Daring Bakers February: Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

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

Well, it has finally happened. Something I never expected. Something I didn't even think possible. Something I would have never imagined as a possibility.

I found a dessert I don't like.

Not just, "oh, this could use X" or "Next time I'll do Y." No, it was a, "what did I just put into my mouth??" moment. I actually warned my first taster that I thought it went horribly wrong.... and was told it was perfect, exactly what it should taste like. Apparently, Panna Cotta is not my thing. Luckily, plenty of other people around thought it was wonderful and amazing, if rather rich, and it was all eaten. Just thinking about it again kinda makes my stomach turn.

HOWEVER, it is apparently a great recipe... if you go for that kind of thing! I've got an experimental non-dairy chocolate version in the fridge... it tastes delicious, so we'll see if it solidifies nicely! At the least it would be good frozen.

Traditional Panna Cotta - Recipe from Giada de Laurentis


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

Directions:
1. Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
2. Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
3. Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
5. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.
The second recipe from this month was a cookie that reminds me of a Lacey - lots of butter, not many 'solid' ingredients. They were super quick and easy!

Nestle Florentine Cookies

Ingredients:
2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5.3 oz) unsalted butter
2 cups (480 ml) (160 gm) (5 2/3 oz) quick oats
1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) (8 oz) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (160 ml) (95 gm) (3⅓ oz) plain (all purpose) flour
1/4 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup
1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1½ cups (360 ml) (250 gm) (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate

Directions:
- Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F (190°C) (gas mark 5). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat.
- To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.
- Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.
I skipped the extra chocolate part [- While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).]
- Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).
I skipped the extra chocolate part [- Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate.]

My big return... I hope!

Well, I realized something. Or re-realized it, more accurately. One of my housemates, who moved out this semester to work in another city, emailed me asking for menus from our building so that he can make himself some good food. All of the house recipes are meant for 60-90 people (depending on whether it was lunch or dinner.) Clearly, that's not quite what you would make at home. So what should I be doing? Typing up the family-sized versions and putting it here! Obviously not of everything. That would take WAAAY too much time. But still, it double-dips with what I'm already doing and adds new stuff to share. And that makes me happy.

My first part of this is to point out some great resources you can use as-is. Or as-are. Whatever. Here we have King Ranch Casserole and Mexican Rice. A nice Tex-Mex dinner, when I added a side. And where did these fabulous recipes we use come from? One source, actually: Homesick Texan. I've also gotten a Kolache recipe and a great Flour Tortilla recipe from her.

Not being from Texas, or anywhere south, a lot of 'favorite' foods here are completely new to me. Collards? What, people actually eat those?? Turns out they're good! King Ranch Casserole was one that people enjoy that I had never heard of at all. So I went searching for a good recipe, preferring blogs as always. I came across a good recipe for King Ranch Casserole by Lisa. Warning: *not* the healthiest thing you'll eat. Another day, I wanted our great cooks to make tortillas because they're SOOO much better fresh. And she had it again: fresh flour tortillas. I found a few Mexican Rice recipes, but they all seemed... off. Where did I find the right one? Yep, from the Homesick Texan, good Mexican Rice.

Now, whenever I'm looking for a Texas favorite, I go to her first and it tends to work pretty well! It's true that I usually need to adjust a few things when multiplying a recipe by 10 or 12, but having a good place to start is great.

December Daring Bakers: Christmas Stollen

ok, sorry, I'm a day late here. I am visiting family and enjoying being done with my master's! Maybe I'm not sorry at all. Ok, nope, not sorry.

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

I had never heard of this before, but plenty of other daring bakers were excited about it. Apparently, it's traditionally made in the shape of a baby jesus in swaddling clothes. Anyone else a little grossed out by that one? K, just checking! I am in the middle of a card game, so just the pictures for now:


Enjoy!

Daring Baker's Challenge November: Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

When I saw this month's challenge, I was excited. A crostata is an Italian tart. I like tarts. I do tarts a lot. Well, when I can. And a new kind of tart sounded fun. It also sounded not-too-difficult which is great as I am desperately trying to finish everything I need for my degree by the deadline next Friday!

One of the directions of the challenge was to get creative with the tart filling. I love chocolate tarts, but that seemed just too easy. I automatically thought of the amazing black forest cake that someone made for my birthday and immediately decided that cherries would be the best way to liven up the chocolate tart.

So, tart cherries and chocolate were picked. But then what? Pastry cream or ganache? I got a little bit realistic here and realized a simple ganache would be much quicker. To make the chocolate flavor more intense, I called in my favorite secret ingredient: coffee. It would work great without the coffee, I'm sure, it just makes the chocolate more intense. Just a little in the cream really made a difference. I think it turned out great and my 3 taste-testers seem to agree.



It's not perfect, though, and the one glitch was completely avoidable. The crust recipe said to bake it for 20 minutes (with weights), then 5 without. Well, after that 25 minutes it looked a little soft and not very browned. And I left it in for about 10 more. Next time I'll take it out at 25; it tastes great, but it is just much too hard. I guess I should have realized that the different kind of crust is *similar* to what I usually make, but the person who wrote the recipe knew what she was doing.




The recipe for the crust is first, followed by my recipe for the filling. One thing to note is that I made this in a 10-inch springform pan and had a tiny bit of ganache left over - little enough that I could have added it on (instead of saving it to eat plain!) In a 9-inch tart pan, or in a pie pan, you may have more than you need.

Pasta Frolla (Crostata dough) recipe, straight from Simone:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. minus 1 tablespoon [105 ml, 100 g, 3 ½ oz] superfine sugar or a scant 3/4 cup [180ml, 90g, 3 oz] of powdered sugar
• 1 and 3/4 cup [420 ml, 235 g, 8 1/4 oz.] unbleached all-purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 stick [8 tablespoons / 4 oz. / 115 g] cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• grated zest of half a lemon
• 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl

Making pasta frolla by hand:

1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.
3. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).
4. Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
6. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
7. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.
8. [Added by Beki, based on Simone's directions] To blind-bake the shell (bake it empty), preheat oven to 350.
   
9. Roll out 1/8th-1/4th inch thick on a piece of plastic wrap. Carefully move to the pan, plastic wrap side up, press into edges, and remove plastic wrap.
10. Poke with a fork in several places and place a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper over the bottom of the crust. If you have dry beans or pie weights, put them on top (I didn't use any, it was fine. Just poke it with a fork a lot so it doesn't bubble up.)
11. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove weights and foil/parchment. Bake 5 more minutes and remove. Let cool completely.
    

Making pasta frolla with a food processor:

1. Put sugar, flour, salt, and lemon zest in the food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
2. Add butter and pulse a few times, until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal.
3. Empty food processor's bowl onto your work surface
4. See step 3 above and continue as explained in the following steps (minus the lemon zest, which you have already added).

Cherry Chocolate filling

Ingredients:
1 can tart cherries in water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
8 oz chopped chocolate (I used good-quality chocolate chips that are 63% cacao)
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsps ground coffee (if you don't want to strain it (see step 4) you can use instant, but it may not be as good)

1. Drain cherries in a colander (I recommend over a dish, the juices are very tasty!)
2. Put chocolate into a small mixing bowl. Line a mesh sieve with 4 layers of cheesecloth and place over bowl of chocolate.
3. Heat heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium, stirring occasionally, until it boils.
4. When cream boils, add ground coffee. Cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Pour through sieve into chocolate to remove all the grounds.
5. Stir chocolate and cream until chocolate melts and is completely incorporated.
6. Toss cherries with the sugar (in the colander works fine.) Spread cherries out in cooled tart shell.
7. Spread ganache over sugared cherries, encouraging it down between them. Allow to set at room temperature or refrigerate for 20-30 minutes and remove from fridge. You can store it at room temperature. If you refrigerate it, let it come to room temperature for (preferably) 2 hours before serving.

Daring Baker's Challenge - Pumpkin donuts!

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

We had a choice of donut kinds: pumpkin, bamboloni (which is what they call them in Tunisia, I guess it's from Italy), or raised. Apparently the raised ones bake pretty well, so I was gonna do them if I had time. Then I realized that I don't have time.

I did force myself to take a break, though, to make one kind. And pumpkin it was! I thought it sounded delicious. I prefer cake donuts for the most part, and of course these were. I was surprised at how easy they were to make. The prep didn't take too long, but frying them up definitely did. I was happy to have a reason to use the candy thermometer that my mom sent me :) Mine didn't hang around long enough to get glazed, but there is glaze in the recipe below.

And now for the beautiful pictures. Of the whole process for once. Rolled out dough, half-cut out, in the oil. Draining on paper towels. Broken open on a pile of whole ones to see the gorgeous inside and out. And then stacked up on a plate before everyone came by and gobbled them down. So lovely and wonderful. Taken on my friend's good camera, because mine is quite crappy and I still haven't replaced it. My friend who, for once, decided to delete a bunch of his pictures.... and accidentally got rid of mine at the same time. Heart broken. You have no idea.

There is one minor redeeming fact. A girl here is taking a picture of every thing she eats for a year. And happened to get one of the pumpkin donut holes. Here it is. The sole lonely surviving picture.


Pumpkin Doughnuts:

Preparation time:
Hands on pre-chill prep time - 15 minutes
Chilling time - 3 hours
After-chilling prep time - 15 minutes
Cooking time - 30+ minutes (Depends on the size of your pan)

Yield: About 24 doughnuts & 24 doughnut holes

Ingredients
All Purpose Flour 3.5 cup / 840 ml / 490 gm / 17 ¼ oz
Baking Powder 4 teaspoon / 20 ml / 24 gm / .85 oz
Table Salt 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz
Cinnamon, ground 1 teaspoon / 5 ml / 6 gm / .2 oz
Ginger, ground ½ teaspoon / 2.5 ml / 3 gm / .1 oz
Baking Soda ½ teaspoon / 2.5 ml / 3 gm / .1 oz
Nutmeg, ground ¼ teaspoon / 1.25 ml / 1.5 gm / .05 oz
Cloves, ground 1/8 teaspoon / .6 ml / ¾ gm / .025 oz
White Granulated Sugar 1 cup / 240 ml / 225 gm / 8 oz
Butter, Unsalted 3 Tablespoon / 45 ml / 42 gm / 1.5 oz
Egg, Large 1
Egg Yolk, Large 2
Pure Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon / 5 ml
Buttermilk ½ cup + 1 Tablespoon / 135 ml /
Pumpkin 1 cup / 240 ml / 285 gm / 10 oz (Canned pure pumpkin or fresh cooked and pureed pumpkin – DON’T use pumpkin pie mix!)
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Powdered Sugar Glaze:
Powdered (Icing) Sugar 2 cup / 480 ml / 250 gm / 9 oz
Whipping Cream (About 32% butter fat) 4 Tablespoon + more if needed / 60 ml

Directions:

1. Whisk together the first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (the mixture will be grainy and not smooth). Beat in egg, then yolks and vanilla. Gradually beat in buttermilk; beat in pumpkin. Using rubber spatula, fold in dry ingredients in 4 additions, blending gently after each addition. Cover with plastic; chill 3 hours.
2. Sprinkle 2 rimmed baking sheets lightly with flour. Press out 1/3 of dough on floured surface to 1/2- to 2/3-inch (12 mm to 15 mm) thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) -diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds. Arrange on sheets. Repeat with remaining dough in 2 more batches. Gather dough scraps. Press out dough and cut out more dough rounds until all dough is used.
3. Using 1-inch (25 mm) diameter round cutter, cut out center of each dough round to make doughnuts and doughnut holes.
4. Line 2 baking sheets with several layers of paper towels. Pour oil into large deep skillet to depth of 1 1/2 inches (40 mm). Attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 365°F to 370°F (185°C to 188°C). Fry doughnut holes in 2 batches until golden brown, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry doughnuts, 3 or 4 at a time, until golden brown, adjusting heat to maintain temperature, about 1 minute per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to paper towels to drain. Cool completely.

Glaze Directions:

1. Whisk powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons whipping cream to blend. Whisk in additional cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, to form medium thick glaze.
2. Can be made up to 3 hours ahead.
3. Add doughnut holes to bowl of spiced sugar and toss to coat.
4. Spread doughnuts on 1 side with powdered sugar glaze.
5. Arrange doughnuts, glazed side up, on racks. Let stand until glaze sets, at least 30 minutes.

Daring Bakers September: Decorated Sugar Cookies

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

While most people will think of sugar cookies as no kind of challenge, my sisters will laugh and tell you what disasters I've done with them in the past. I don't know why they were so difficult! The worst attempt is when I was going for purple and green (forget why - maybe spring?) and ended up with this grayish purple and green substance the consistency of toothpaste. Yuck. Luckily, this recipe was quite straight-forward and a few self-proclaimed sugar cookie haters enjoyed it.

The cookies were to be decorated with royal icing in ways that remind you of fall. I had never made it before, but the recipe is really simple. I mixed it up, went to get the food coloring, and -- the food coloring, where did it go??? I still don't know. So it became an EXTRA challenge: decorate cookies creatively all in white. I enlisted a few friends. Working at the table in the dining room, I found out that many people wanted to help! After I finish my finals, I think it would be a fun finals-break activity (yes, that's 10 weeks away.) You can find the full directions here.

Below is my favorite that I decorated, but there are plenty more! I thought I had taken pictures of every single one, but they're not all here!!!!!! :( I'm heart broken. I've been doodling this star on the sides of my class notes since high school. Fall = more classes = more notes = more stars.

This one is cookie monster. Someone said "we should do one that's cookie monster" T, from Vietnam, says, "Ok, I'll do it!" So I ask him, "T, do you know what cookie monster looks like?" And his response was something like "oh, it's a thing?" so he got someone with a laptop in the room to look it up for him. This was the result. I added the cookie crumbs on his face.

This is a running dog (tilt your head right). Courtesy of B, in picture below.

K, from Korea, made this one. I like it!

Made by K who ended up decorating more than anyone else! It's the name of where we live.

The portrait of B (on the cookie, B is on the left), made by R (holding the cookie.)

K's family, labeled and all.

And S's city. Even boys got in on the fun :)

Saturday Splurge idea

Tonight at the house we made Take 5 candy bars. If you've never tried them, you probably shouldn't. They are horribly addictive, I'm sure. People were excited at the thought of making a good candy bar. We talked about other things, too, and one of the topics was marshmallows. If I ever sell baked goods, one of the things will be homemade s'mores. Homemade graham crackers, high quality chocolate (fair trade would be a nice touch!) and marshmallows. I love Cooking for Engineers, and he has good info on marshmallows with a nice recipe, too. Before I open a bakery, I'll have to find a good corn syrup source that doesn't add the high-fructose variety. A vegetarian (ie no gelatin) version could be worth a search, too.

Recipe suggestion: Soy-Sesame Zucchini

I may not have tons of time to tell you all about what I've been making myself, but here is something I found that will appear on my building's menu next week. The whole blog looks pretty cool, and includes nice pictures, but I really should get back to writing... ick.

Soy-Sesame Marinated Zucchini (original found here)
4-6 servings

4 medium zucchinis (about 1 1/2 lbs), halved lengthwise and chopped to 1/2-inch thick half-moons
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Combine all ingredients and toss to coat evenly. Cover and chill for 3 hours or up to overnight, turning once or twice to evenly distribute the marinade.

Nutrition information (based on 4 servings): Cal - 58 Fat - 1.5g Protein - 3.2g Carbs - 7.4g

Daring Bakers' August Challenge - Ice Cream Petit Fours

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

(Written while cake is baking:) First, I would like to rave about beurre noisette. Browned butter. Whatever you want to call it. I wasn't sure how this would work, and was a little cautious making it. But ohhhhh my. Noisette means hazelnut in French, and it's called that because the butter turns brown and gets a delicious nutty flavor. Like a kind of unbelievable one. And oh-so-awesome. Just the batter for the cake is wonderful, I can't wait to see how it is cooked! And with the ice cream I picked... excited!

Which ice cream, then? The amazing delicious lemon ginger one that I used last month! It was so tasty, but I only got one spoonful of it and I didn't find the time to make it again. I was so excited when I realized I could do it for this month's challenge. I *do* have the recipe for you this time, unlike last month when I totally lied and never posted it. (Sorry.) I decided to try to be a little healthier and used half and half instead of heavy cream. I'll let you know if that turns out to be an ok thing.
Ok, it has all been made (and eaten!) now. The icecream was still really good, but I think that if you decrease the fat like that you *really* need to make it in an icecream maker. It was more icey than creamy. Which made it hard to bite with the cake. The cake itself was really good, as expected. I will definitely make it again! I decided for the ganache to use a cooking light recipe that I have made before to go on a (peanut butter chocolate) cake, which was delicious. Unfortunately, it was a little thick, so while it's still pretty, it's not quite as pretty as I wanted. I'll quit talking now and let you see the prettiness:


The Ginger Lemon Ice Cream recipe is one I tinkered with, while the others are straight from their original sources. Enjoy!

Ginger Lemon Ice Cream
Yields about 1 quart

2/3 cup thinly sliced fresh ginger
2 cups heavy cream (or half & half, if you like)
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
Zest of 2 Lemons
5 large egg yolks

INSTRUCTIONS
Cut the ginger into thin slices. In a saucepan, place the ginger slices and add just enough water to cover. Bring the water to boil and blanch the ginger for two minutes. Drain. Save the ginger and discard the liquid. (This is important! Ginger has the lemon-like ability to curdle milk if not blanched.)

In a separate bowl, combine the finely grated lemon zest, sugar and milk. If you have a clean processor, throw the sugar and lemon zest into it. Mix with milk thoroughly until the sugar dissolves.

Place the reserved ginger back into the saucepan. Add the milk mixture, half a cup of cream and salt. Warm the mixture. Once warm, remove from the heat. Cover and steep for at least an hour or up to a whole day. I did overnight.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks.

Rewarm the ginger mixture. Remove the ginger slices with a slotted spoon. Dispose of the ginger. Slowly pour the warmed mixture in the egg yolks and continue to whisk.

Once combined, return the egg-ginger mixture to the saucepan. Over medium heat, stir the mixture constantly with a wooden spoon until it thickens and coats the spoon. Strain the mixture into a bowl and combine with the remaining cream.

Immediately chill the mixture in the freezer. Once thoroughly cooled, freeze it in your ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Get the other recipes by clicking below.

Making it official

Hi everyone. I have been telling myself this was unnecessary, but seeing how things are going and knowing it's still summer, I must admit it aloud. I am pausing my blog for the most part until I have more time. My thesis is due December 3, so I'm hoping to get back to normal after that. We'll see. I may post from time to time, but it won't be the 2-3 times a week that I was aiming for.

I will definitely continue with the Daring Bakers' challenge, do not worry! That means you'll at least get a splurge every month on the 27th. And if I carry a camera around more often, I should get more pictures of food that I have made for the house. We'll just have to see how it goes.

'See' you later!