My post will be late, due to a pair of knees that are scheduled to get MRIs. In the meantime, why don’t you go check out the lovely Opera Cakes that Ivonne and Lis chose for this month’s challenge?
28
May
My post will be late, due to a pair of knees that are scheduled to get MRIs. In the meantime, why don’t you go check out the lovely Opera Cakes that Ivonne and Lis chose for this month’s challenge?
27
Apr
As you can probably tell from these photos, I do not have a bright future in decorating cheesecake pops. Now, this recipe was not difficult for someone who has been baking her whole life. What made it “daring” for me was the presentation element.
I surf the net visiting food blogs, and I am absolutely amazed at the talent out there! It takes practice and skill to present and decorate food. And a lot of patience. So thanks to Deb of Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms for choosing this month’s challenge, because it showed me an area that I have to work on. When I can find the patience to do so! Please be sure to check out their blogs for the recipe for the pops, which they selected from Jill O’Connor’s fantastic book, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth
. For another great recipe from the book, see my recent post on Bahama Mama Banana Rum Cake.
I cut the recipe down by about a third (believe me, we do not need 40 cheesecake pops around here!), and used low-fat cream cheese. Now, I’ve never made a cheesecake before using low-fat cream cheese, because baking experts like Eleanor Klivans say not to do it, that the texture won’t be the same. I decided to live on the edge and threw caution to the wind. I’m glad I did, because the cheesecake was delicious, and after I froze it and covered the pops with Green & Black’s 70% chocolate, I could detect any difference in the texture. Heck, the pops were good without the chocolate! I know, because I ate three naked ones.
A couple thoughts: First, once you dip the pops in chocolate, wait until it just begins to harden before you roll the pop in anything, or the chocolate will be too liquid for the toppings to adhere to the pops. Finally, I used a good bar chocolate, Green and Black’s, so I didn’t add any shortening (none on hand) to the melted chocolate, and everything worked just fine.
The Daring Bakers is now a huge, world-wide group of bakers who get together once a month. I encourage you to visit not only your favorite bloggers, but to try new ones, too. You can find the blogroll here. And for updates on what the Daring Bakers are up to, be sure to visit the blogs of the founders, Ivonne of CreamPuffsInVenice and Lis of LaMiaCucina.
30
Mar
I, however, won’t be able to join them this month, but I urge you all to check out the Daring Bakers’ blogroll for the latest lovely creation, Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake. This month’s hostess was Morven, of Food Art and Random Thoughts.
I’ll be back next month. Meanwhile, I’m getting used to my new website, how to use WordPress, and recovering from weeding, raking, trimming, and laying down new mulch.
29
Feb
Photo above is the “glamour shot”: the culinary equivalent of having a photographer shooting you from the neck up, after a makeup artist has made you look your best. Below, a photo of the whole enchilada:
Short and squat. Note the odd bulges – the dough kind of “exploded” out the sides! From some reading that I’ve done, this could be the result of the dough sticking to something during proofing (my batard did), not letting the loaves rest long enough after final shaping, or not slashing the them deeply enough.
First, let me thank Breadchick Mary (The Sour Dough) and Sara (I Like to Cook) for selecting this wonderful classic recipe from Mastering The Art of French Cooking,and for typing
out sixteen pages of instructions! You can find the original recipe here, and I encourage you to check out the Daring Bakers blogroll to see how everyone else did.
I loved this challenge because it really pushed me outside my comfort zone. In other words, it truly was a challenge! I had never made French bread before (I think my mom and I may have made it once when I was very young), and I learned so much from the problems that I encountered and the techniques that I learned with this bread, that I was able to tackle the Bread Baking Babe’s Royal Crown’s Tortano.
My house is pretty cold – we keep it at 59 degrees F. If I close the doors of my kitchen, I can get it up to the low 70s in there. This is supposed to be a great environment for bread baking. In retrospect, however, I may have made the kitchen warmer than I thought, leading to me over-proofing the dough.
I weighed my ingredients (using King Arthur Unbleached AP flour), mixed them together, then decided to knead by hand (e-GADS). That last step took about 20 minutes. If you ever want to get into bodybuilding, exercise your upper body by hand kneading dough. I wasn’t sure when to stop, and may have overdone it, so I have a question for you more experienced bread bakers: can you overknead dough?
The first rise took three hours, but the “dome” looked a little flat. At the time, I almost let the dough proof longer because I thought it had not yet formed that puffy dome. Now, I think it may have formed the dome, and was starting to flatten out.
The second rise took only one hour. After I shaped the loaves, they barely rose at all; a couple of Daring Bakers noted that may be a sign that the yeast has run out of food. The loaves had also developed a strong yeasty smell, and I had only enough dough for two loaves!
I baked them on a baking stone, sprayed them with water, and had a pan of steaming water on the floor of the oven.
Though oddly shaped (the round bread reminded me of the movie “Alien,” for some reason). The crust was crisp, and the bread actually had body, unlike a lot of supermarket French breads that are very fluffy inside. And the flavor was very nice; the loaves actually tasted like a mild sourdough.
I learned so much from this Challenge, that I’m already applying it to other breads. I plan to tackle this recipe again in the future, but this time I will knead by machine, get an idea of what the dough should feel like, and watch the proofing. Many thanks to Mary and Sara.
Some additional info: (1) For those of you who may be interested in a fancier steam contraption for your oven, see this post by Rosy Levy Beranbaum. (2) In his book, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers, Daniel Leader recommends King Arthur Organic AP flour as the one that most closely emulates French 55-type flour (I didn’t use this, I used AP flour per the recipe, so I can’t vouch for it). But while perusing the website, I discovered that King Arthur now carries a French-style flour. Woo-hoo!
28
Jan
Jen, of the Canadian Baker, masterminded this month’s challenge – Lemon Meringue Pie! As I’ve noted before, I am a sucker for citrus, and I was thrilled by this months challenge because it gave me an opportunity to use the Meyer lemons from my little Meyer lemon tree:
The very first pie I ever made was a lemon meringue pie: I was twelve years old, and my mom let me plan and make a meal for the family, all by myself. I made a roast chicken, twice-baked potatoes, and a lemon meringue pie. I have to tell you, much to everyone’s surprise, that pie was perfect. And it tasted good, too.
Other than the curd, I think my favorite part of the recipe was the all butter crust – it was easy to work with, very crispy, and was still crisp the next morning. I know, because I had a piece of pie for breakfast. But I wouldn’t use this crust on a lemon meringue pie again – I think it would be better in a really sweet pecan pie, or maybe even a pot pie of some sort.
Lemon Meringue Pie can be quite challenging for those who have not baked much: you have to work with a pastry crust, make a meringue, and temper eggs for the filling. While the recipe called for putting the cooled filling in a cool crust, and then instructed us to top the cooled curd with meringue, I’ve learned from sad prior experience to put the meringue on a HOT filling. This helps cook the bottom of the egg whites, and reduces the amount of clear fluid that builds up between the curd and the meringue (known as “weeping”.)
I don’t know that I would put this particular recipe on the repeat list, but I’m so glad that Jen picked this for January’s Challenge. If you want to see and learn more, go over to the Daring Baker’s Blogroll. And for the recipe, be sure to check Jen’s site. I can hardly wait for the next challenge!
30
Dec
I was not able to participate in this month’s challenge, but be sure to check out the Daring Baker’s blogroll to view the beautiful Yule Logs!
And a very Happy New Year to everyone!
26
Nov
I grew up baking bread with my mom, but life, school, and career took precedence over bread baking for many, many years. Lately, I have felt a real yearning to start working with dough again, and have been filling up my freezer with all sorts of interesting flours that I’ve been hoping to experiment with. Someday.
Well, Tanna’s challenge gave me the opportunity to take the leap. And the wonderful thing is, many things went wrong, but I was having so much fun creating this marvel that I didn’t care! And the bread still turned out great!
Exhausted from Thanksgiving baking (more on that in a future post), not to mention desserts, I opted to bake two simple loaves, one a 9 x 5 inch and the other an 8 x 4 inch. I added about a cup more of flour than the directions called for, but still had a huge gooey mess on my hands that was absolutely impossible to shape. It was like a big pile of goo. I finally resorted to my KitchenAid with its dough hook (allowed for medical reasons).
Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what medical reasons I could be talking about. Well, at Thanksgiving dinner, while removing a pecan pie from a tart pan, I cut the forefinger of my right hand so deeply with the edge of the pan that my finger continued to bleed for over two hours. I noticed something was amiss when I saw the blood running down the knife I was using to cut pie slices.
As if that were not enough, on Saturday I slammed the sliding glass door on the other forefinger, and opened up a nice little cut there, too. When I lost my band aids in my gooey potato bread dough and had to fish them out, I decided to pull out the KitchenAid.
At any rate, I can see from other Daring Bakers’ pictures that I could have added even more flour. I literally had to pour the dough into the baking pans. No shaping of the loaves, let alone rolls, was possible. So I poured and hoped for the best.
Happy Baking! And check out the wonderful creations of the other Daring Bakers!
31
Oct
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