or espresso (I had espresso powder on hand, so I made 2 cups of it)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup Rum (some people use marsala in the syrup, some people use rum, some people use other things....depends on how you are feeling or what you have on hand)
________________
-Mix these three together and if you feel the need to adjust sugar amounts or other amounts, do so. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and allow to simmer until the mixture is reduced by about 1/4. Place in a shallow container for dipping if you are using all finger shaped ladyfingers , or in something else if you are using ladyfinger rounds (really like a sponge cake) and will be brushing on the syrup.

And now for the mascarpone goodness...

Tiramisu Filling (I made a double batch of this because I was being very enthusiastic, the single batch listed here should be plenty)

3 large eggs, separated
3/4 cups sugar
1 container mascarpone cheese (16 ounces or about 2 cups)
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp orange liqueur (you don't have to add liqueur to the filling, I just like the slight citrus touch it gives...you could also add marsala wine, or rum, or whatever you feel like adding..)
______________________
-Beat the yolks and 1/2 cup sugar by hand -or with your mixer and a whip attachment- until the yolks are thick and light in color (just like you did for the ladyfingers).
-Add the mascarpone to the yolk mixture and beat until just blended.
-Whip the heavy cream and liqueur (if you are adding booze) in a chilled bowl by hand or machine until it holds soft peaks.
-Whip the egg whites in your mixer with the whisk attachment until they are just foamy and then slowly add the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar while whipping on high speed. You want medium peaks again, as for the ladyfingers.
-Fold the heavy cream into the mascarpone and yolk mixture, sacrificing 1/4 of it first to lighten and then gently folding in the rest. Then fold the whites into this mixture.
*the filling does have raw eggs in it, so if this bothers you, there are other recipes you can find online that use no eggs*

Begin Assembly.

Springform mold: Take the first cake layer you piped and place it in the bottom of the spring form mold. Place a ring of ladyfingers around the edge of the pan. Brush the cake layer with the coffee syrup until it has had a fairly good soaking and spread 1/3 of the tiramisu filling over the top. Repeat this with the remaining layers ending with a layer of tiramisu filling.
Generously sift cocoa powder over the top, gently cover and chill for 6 hours or overnight to allow it to set up. Decorate with chocolate shavings or strawberries or however you would like. This is not really a firm set, so if you go this route, take care when you slice the "cake" as it will be soft, but not unmanageable. I skipped the berries and chocolate shavings for my presentation, however I think a few chocolate shavings would be really really nice. And maybe a raspberry or two as well.

Layers of ladyfingers: dip each ladyfinger into the coffee syrup and place in the bottom of a square pan. Cover the layer of fingers with half the mascarpone mixture, do one more layer of ladyfingers, one more layer of mascarpone. Sift cocoa powder over the top and allow to chill for 6 hours to overnight.

Enjoy!
Happy Baking, and Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

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How Barmy Got Her Groove Back

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 21:46:00 +0000

Well, more like how I'm working on getting my groove back. I decided that I needed to just start browsing my baking books again, this was a daily habit of mine awhile back and when I lost my baking mojo I just kind of let the books sit on the shelf collecting dust. I have now turned to one of my favorite (also a favorite of many many other people)baking books, left my baking mojo to fate and let the book fall open to where it would. As I'm a bit rusty on the blogging bit of things, I'll just get right to it and present you with the Double Apple Bundt Cake from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. It was quite a fortunate fall open, as it was a recipe I hadn't tried yet from the book and the ingredient list reads like heaven. So without further ado, on to the recipe!

Double Apple Bundt Cake (from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours) :

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I do think next time I'll add a full teaspoon of cinnamon)
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (I don't really measure my fresh ground nutmeg, I just grate it over the flour and guess when it's enough..mmmmm, fresh ground nutment...)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 Tbsps or 5 ounces) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup store bought apple butter, spiced or plain (I didn't have any of this on hand, but I had quite a few apples. I made them into a cranberry applesauce and then cooked that down to apple butter consistency the day before I baked this cake. I used approximately 7 apples peeled and sliced, 1/2 cup cranberries, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and a few grates of fresh nutmeg. Cook it over medium heat in a heavy bottomed saucepan, puree once the apple are soft and then continue to simmer it over low low heat until it reduces by about half.)
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated
1 cups pecans or walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup plump, moist raisins (I have my seemingly endless supply of booze soaked raisins, so I used those here...the ones I currently have on hand are soaked in bourbon)
Confectioner's sugar or Icing to finish (optional, Icing recipe to follow)
_______________________

-Preheat oven to 350f and position a rack in the center of the oven.
-Butter and flour a 9 to 10 inch Bundt cake pan.
-Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices together and set aside.
-With a stand mixer and paddle attachment, or a hand held mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for about five minutes on medium speed.
-Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each before adding another beating one minute for each addition.
-Add the apple butter on low speed. The mixture may appear curdled when you add the apple butter, but that's ok!
-Mix in the grated apple on low speed until completely blended in.
-Continuing on low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix only until the flour just disappears. Gently fold in the raisins and nuts.
-Scrape the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth it out evenly.
-Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes or until a little knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
-Cool the cake for five minutes on a rack and then turn the cake out of the pan. Let the cake cool to room temperature and then either wrap it up, or dust with confectioner's sugar or ice and serve!

the Icing:
1/3 cup confectioner's sugar
2 Tbsp or so of fresh orange or lemon juice
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-Mix together until you get a nice smooth consistency and drizzle over the finished cake.

This cake is moist and delicious, the smell of my apartment was just heavenly. I'll make this again and again for company. Really that's all I can say about it...need I say more?

I do hope G's coworkers enjoy it!

Serve it up with your favorite beverage of choice. I enjoyed my little slice o' heaven with a nice cuppa.

Happy Baking!

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My Apologies and Promises of Things to Come...

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 17:46:00 +0000

The title says it all. First of all I just need to apologize for my long absence with no contact or posts what-so-ever. I know I left some of you hanging and I don't feel good about that. I seem to have fallen out of my serious baking mode and have been waiting for the time when I could jump back into it again. I'd say I am back in, but not all the way...maybe just the tip of my pinky is back in baking mode, but it's something and I'm going to hang onto it and hope it spreads! I believe I'll be baking and posting once a month to start until the rest of me can get fully back into the swing of baking more often. Now this is not to say I haven't baked...I did bake around the holidays (most of the things I baked I had posted last year).

Secondly, I'm sure some of you might wonder what I have been up to the past few months if baking had taken a back seat. Well, I got bit by the knitting bug and was filling my days with some serious knitting for my Etsy store. I then received this beauty for Christmas and have been a fiber-loving-yarn-spinning-and-dyeing fool since it's arrival.

So, look for a new recipe post from me in the next few days! It will be so nice to be back in the swing of things again! I'm thinking perhaps apples....hmmmmm...

My Second Daring Baker's Challenge, and I'm in Love

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 10:25:00 +0000

I can't express how pleased I was to see this month's challenge. Marce of Pip in the city was this months wonderful hostess and she choose the sticky bun/cinnamon roll recipe from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, a book that I couldn't recommend more. Peter Reinhart was my breads teacher back in 1999, and the man really does an excellent job of sharing his techniques and love of all things yeasty.

Now I've procrastinated this challenge just about down to the last minute. We are all posting this on the 30th, and it is the 29th at 8:30 PM. I have just mixed up my dough, and expect to be shaping these babies in about 2 hours time. I've decided to go with the cinnamon roll version of these, as I've already posted some sticky buns here on my blog awhile back.

The complete recipe can be found on Marce's blog Pip in the city, as it's very late here and I should probably consider sleep sometime soon, I'm just going to go with photos of the process and some comments! So, here goes....

This is the dough just out of the mixer, the bowl is lightly oiled as is the dough. This is a very soft silky lovely to touch kind of dough. I love working with enriched doughs for their feel alone:

After 2 hours and 45 minutes of bulk rising time, the dough looked like this:
It's a bit hard to tell from the shot, but it had indeed doubled in size, It just doubled more out than up.

After the dough has doubled, it gets rolled out to about 12 by 14 inches (well, it did for me, as I was opting to make the larger rolls):
I then sprinkled (well, it's more like spread, this is a lot of cinnamon sugar) the cinnamon sugar mixture over the dough leaving about 1 inch free of sugar so that I could seal it up after I rolled it:
The dough is then rolled up into a nice long roulade and sliced into about 12 pieces(for the larger rolls):
The pieces are left to rise, covered, for about 1 1/2 more hours and are then baked for about 20 to 30 minutes:

The icing for the cinnamon rolls in this recipe makes quite a bit, so I think next time I would only make a half batch of it. I have quite a bit leftover and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it currently. I've found the best way (aside from using my hands) to apply the icing is to dip a fork in it and wave it back and forth quickly over the warm rolls (they should only cool for about ten minutes before you apply the icing). You can make whatever kind of pattern you like with it. I'm a big fan of the crosshatch:

These are delicious cinnamon rolls with a really nice hint of lemon flavor that cuts the sweetness a bit. Best savored with a nice hot cup of tea!

You can see how all the other wonderful Daring Baker's did with their challenges by clicking on the Daring Baker Blogroll link on the right hand side of this blog!
Happy Daring Baking, and a big thanks to Marce for this wonderfully relaxing challenge! And now I'm off to bed...

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A Sure Sign that Fall is Here.........Pumpkin Cheesecake!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:20:00 +0000

I'm a huge fan of fall. I love the changing colors of the leaves. I love the musky smell of piles of leaves wet on the ground. I love the cooler nights and shorter days. I love using it as an excuse to bake lots of things with pumpkin in them. So today I present to you a Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Graham crust finished off with pecan nougatine(fancy word for caramelized sugar with nuts thrown in, usually almonds, but pumpkin and pecan are just so nummy together). I'm not the biggest cheesecake fan, but I do love this one. As I'm feeling a bit short of words today, I'll just give you the recipe!

Pecan Graham Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I just whirred a bunch up in my food processor)
1 cup ground pecans (ditto on the above technique)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
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-Prepare a 10" spring form pan by buttering it and placing a parchment paper circle in the bottom.
-Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whirrrrrrrr it until it resembles moist sand.
-Press into the bottom of the spring form pan and set aside.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (filling adapted from Marcel Desaulnier's Death by Chocolate: The Last Word on a Consuming Passion)

2 pounds room temperature cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound (2 cups) pumpkin puree
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 1/2 tsp ground cloves)
____________________________________________
-Preheat oven to 300f.
-In the bowl of a food processor combine the cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt and process, scraping down the sides every once in awhile, until smooth.
-Add the eggs one at a time, processing well after each addition.
-Add the vanilla, pumpkin puree and spices and process until well blended and smooth.
-Pour the mixture over the crust in the spring form pan, wrap the bottom of the spring form pan in aluminum foil.
Before Baking:
-Place the spring form pan into a baking dish deep enough to hold a water bath that will go about 2 inches up the sides of the spring form pan. Place this into the oven and fill the baking dish with water 2 inches up the sides of the spring form.
-Bake for about 1 hour 25 minutes, or until the cheesecake is slightly pulling away at the sides and jiggles like jello (it will continue to set up as it cools and it will pull away from the sides once it is completely cooled). Turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool inside with the door propped open for about one hour, remove from oven, let cool at room temp another hour, then refrigerate overnight.
After Baking
After chilling overnight and unmolding:Pecan Nougatine:

1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice
1/2 cup pecan pieces
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-Place sugar, water and cream of tartar in a small heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat to boiling and allow to boil, swirling the pan a bit, until the sugar has turned a nice golden brown (also wash down the sides of the pan a bit as the sugar is cooking with a pastry brush and some water, or for the first three minutes of the boil, cover the pan and let the condensation wash down the sides for you).
-Once the sugar is a nice golden brown, stir in the pecan pieces. Pour mixture immediately onto a buttered sheet of aluminum foil or a sheet of parchment paper. Do not touch, it is hot! Allow to cool and then break into desired pieces, and place on pumpkin cheesecake as you like!Slice, dollup with whipped cream if you want and enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea, or cider, or coffee or........

Happy baking!

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Getting High with Hi-Hat Cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:40:00 +0000

I believe it was a year or two ago, before I started my little blog, that I first heard of Hi-hat Cupcakes. I then found a recipe for them on Martha Stewart's site. I then searched a bit more and found quite a few people had terrible issues with the recipe on that site (which doesn't surprise me, as the recipes there tend to be hit and miss) and had worked out their own way of making them from trial and error. I set the idea to make them aside and it got buried in my ever churning thought process. Hi-hats seem to have broken through to the surface of my brain with perfect timing. I need an excuse to get out of this terrible slump I've been in. I know you've all noticed it. I haven't baked for weeks. I was lucky that I had baked the tart for my Daring Baker's Challenge early in the month of August, or I don't believe I would have completed my first challenge. I'll just say mid-month August we had a bit of a shake-up here at Casa del Barmy Baker, I was derailed for a bit but now I believe things are returning to some sort of equilibrium. I just need to kick myself in the arse a bit and bake.
I have decided to just combine a few of my favorite things ("Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens. Brown paper packages tied up with strings. These are a few of my favorite things....Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels. Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles..." sorry about that, I just had to try get it out of my head by embedding it in yours) and try to come up with something that resembled a Hi-hat. The recipe starts with a chocolate cupcake. No problem there, I have my wonderful, moist fabulous chocolate blackout recipe to use for those(these cupcakes also bake up very flat-topped and i think this will help with the mounds of marshmallow). They are topped with a marshmallow topping that looks suspiciously like a very thick Italian Meringue (where very very hot sugar syrup is whipped into egg whites), which I have no problem making and can pretty much just wing it on that. Then the topping. It seems this is what was giving people the biggest problem. When they tried to dip the cupcakes into the chocolate coating it was too thick and killed the marshmallow. Well, I'm going to try the chocolate and oil mixture to dip them in and see how I fare. If it doesn't work well, I'll try a ganache. So, with those three favorite things of mine, I present to you my idea of how to get high(hat cupcakes).

Chocolate Blackout Cake (makes 20 cupcakes, or one nice 9x12" pan o' cake) This recipe first appeared on my blog here

2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cocoa powder (natural, not dutch-processed)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
4 ounces melted butter
1 cup brewed coffee (I used instant espresso powder in one cup boiling water)
3 large eggs
_____________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f
-Prepare 2 muffin tins by lining with 20 or 21 muffin liners.
-This is just like making a quick bread. Sift the dry ingredients together into a mixing bowl.
-Mix together the wet ingredients, Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. This will be a fairly wet batter.
-Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling until about a quarter of an inch from the top of the liner.
-Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when lightly pressed with a finger.
-Remove from oven, let cool in pan about 10 minutes and then finish cooling on a rack. Place the room temperature cupcakes in the refrigerator while you make the Italian meringue. These cupcakes (or cake if you make one from this recipe) do tend to taste better the next day after the flavors have all come together.

Italian Meringue: (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)

1/2 cup (4 egg's worth) egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp corn syrup
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 cup water
2 tbsp pure vanilla extract (or if you want to flavor this with something else, feel free. As you all know, I have a terrible vanilla habit...the original recipe only calls for 1 Tbsp, but I added 2 as a nod to my addiction)
_______________________
-Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer.
-Place the sugar, water and cream of tartar in a heavy bottomed saucepan with a candy thermometer placed on the side of the pan dipping into the mixture. Bring the mixture to 238F.
-When the sugar syrup is about 10 degrees away from 238F, begin whipping the egg whites to firm shiny peaks. If the whites get to this state before the syrup is at 235, turn your mixer to low speed and just let them keep moving.
-Once the syrup is at 235 and your egg whites are firm and pretty, Carefully (hot sugar=ouch, I know from past experience) and slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites with the mixer running on high speed. Don't worry about any spatter on the sides of the bowl, it happens and won't effect the final product. Add the vanilla extract and continue whipping the egg whites until they cool to room temperature (I also add about 1/2 tsp salt, as I like my icing a bit salty with the sweet). Once the mixture is cool, scoop it into a pastry bag fitted with a large piping tip (or you can just use a plastic baggie with the corner cut off to pipe).

-Pipe coil mounds on top of the chilled cupcakes, mounding each high to form the marshmallow "hat". Place the cupcakes in the refrigerator and make your chocolate coating.

The first coil goes on like this:
Then you want to do a second smaller coil:
and a third coil:
Until it looks something like this:
I have yet to decide if these all standing together look like a Michelin Man convention or a forest of soft serve cones:

Chocolate coating:

14 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I used a 72%)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
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-Place chocolate and oil in the top of a double boiler (I just use a stainless steel bowl) and place over just simmering water and let sit about 5 minutes, then stir until chocolate is melted and you have a nice smooth dipping chocolate.
-Scrape the melted chocolate mixture into a deep container (one that is narrow and deep enough to dip the "hats" in). Dip your cupcakes in one at a time, allow excess to drip off and place the cupcakes on a rack over a sheet of parchment to catch the extra drips.
Here is the forest of Hi-hats:

-Put in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to set up. I believe these also can be stored in the fridge for a day or so. G will be taking them to work tomorrow morning, and I'm sure I'll hear how they survived the night in the cooler.

Happy Baking!

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Daring Bakers.....Yep, that's right, I said Daring Bakers....

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:40:00 +0000

Normally I'm not a big fan of gangs. I don't condone drive-by shootings or hazing or any of that sort of thing. However, every time I watched this "Gang" in action, I knew I had to get in on some of that. Any gang that thinks slinging hot sugar and beating butter and sugar into submission is my kind of gang. So, my "hazing" begins with this, my first challenge as a Daring Baker. Being a member of this gang means being able to challenge yourself once a month with a recipe chosen by a fellow Daring Baker. Everyone has to follow the same recipe as stated by the host. The nifty thing is seeing how each of us interprets the exact same recipe and how everyone ends up with something just a bit different from everyone else. It is definitely a great way to keep pushing one's skills and knowledge, something I'm very keen on. This month's challenge is being hosted by Veron of Veronica's Test Kitchen and Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen. They have chosen to challenge us with a Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart. Now, I'm not the biggest milk chocolate fan, but paired with caramel and a hazelnut crust, really, how can you go wrong? You can't! We were allowed a few changes to the recipe, the only change that I made was to use less cinnamon in the tart crust (I used half the amount stated in the recipe), otherwise I followed it to a T.

Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart from Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Baking Time: 30 minutes
Refrigeration time: 1 hour
One 9-inch(24-cm) square pan; 1 10-inch (26-cm) round baking pan

Ingredients
½ lb (250 g) chocolate shortbread pastry (see recipe below)
1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (250 g) heavy cream (30-40 percent butterfat) or crème fraiche
¼ cup (50 g) butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 ½ tablespoons (15 g) flour
1 ¼ cups (300 g) whipping cream
½ lb (250 g) milk chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 325 °F (160 °C).
2. Line the baking pan with the chocolate shortbread pastry and bake blind for 15 minutes.

My tart dough was nicely chilled for rolling:

The dough rolled out quite well for me:I did have a few areas of the tart that I had to patch up (the dough got a bit warm before I was able to transfer it): The shell is lined with parchment and filled with beans for blind baking: The baked tart shell:

3. In a saucepan, caramelize 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar using the dry method until it turns a golden caramel color. Incorporate the heavy cream or crème fraiche and then add butter. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
Dry method caramel: Put your sugar in a pan:
do not stir it, just swirl the pan as the sugar begins to melt and you will end up with this: I did nuke my heavy cream a bit before adding it to the caramel, because cold cream and caramel just don't mix well (seizing occurs). Even with the cream already heated, it did seize up a bit on me, maybe that was the butter's fault, but I just let it boil a bit as I stirred:
And I ended up with a beautiful deep amber caramel:

4. In a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs with the extra egg yolk, then incorporate the flour.
5. Pour this into the cream-caramel mixture and mix thoroughly.

6. Spread it out in the tart shell and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Caramel layer before baking:
And after baking (at this point I put the tart into the fridge to cool off for about an hour)
7. Prepare the milk chocolate mousse: beat the whipping cream until stiff. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie, and fold it gently into the whipped cream.
8. Pour the chocolate mousse over the cooled caramel mixture, smoothing it with a spatula. Chill for one hour in the refrigerator.
My mousse was a bit on the liquidy side, but it did set up nicely after about two hours in the refrigerator:
The tart sliced nicely after being chilled:
To decorate: melt ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar in a saucepan until it reaches an amber color. Pour it onto waxed paper laid out on a flat surface. Leave to cool. Break it into small fragments and stick them lightly into the top of the tart.
Chocolate Shortbread Pastry

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Refrigeration :overnight
To make 3 tarts, 9 ½ inches (24 cm) square
or 10 inches (26 cm round)

Ingredients:
1 cup (250g ) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (150 g) confectioners’ sugar
½ cup (50 g) ground hazelnuts
2 level teaspoons (5 g) ground cinnamon
2 eggs
4 ½ cups (400 g) cake flour
2 ½ teaspoons (10 g) baking powder
1 ½ tablespoons (10 g) cocoa powder

A day ahead
1. In a mixing bowl of a food processor, cream the butter.
2. Add the confectioners’ sugar, the ground hazelnuts, and the cinnamon, and mix together
3. Add the eggs, one by one, mixing constantly
4. Sift in the flour, the baking powder, and the cocoa powder, and mix well.
5. Form a ball with the dough, cover in plastic wrap, and chill overnight.
This is how my tart dough looked before I put it in the refrigerator overnight:

All in all the tart was pretty good. I think the crust could have been more chocolatey. The caramel filling was nice, but I thought it tasted a bit eggy. Otherwise, I think this was a wonderful first challenge for me and I look forward to many more fabulous Daring Baker Challenges.

If you want to check out how the other Daring Bakers fared, and believe me, you do, check out the Daring Baker Blogroll. You'll see many many talented bakers with beautiful blogs!

Happy Daring Baking!

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Happy Birthday, Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:20:00 +0000

Today my little baking blog is 1 year old! Break out the party hats and noisemakers and start celebrating! I can't believe it's been a year already. What have I learned in my year of blogging? I've learned that in the world of blogging exist many kind, supportive and incredibly talented individuals. I've learned that my love of photographing food things is not going to fade away. I've learned that I do indeed love encouraging people to try scratch baking in all of it's wonderful forms. I am beginning to learn to be a little less shy (I am terribly shy, I have trouble leaving comments on blogs sometimes, because I'm just that shy). I've learned many other things (a little html, etc...) that I won't bore you with. Instead, as it's my blog's birthday, why don't you check out my first awkward day of posting here(you just need to scroll down to the bottom of the page for my first two posts from August 22). After you check that out, why don't you enjoy a nice piece of cake, put on your silly hat and help my blog blow out it's birthday candle (my blog doesn't have great lungs)! I have loads of apples so today I give you:

Apple Upside Down Chiffon Cake (adapted from Baking with Julia: Sift, Knead, Flute, Flour, And Savor... written by Dorie Greenspan):

The Topping:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
3-4 apples, peeled and cut into 8 pieces each (I'm actually not sure what kind of apple I have for these...they were given to us by G's friends who grow their own. This recipe originally calls for nectarines which would be awesome in this as well)
__________________________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f.
-Wrap the bottom of a springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent any dripping.
-Cut the butter into chunks and put them into a 10" springform pan (3"high) and place over medium low heat to melt the butter. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter and pat it down. Arrange the apples over the sugar in a decorative way (however you like).
-Set aside.

The Streusel:

1/4 cup hazelnuts, peels removed (the recipe calls for almonds, but I have hazelnuts onhand, so that's what I'm using)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 stick cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup quick cooking (not instant) oats
__________________________________________
-Toast your hazelnuts in the oven on a sheet pan for about 8 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown and fragrant. Remove from oven and cool before proceeding.
-Line the sheet pan with parchment.
-Put all of the ingredients for the streusel into the bowl of a food processor and pulse just to mix the ingredients and chop the hazelnuts and butter. Should be rough and crumbly.
-Spread the streusel out onto the pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown. It will smell heavenly. Allow to cool while you prepare the cake.

The Chiffon Cake:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt, kosher if you have it
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup vegetable or safflower oil (I'm using vegetable)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large egg whites
______________________
-Sift together 1 cup sugar, the flour, baking powder and baking soda onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper, add the salt.
-In a large bowl, whisk together the yolks, oil and lemon juice until blended. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the yolk mixture, whisking. Set aside.
-Beat the 6 egg whites in a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment(or do it by hand if you are feeling strong-of-wrist). Starting at low speed, beat the whites until they are foamy and form very soft peaks. Increase your speed to medium-high and slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until the whites are thick and shiny and hold peaks. Fold about 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it (this is called "sacrificing"), then turn the yolk mixture into the egg whites and fold gently until thoroughly blended.
-Scrape half of the batter into the fruit-lined pan, smooth the top with an offset spatula, and sprinkle the streusel over the top (reserve a little bit to decorate the baked cake). Top with the remaining batter and smooth. Place the pan on a sheet pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, mine actually took a good hour and 10 minutes to bake, the top(bottom) started to get to dark, so I had to tent some aluminum foil over to keep it from getting darker). Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool at least 25 minutes before inverting onto your serving platter.
-Enjoy warm and naked (the dessert, not you...well, if you want to be warm and naked, who am I to question it?), or dress it up with some ice cream or whipped cream.

This cake is good. I mean, wow, it's got a yum factor of 11 out of 10. The hazelnut streusel combined with the moist lucious brown sugar coated apples is out of this world. My blog could not have asked for a better birthday cake!

Happy Baking!

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Sourdough Bread At Last

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 21:35:00 +0000

So this is the last day of the sourdough bread saga (for now, until I do some other flavors and such). I took the little loaves out of the refrigerator at 10:30am. It is now 2:40pm and the loaves just went into the oven at 500f with some "steam"(I have a really old pan that I sit in the bottom of my oven-it's electric-and let it heat with the oven and the baking stone, when the bread has gone in I dump some already boiling water into the hot pan in the bottom of the oven and then shut the door quickly. I check after 10 minutes and then remove the pan if necessary and turn the oven down at this point). Here's exactly what I did:

Sourdough finale:
-Pull your loaves out of the refrigerator 4 hours before you are going to bake them. Leave them bagged or wrapped in plastic wrap and let them just sit out. If it's very hot where you are this may take a bit less than 4 hours.
-About half hour before you want to bake your loaves, heat your oven with the baking stone (if you have one, if not, turn your loaves out onto a sheet pan sprinkled with cornmeal or polenta) to 500f, or as hot as it will go. If you are going to use a pan for steam, heat this in the oven at this time as well. Get some water simmering.
-Once everything is in place, gently turn your loaves out of their baskets (if you free-formed them, you can bake them right on that sheet pan) onto a peel or other surface coated with coarse ground cornmeal or polenta (this aids in sliding the bread off the surface and onto the baking stone). Slash your loaves however you like (I just did one long slash diagonally down the center), slide them into the oven, pour your hot water into your pan and shut the door to allow the oven to steam up (do this all with caution, if this scares you or you think your oven won't like it, then just maybe use a spray bottle to get a bit of steam going). Leave the door shut for 10 minutes. Turn your oven down to 425f and check the loaves again in 15 minutes, they may need to be rotated. I keep the loaves baking for a total of 45 minutes, with rotating and checking on them about every 15 minutes. When they are a lovely deep brown (I like my breads a deep golden) and they feel light for their size, remove them from the oven and cool to room temperature.I was very pleased with the crust and the crumb of this bread. The crust was chewy and crunchy and the crumb opened up nicely with irregular holes. The flavor of this was actually very light. There are only very faint sour undertones to the bread and it is delicious. I am sure with a little more time Dudley will develop a bit more flavor as he is fed and ages. Yum!
Happy baking!

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Sourdough Bread: Part 2 (Spawn of Dudley Grows Up)

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 02:00:00 +0000

(snug as a bug in a rug, cute little Dudley spawns) This bread does indeed take 3 days to make(actually it can be done in two, but the second day is a long one), but it is well worth it. Yesterday I made Dudley (the starter) into a firm starter aka Spawn of Dudley (which is just a less hydrated form of the starter). That firm starter rose at room temperature until it was doubled in size (about 4 hours) and then it went into the refrigerator overnight to slow down the yeast and develop flavor (slower fermentation aids in flavor development). That was day one. Today, the firm starter will join up with a bit more flour, water and salt and it will be one step closer to being bread. This is the recipe for Basic Sourdough Bread adapted from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. You will need:

Basic Sourdough Bread (makes two 1 1/2 pound loaves):

firm starter, removed from the refrigerator one hour before you want to mix up the dough, and cut up into 8-10 pieces, covered with plastic wrap (this will help remove the chill from the starter)
1 pound 4 1/4 ounces (4 1/2 cups) unbleached bread flour or high-gluten flour
1/2 ounce (2 tsp) salt
12 to 14 ounces water (the book calls for lukewarm, but I tend to use room temperature or even a little cooler)
_________________________
-Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bow, add the starter and enough water to bring everything together as you mix it (you can use a spoon, your hands, or a mixer with a dough hook on low speed).

-Turn the dough out onto a work surface sprinkled with flour and knead by hand for 12 -15 minutes, adjusting the water and flour as you go.
It will look like this right out of the bowl:
At about 5 minutes into kneading your dough should look about like this:
And after 15 minutes of kneading it will look like this:

You want a somewhat firm and tacky dough. You'll feel it change as you are kneading it, it will become more elastic as the gluten develops and smoother as the flour becomes more hydrated. Alternately you use the mixer with a dough hook and mix for 4 minutes on medium speed, allow the dough to rest for 8-10 minutes and then mix for another 4 minutes). Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled large bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment like that for 3 to 4 hours or until nearly doubled in size:
First in the bowl at 2:55pm (Pacific):The growth of the spawn at about 6:55pm:
-Gently turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it into two pieces (about 22 ounces each).
Shape the dough as you would like. I'm using oval shaped bannetons (which are proofing baskets...you can get expensive ones or you can go to goodwill and get some baskets. Either will work, you just have to line them with cloth-I'm using "flour sack towels" and then dust generously with flour) so I'm shaping my dough into stumpy batards that will fit into the bannetons.Be careful while you shape so as not to knock out too much of the gas that has formed in the dough. You want to degas as little as possible so your sourdough will have lovely fairly open crumb. Also note, that if you are using bannetons or baskets to place the bread in seam side up, make sure your seams are fairly secure. Mmmmm, I can't wait until this is baked tomorrow. You can also do free form loaves, just make sure the sheet pan you are going to have them rise on is dusted with cornmeal or semolina flour. When your loaves are comfortably nestled in their rising apparatus, mist the tops with some pan spray or oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap, or I'll be placing mine in this handy dandy huge 10 gallon zip lock bag (I'm not sure where he got them from, but G found them for me for bread and they rock).
-At this point, you can do one of two things. You can proof your loaves for 2 to 3 hours to bake the same day, or you can retard them in the refrigerator overnight for more flavor development. I prefer to retard them overnight, so into the fridge go the spawn of Dudley, and we will continue with this tomorrow! The first step tomorrow will be to remove the loaves from the refrigerator about 4 hours before you plan on baking them. Fingers crossed that the spawn of Dudley does well and makes some nice loaves...

Happy kneading!
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Spawn of Dudley! (or beginning a sourdough bread from the starter...)

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 01:58:00 +0000

So, I'm thinking Dudley is mature enough to reproduce. I'm hoping he's got enough character developed, but if not yet, well, then next batch should be better. I'll be using Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread to guide me along the way. So, what you want to do is, before you feed your starter, take out 4 ounces (about 2/3 cup) and set it aside. Then weigh out 8 ounces of your starter and feed it as usual. You will also need: 4 1/2 ounces of unbleached bread flour (or high gluten flour if you have it) and 1 to 2 ounces of water (1/8 to 1/4 cup).

(4 ounces of Dudley, 4 1/2 ounces bread flour, 1 to 2 ounces h2o)
This is for the "Firm Starter" which is just a fancy way of saying a less hydrated bit of starter. You want to mix these ingredients together to form a ball. You only need knead (I've been waiting to use that) this for a little bit until the flour is uniformly hydrated and there are no discernable lumps.
You will then put your spawn of -insert the name of your starter here- in a container that allows it to at least double in size (spray the container with some pan spray), cover the container and allow it to sit out for 4 hours at room temperature (or until it doubles in size..it may take longer or shorter than 4 hours).
After which you will put it in the refrigerator overnight. I'll post photos of the Spawn of Dudley in about 4 hours before he goes into the fridge.

(when we last saw Spawn of Dudley, he was looking like this:)

(and now a bit shy of four hours later, he looks like this:)
(that is his proud papa "Dudley" behind him. Dudley tends to triple in size or more now when I feed him).

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two of the Sourdough Bread!

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Perfectly Pale Green Pistachio Pound Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:15:00 +0000

I've been waiting for an excuse to make this wonderful cake. I've had some pistachios left over from a previous baking adventure and had decided that they would be perfect in a pound cake. I've made this particular cake before plain and have used pecans in it as well (I love it with pecans, yum) and decided that it was time to try it out with pistachios. I was hoping they would lend great taste as well as a nifty color to the pound cake. Traditionally pound cake recipes are just that, a pound of butter, a pound of eggs, a pound of flour and a pound of sugar. I've never tried that particular recipe, I think I shall someday soon. Anyway, my excuse to make this comes in the form of getting to meet some of my husband's friends this weekend. They will be joining us for some tea and conversation this Saturday and I will be making a few nice things for us to nosh on. This is one of them:

Pistachio Pound Cake: Makes one 9" cake round or two 7x3" bread pans or one bundt pan (method is important in the making of this pound cake, as there is no chemical leavener used. The creaming of the butter, and beating in of the eggs will help to give the cake rise)

8 ounces (one cup or two sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
12 ounces sugar
optional: one drop of green food coloring (usually I hate to add food coloring to baked things, but I admit that I cheated and added a drop to this)
5 eggs at room temperature
6 ounces all-purpose flour, sifted with the pinch of salt
pinch of salt
1 cup finely ground pistachios (I toast the pistachios at 350f for about 10 minutes and then let them cool before grinding them)
1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste (or you can use the same amount of vanilla extract)
1 cup whole pistachios
_________________________
-Preheat the oven to 325f. Prepare your baking pan of choice with butter and flour.
-Cream together the butter and sugar (and the drop of food coloring if you are using it) until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes.
-Add the first four eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition, reserve the fifth egg. Add the vanilla and blend in.
- Add the flour and salt mixture and the ground pistachios and mix on low speed until the flour has just started to disappear.
-Add the fifth egg and mix to incorporate.
-Fold in the whole pistachios.
-Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when pressed with a finger.
-Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert and finish cooling on a rack. Serve alone or with whipped cream or a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

This cake does freeze fairly well. Just wrap it up snug in some saran wrap and freeze it for no more than 2 weeks(you could freeze it longer,but the quality will diminish as it does for most baked goods that are frozen).

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Sourdough Starter: Quick Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:23:00 +0000

Dudley the starter is doing well, his feeding will progress today as it has the past few days. Same amounts of flour and bottled water, same discarding half before I stir in the refreshment. The smell of the starter is a nice light sour and the action is quite lively. I'll be feeding him one or two more days, and then I hope to be starting to bake with the starter either mid week or on the weekend. I'll post my sourdough bread baking once I begin...otherwise, feedings will be the same every day!

Bread Baking Day #2 Roundup

noreply@blogger.com (Jen the Bread Freak) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:55:00 +0000

Becke of Columbus Foodie has posted the fabulous roundup for Bread Baking Day #2: Bread with Fruit. So give her a visit and check out all the mouthwatering interpretations of the theme! You'll find quite a few breads there that will make you run to your kitchen and start mixing. Bread Baking Day #3 has been announced and will be hosted by Ulrike of Kuchenlatien. She has chosen "Bread with Sourdough (preferably rye started..ah well, mine is a wheat starter, but I'll work in some rye)". Should be another great event, join in the fun!