I totally fell behind on my Daring challenges while trying to get my blog transferred over. So I couldn’t miss this months, and fortunately it was a pretty fun one. Here’s what our hosts had to say about the challenge:
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
Yipes! Is it really the end of April? How did that happen? I realized it was getting late in the month and last night checked the Daring Baker forum to see when our challenge was due. It’s today! This is the latest I’ve ever made the challenge, but fortunately it’s a relatively simple one. You can find the original recipe here. Because I was in a hurry, and because Eric doesn’t really like many cheesecakes, I decided to make about 1/3 of the recipe and use cupcake and mini cupcake pans instead of a pie pan.
My sister Sharon loves to make mini chocolate and orange cheesecakes whenever she has a party, and Eric said that’s the one cheesecake he likes, so I decided to do something along those lines using crushed up Oreos for the crust and orange juice and zest in the filling. Also, just for fun, I took out a little bit of the filling before adding orange to it and added a pinch of espresso and a sprinkling of ginger powder and nutmeg, then used crushed up gingersnaps for the crust. My recipe below is just for the chocolate and orange. If you want to try the gingerbread latte version use 8 Oreos in your crust recipe and 2 TBS butter. 5 crushed gingersnap cookies and 1 TBS butter made 3 large cupcake sized cheesecake crusts. Confused yet?
For the water bath I would suggest pulling your oven rack out and placing the pans on it before filling with water. I had a hard time with sloshing boiling water around, it was a little scary and fortunately I didn’t get burned, but one of my mini cheesecakes got a little bath! These were pretty simple to make and I love that they’re little individual bites since I don’t eat a lot of dessert. I would definitely make these again and I also think that the cheesecake recipe is a great base to play around with.
Mini Orange and Chocolate Cheesecakes
makes 6 large and 12 mini cupcakes
Ingredients
crust:
12 Oreo cookies
3 TBS melted butter
cheesecake:
1 8 oz stick of cream cheese (softened on counter)
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 TBS fresh squeezed orange juice
2 TBS fresh orange zest
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Begin to boil water in a kettle for the water bath.
Use a food processor to turn the Oreos into fine crumbs. Mix with butter and press into bottom of cupcake pans. Set crust aside.
Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer and cream together until smooth. Add egg and make sure to scrape down the bowl. Add heavy cream, orange juice, and zest and blend until smooth and creamy. Spoon batter into prepared crusts and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the pan.
Bake 20 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for 30 minutes. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After 30 minutes, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve. Use a knife to separate the cheesecake edges from the pan. Garnish with sugared orange zest and spirals.
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.
This months’ Daring Baker’s Challenge was definitely work. It took several hours to make but fortunately I had Eric and my sister Sharon to help me. It was lots of fun to see the different things they came up with. Like in the pictures above, Sharon used her fondant roller on a piece of dough to see if it would make a design, it looked really cool though of course it didn’t show once the lasagna was put together. In the picture below, Eric had the cool idea of forming the flour around a measuring cup to make a bowl to mix the egg and spinach in. We all had a lot of fun working together, and they had fun photographing me whenever I set the camera down to work!
By the way, if you wear a wedding ring, or any ring, you’ll want to remember to take them off before kneading the dough. Your hands get very green and messy in the process!
Although none of the components were necessarily difficult in themselves, there are a lot of steps so you really need a good chunk of time and a lot of kitchen space. My parents’ kitchen was perfectly clean when we got started, and look how messy it got.
But it was worth. The lasagna is really beautiful, even as you’re making it. The noodles are so good for you with all the spinach, and the meat sauce has plenty of veggies too. When Eric brought leftovers to work, his co-workers freaked out because they thought he was microwaving lettuce. They were amazed that it was lasagna. The real test was my brother Jason who, as I said before, is autistic and so very picky. He was not excited about green noodles and said he’d rather go get a box of frozen lasagna and cook that. I offered to freeze my lasagna for him and let him reheat it 
He thought that was funny. But once he tried it, he really liked it, and was excited it contained at least a serving of vegetables.
I don’t know if I’d make the whole recipe again, but I definitely love the pasta recipe and want to use it for ravioli someday.
Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi al Forno)
Serves 8 to 10 as a first course, 6 to 8 as a main dish
Serves 8 to 10 as a first course, 6 to 8 as a main dish
Ingredients
10 quarts salted water
1 recipe Spinach Pasta cut for lasagna (recipe follows)
1 recipe Bechamel Sauce (recipe follows)
1 recipe Country Style Ragu (recipe follows)
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Instructions
Have all the sauces, rewarmed gently over a medium heat, and the pasta at hand. Have a large perforated skimmer and a large bowl of cold water next to the stove. Spread a double thickness of paper towels over a large counter space. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Oil a 3 quart shallow baking dish.
Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time, cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.
Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)
Makes enough for 6 to 8 first course servings or 4 to 6 main course servings, equivalent to 1 pound dried boxed pasta.
2 jumbo eggs or 3 regualar
10 ounces fresh spinach, rinsed dry, and finely choppedspinach
3 & 1/2 cupsall purpose unbleached (plain) flour
Working by Hand:
Equipment:A roomy work surface, 24 to 30 inches deep by 30 to 36 inches. Any smooth surface will do, but marble cools dough slightly, making it less flexible than desired. A pastry scraper and a small wooden spoon for blending the dough. A wooden dowel-style rolling pin. In Italy, pasta makers use one about 35 inches long and 2 inches thick. The shorter American-style pin with handles at either end can be used, but the longer it is, the easier it is to roll the pasta. Plastic wrap to wrap the resting dough and to cover rolled-out pasta waiting to be filled. It protects the pasta from drying out too quickly. A sharp chef’s knife (or pizza wheel) for cutting pasta sheets.Cloth-covered chair backs, broom handles, or specially designed pasta racks found in cookware shops for draping the pasta.
Equipment:A roomy work surface, 24 to 30 inches deep by 30 to 36 inches. Any smooth surface will do, but marble cools dough slightly, making it less flexible than desired. A pastry scraper and a small wooden spoon for blending the dough. A wooden dowel-style rolling pin. In Italy, pasta makers use one about 35 inches long and 2 inches thick. The shorter American-style pin with handles at either end can be used, but the longer it is, the easier it is to roll the pasta. Plastic wrap to wrap the resting dough and to cover rolled-out pasta waiting to be filled. It protects the pasta from drying out too quickly. A sharp chef’s knife (or pizza wheel) for cutting pasta sheets.Cloth-covered chair backs, broom handles, or specially designed pasta racks found in cookware shops for draping the pasta.
Mixing the dough:Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.
Kneading:With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.
Stretching and Thinning:If using an extra-long rolling pin work with half the dough at a time. With a regular-length rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. The idea is to stretch the dough rather than press down and push it. Shape it into a ball and begin rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins outs, start rolling the disc back on the pin a quarter of the way toward the center and stretching it gently sideways by running the palms of your hands over the rolled-up dough from the center of the pin outward. Unroll, turn the disc a quarter turn, and repeat. Do twice more.
Stretch and even out the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way back on the pin. Then gently push the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the sheet in place on the work surface with the other hand. Repeat three more times, turning the dough a quarter turn each time.
Repeat the two processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner. The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For lasagne, the sheet should be so thin that you can clearly see your hand through it and see colours. Cut into rectangles about 4 by 8 inches (10 x 20 cm). Note: Enza says that transparency is a crucial element of lasagne pasta and the dough should be rolled as thinly as possible. She says this is why her housekeeper has such strong arms!
Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag.
Bechamel
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 tablespoons all purpose unbleached (plain) flour
2 & 2/3 cups milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste
Instructions
Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.
Country Style Ragu’ (Ragu alla Contadina)
Makes enough sauce for 1 recipe fresh pasta or 1 pound dried pasta
Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 ounces pancetta, finely chopped
1 medium onion, minced
1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced
1 small carrot, minced
4 ounces boneless veal shoulder or round
4 ounces mild Italian sausage (made without fennel)
8 ounces beef skirt steak, hanging tender, or boneless chuck blade or chuck center cut (in order of preference)
1 ounce thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma
2/3 cup dry red wine
1 &1/2 cups chicken stock (homemade if possible)
2 cups milk
5 canned plum tomatoes, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
Working Ahead:The ragu can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. It also freezes well for up to 1 month. Skim the fat from the ragu’ before using it.
Browning the Ragu Base:Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch (30cm) skillet (frying pan) over medium-high heat. Have a large saucepan handy to use once browning is complete. Add the pancetta and minced vegetables and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, 10 minutes, or until the onions barely begin to color. Coarsely grind all the meats together, including the prosciutto, in a food processor or meat grinder. Stir into the pan and slowly brown over medium heat. First the meats will give off a liquid and turn dull grey but, as the liquid evaporates, browning will begin. Stir often, scooping under the meats with the wooden spatula. Protect the brown glaze forming on the bottom of the pan by turning the heat down. Cook 15 minutes, or until the meats are a deep brown. Turn the contents of the skillet into a strainer and shake out the fat. Turn them into the saucepan and set over medium heat.
Reducing and Simmering:Add the wine to the skillet, lowering the heat so the sauce bubbles quietly. Stir occasionally until the wine has reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Scrape up the brown glaze as the wine bubbles. Then pour the reduced wine into the saucepan and set the skillet aside.Stir ½ cup stock into the saucepan and let it bubble slowly, 10 minutes, or until totally evaporated. Repeat with another ½ cup stock. Stir in the last 1/2 cup stock along with the milk. Adjust heat so the liquid bubbles very slowly. Partially cover the pot, and cook 1 hour. Stir frequently to check for sticking.Add the tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pot. Cook uncovered, at a very slow bubble for another 45 minutes, or until the sauce resembles a thick, meaty stew. Season with salt and pepper.
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.
Okay, that’s the required text that the DB team uses to see if we completed the challenge. Our challenge was to make a Chocolate Valentino cake (Valentino cakes are traditionally heart shaped) which is a flourless cake. Then we were supposed to pair it with homemade ice cream, yum! Instead of doing vanilla, I made our absolute favorite ice cream recipe by Jaden of Steamy Kitchen. It’s Thai Coffee Ice Cream and I can’t share the exact recipe until her cookbook is out, but it has espresso and cardamom and sweetened condensed milk and is incredibly amazing! I also paired it with a raspberry sauce.
I had a huge blessing when making this challenge that we were staying at Eric’s parents. They have a REALLY nice kitchen and his mother has tons of cooking equipment. It was like Christmas! There was a big gas stove, two ovens, a perfect glass bowl with handle so I didn’t get burned, a food mill and more. It made preparing our Valentine’s Day dinner a breeze. It’s also great for having Eric help me cook, there’s tons of prep space.
For this cake it was very important to pick a chocolate you really like the taste of, so I went with my favorite dark chocolate that I use for everything now. It’s from Trader Joe’s and the bar is over a pound and very affordable. One thing I didn’t think about is it’s not very sweet, so even though I can eat a chunk of it plain, you don’t add sugar to this so it wasn’t sweet on its own. Fortunately that was made up for by the ice cream, raspberry sauce and powdered sugar.
This challenge may have been my most fun so far! The recipe we had to use was only 3 simple ingredients: chocolate, butter and eggs. The creativity was in how you serve it and that was really fun for me. I knew I wanted to do the coffee ice cream, but I didn’t want it to be all brown, so I was inspired once again by my days as a Starbucks Barista (funny how much that’s influenced my cooking lately and I think there’s more to come of it) and the Raspberry Mochas that so many of my customers couldn’t live without. The powdered sugar was because I wanted to make the heart stencil on top, and to add sweetness to the rich dark chocolate. I only did a half recipe which made 8 cupcakes and what you see pictured is just one cupcake cut in half. Oh and didn’t the yolks mixing into the chocolate look so cool?
Chocolate Valentino
makes 16 cupcakes
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients
16 ounces (1 pound) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated
Instructions
Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling, butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two large bowls. Whip the egg whites in a large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F. Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will have crumbs.
Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.
Raspberry Syrup
Ingredients
1 cup frozen raspberries
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
Instructions
Place all ingredients in a sauce pan on medium-high. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
Separate syrup from seeds (If you’re like my mother in law and have one of those handy food mills hand crank things, use it! If not press through a mesh strainer).
I missed the December Daring Bakers’ Challenge. I was just too busy with the holidays, preparing for Life Hurts God Heals, and snowed in (which meant no shopping for ingredients). Money is really tight this month, but the ingredients were all things I have on hand, so I was looking forward to giving it a try. Then life got crazily overwhelming, and I almost didn’t make the deadline. But I decided that I hadn’t really had any “me” time, which is important, and so I would set aside a couple of hours to take on the challenge.
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.
Karen and Zorra were also kind enough to include a savory recipe, which I really appreciated since I’m not big on the sweets. That recipe is from Thomas Keller. I made both Keller’s savory recipe and the sweet one from “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.
I did change a couple things from the recipes. I used coconut extract instead of vanilla (Yeah, I’ve been on a lime/mango/coconut kick lately). I also played around with colors, smearing colored dough in my stencil with the plain dough rather than piping it. Because I’m lazy, I didn’t sift my flour or sugar, and didn’t refrigerate my pan. I tended to find the dough was easier to spread when it was warm, but I did juggle several pans so that I had a cooler one to use. You can’t reuse one you just took out because it melts the butter immediately. If you want cool bowls like mine, use a square stencil and after it’s first bake, shape in a muffin pan and put back in the oven.
I thought these were pretty cool, but I don’t know if I’d make them again. They have so much butter that I felt sick after eating them! They smoke a lot because of the butter so I had to turn on a fan and open a window. All in all they look amazingly fancy, and taste good too. But they were a lot of work for just the two of us, I’d make them for a party that I wanted something special for though. They were a great challenge and definitely stretched my baking skills. I’ll just include the tuile recipes on this post, and try to follow up with what I filled them with. I did a mango and lime mousse for the sweet tuille, and a spicy crab and avocado filling for the savory.
Tuiles
20 small shapes Ingredients
1/4 cup softened butter (not melted but soft)
1/2 confectioner’s sugar
a dash of extract (I used coconut)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
1/2 all purpose flour
food coloring of choice
waxed paper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with food coloring and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly. (Or smear around your stencil like I did)
Bake for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, so just do a few at a time. Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.
Savory tuile/cornet recipe
Ingredients
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool to the touch
2 large egg whites, cold
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the softened butter until it is completely smooth and mayonnaise-like in texture. Using a stiff spatula or spoon, beat the egg whites into the dry ingredients until completely incorporated and smooth. Whisk in the softened butter by thirds, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary and whisking until the batter is creamy and without any lumps. Transfer the batter to a smaller container, as it will be easier to work with (But I didn’t bother!).
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Make a 4-inch hollow circular stencil. Place Silpat on the counter (it is easier to work on the Silpat before it is put on the sheet pan). Place the stencil in one corner of the sheet and, holding the stencil flat against the Silpat, scoop some of the batter onto the back of an offset spatula and spread it in an even layer over the stencil. Then run the spatula over the entire stencil to remove any excess batter. After baking the first batch of cornets, you will be able to judge the correct thickness. You may need a little more or less batter to adjust the thickness of the cornets.
There should not be any holes in the batter. Lift the stencil and repeat the process to make as many rounds as you have molds or to fill the Silpat, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between the cornets. Sprinkle each cornet with a pinch of black sesame seeds.
Place the Silpat on a heavy baking sheet and bake for 4 to 6 minutes, or until the batter is set and you see it rippling from the heat. The cornets may have browned in some areas, but they will not be evenly browned at this point.
Open the oven door and place the baking sheet on the door.*** This will help keep the cornets warm as you roll them and prevent them from becoming too stiff to roll. Flip a cornet over on the sheet pan, sesame seed side down and place 4-1/2 inch cornet mold at the bottom of the round. If you are right-handed, you will want the pointed end on your left and the open end on your right. The tip of the mold should touch the lower left edge (at about 7 o’clock on a clock face) of the cornet.
Fold the bottom of the cornet and around the mold; it should remain on the sheet pan as you roll. Leave the cornet wrapped around the mold and continue to roll the cornets around molds; as you proceed, arrange the rolled cornets, seams side down, on the sheet pan so they lean against each other, to prevent from rolling.
When all the cornets are rolled, return them to the oven shelf, close the door, and bake for an additional 3 to 4 minutes to set the seams and color the cornets a golden brown. If the color is uneven, stand the cornets on end for a minute or so more, until the color is even. Remove the cornets from the oven and allow to cool just slightly, 30 seconds or so.
Gently remove the cornets from the molds and cool for several minutes on paper towels. Remove the Silpat from the baking sheet, wipe the excess butter from it, and allow it to cool down before spreading the next batch. Store the cornets for up to 2 days (for maximum flavor) in an airtight container.
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