This month for Recipes to Rival, Temperance of High on the Hog and Jen of Delightful Delicacies asked us to make two out of three appetizers:  Gruyere Gougères (from Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook), Galatoire’s Oysters en Brochette, and/or Blue Cheese, Pear and Walnut Crostini.  You can find the recipes for all three, here.

I opted for the gougères (French cheese puffs that are served hot), and the crostini (pics and write-up will be added tomorrow), because I do not like oysters.  I’ve had some smoked oysters that were tolerable, but that’s only because the smoke hid the oyster taste, and the disgusting squishiness.  How people can swallow these raw and alive is beyond me.  But back to the appetizers.  More after the jump . . . .
continue reading "Recipes to Rival Serves Up Some Appetizers"

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.  Taking on an 18-page recipe like this (just before Christmas) is what puts the “daring” in the moniker “The Daring Bakers.”  And it is exactly the reason why I joined the DBs, as I doubt I would have tackled this if left to my own devices.  I will have more photos up tomorrow, but for now, I present you with my lumpy log, resting in the freezer:

Please note:  You WILL dirty a lot of pots and pans.  You WILL need copious amounts of gelatin, cream, egg yolks, more cream, various kinds of chocolate . . . and did I mention cream?  Do NOT attempt to make this dessert in one day.  Do NOT attempt to make it if the kiddies are under foot.  Most of all, READ, RE-READ, and then RE-RE-READ the recipe.

All that being said, is it tasty?  Oh, Lordie, . . . YES.  Despite the work, I would make this again.  I am not usually a spoon licker, but I licked everything when I made this – spoons, bowls, beaters, you name it.  I think I ingested several thousand calories worth of cream and chocolate just from licking cooking utensils.  Luckily, I logged in 45 minutes on the elliptical machine, which should at least maintain the weight status quo.

This type of French Yule Log is not the jelly-roll style of log that we think of in this country (made with genoise and buttercream), and that the Daring Bakers made last year.  It is a frozen dessert made up of 6 components, all of which we were required to make.  My flavorings were: Almond Dacquoise Biscuit, White Chocolate Mousse, Dark Chocolate-Caramel Ganache Insert, Nocciolata Praline (Crisp) Insert, Vanilla Creme Brulee Insert, and Dark Chocolate Icing.  I thought that some of the instructions were a bit confusing, but the wonderful Tartelette provided helpful commentary.  In fact, before you even attempt the dessert, I suggest you check out a lot of blogs for excellent tips and insight into the problems that many of the Daring Bakers confronted.  Some suggestions:  Apple Pie, Patis & Pate, Tartelette, Judy’s Gross Eats (listen to her problem with the 5-qt. KitchenAid bowl-I had the same issues), Baking Obsession, and Canelle et Vanille, just to name a few.  If you want to see how 2,000 + other DBs did, check out the blogroll.

The creme brulee:

I was swamped this month, so I had little time or energy for creativity.  I stuck to the basic flavor parameters, and made a vanilla creme brulee (which never even got close to solidifying after two hours in the oven, but I froze it anyway). And I even used a water bath!  All that aside, I think that I should write an ode to the vanilla bean one day.  It does amazing things to dairy products, I must say.

The dastardly mousse, which required the preparation of the accursed pate a bombe:

For the dastardly mousse, I used El Rey white chocolate disks, and cursed the size of my 5-qt. KitchenAid bowl.  The beater couldn’t reach the ingredients in the bottom, so I was forced into a series of culinary gymnastics to get things to work, NOT a good idea when you are working with hot liquid sugar.  I created a mess of spun sugar, said “eff it,” and carefully scooped out the pate a bombe so I wouldn’t pick up all the solidified sugar.  “Pate a Bombe” describes egg yolks beaten with a hot sugar syrup which has been heated to the soft ball stage. The mixture is the base for many mousse and buttercream recipes because it makes them more stable, particularly if they are to be frozen, so that they do not melt as quickly or collapse under the weight of heavier items.  Personally, I think all of that is a bunch of baloney, and that a pate a bombe is part of a nefarious plot to drive Daring Bakers round the bend.

In the end it all worked out.  Of course, I licked the bowl, the piping tip, the beaters, etc. . . .

The crisp:

I’m not sure what happened here, but I ended up with an enormous amount of rice krispies, scantily clad in a whisper of chocolate.  So naked were they, I think they were embarrassed.  So, this whole “roll out the crisp between two sheets of wax paper” never happened.  There was nothing rollable.  My advice:  cut the amount of cereal that the recipe calls for in half.

I think things worked out here, too, because a lot of other Daring Bakers said that the crisp layer was too hard to cut through.  I sprinkled my bronzed rice crispies on top of the mousse layer, and found that it was easy to cut later on.  I have a LOT of chocolate rice crispies left, and will have to find a way to feed them to Master Chow.  Chocolate rice krispie treats, anyone?

The Caramel-Chocolate Ganache:

I used my favorite baking chocolate for this, Valrhona 71%, which I get at Trader Joe’s.  I love that stuff.  To my utter shock, my caramel turned the perfect shade of amber on my first try.  When I added the boiling cream to the caramel, however, a chunk of it refused to melt into the cream, so I did what any sensible baker would do – I fished it out with a spoon (people, hot caramel is dangerous stuff so don’t take any chances), let it cool, and ate it.  Mmm, there is nothing like homemade caramel.  And lest you think I was slacking, I licked all the bowls and spatulas and beaters used to produce this confectionary marvel.

The Almond Dacquoise and an Amaretto Simple Syrup:

Nothing too difficult here, although I had never before made a dacquoise that had as much sugar added to the egg whites.  I ended up with almost a marshmallow-like egg white mixture, which I incorporated into the almond flour/confectioner’s sugar concoction, and then baked it.

I did add a little something when I was putting the dessert together:  I made an amaretto simple syrup and brushed both sides of the dacquoise with it.  Recipe:  Mix 1/4 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water in a saucepan.  Bring to a boil until sugar dissolves.  Shut flame off and add 2 Tbsp. of amaretto liqueur to the mixture.  Let cool, and brush on both sides of the cake layer.  You will have some extra left over, which you can use in your coffee or hot toddy.  Come to think of it, you may need a bit of caffeine and/or alcohol to get through this challenge.

The Icing:

The directions for the dark chocolate icing were very confusing, but I managed to muddle my way through.  I followed Tartellete’s advice and made a double batch of the stuff because she said it would make it easier to coat the log.  Boy, was she right.  My cocoa clumped, even though I sifted it, and I had to strain the whole thing through a fine mesh sieve.  Then I didn’t let it cool enough, even though the icing coated the back of a spoon, and it started to melt my log.  And, and, and . . . .  I think you get the picture.

This whole darn presentation thing is why I will not be a professional pastry chef.  Decorating is NOT my strong suit, and if anyone can tell me how to get the icing to encase the entire log, I’m all ears.  My log is naked and icing-less all around its bottom edge.  By the way, as the icing cools, it develops the texture of chocolate pudding.  Really, really good chocolate pudding.  I know because I ate a lot of it, and I have a stomach ache.  Sigh.  Back to the gym.

This was a fabulous dessert, and most definitely a challenge.  Thanks again, Hilda of Saffron and Blueberry and Marion of Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux!

Later today, I’ll (finally) be posting my Daring Bakers Yule Log, and one of two Recipes to Rival appetizers (I hope; if not, I’ll have both appetizers up tomorrow).

Thanks to all of you fellow food bloggers out there, who keep me inspired and motivated to push that culinary envelope – my cooking has improved thanks to you!  May the New Year be happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful for all of you.

Pardon the lousy photos – my photography skills are something I’m going to be working on in the new year, in large part due to the generosity of my family, which has given me a sundry assortment of photography equipment that I will have to learn how to use.

At any rate, I recently whipped up a adaptation of Ina Garten’s Baked Shrimp Scampi, from her new book, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics: Fabulous Flavor from Simple Ingredients.  Instead of shrimp (farm raised in Asia), I opted to use scallops (wild from the USA).  I followed Ina’s recipe in other respects but for her use of extraordinary amounts of butter – I cut that from 12 Tbsp. down to 7.  And you know what?  You wouldn’t even miss it!  Believe me, almost a full stick of butter is plenty.

I served the scallops and their buttery, lemony sauce atop a pasta called rombi.  Master Chow and I polished this off over the course of a couple of days, and the pups enjoyed licking the bowl clean.  Recipe after the jump . . . .
continue reading "Baked Scallops Scampi, a la Ina Garten"

Looking for my cheesecake?  Well, here it is!  Happy New Year, everyone!

I’ve been traveling almost the whole month, and I was able to make 4 out of 5 Dorie recipes this month – my one miss were the jam cookies.  I had to take a pass on those. But I’m sure looking forward to everyone’s picks next month, including Dorie Greenspan’s!  Please check out the blogroll to see how the other bakers fared with the cheesecake.

If you like Nutella (are there people who don’t?), but want to try a higher-end version, consider giving Slitti’s Nocciolata a try.  I bought some a couple years ago and have been hoarding it.  This year, while counting my blessings, I realized that this is the kind of stuff that needs to be used, so I recently made a Danish pastry braid, and filled it with this lovely chocolate nut paste.

I revisited the Danish dough by Sherry Yard from a Daring Bakers Challenge earlier this year, and it worked out wonderfully.  My braid that time turned out looking a lot better than my braid this time, but I attribute that to the usual harried mental state that so often accompanies Christmas and New Year’s at my house.  The one thing you should leave out of the dough recipe is the cardamom; while the orange goes wonderfully with the Nocciolata, the cardamom clashes a bit.

Happy New Year, everyone, and may 2009 bring you health, wealth, and happiness, and the time to enjoy them all!

To see what other bakers have been making with yeast, check out Susan’s Yeastspotting every Friday for her roundup!

As I write this, NORAD has spotted Santa over Australia.  This is too exciting for words!  They even have video of Santa over Auckland, New Zealand.  To track Santa, check out the Norad Santa Tracker!

I’ll be posting photos later today, but I just wanted to say that I made the recipe exactly as written, except that I substituted Almond Breeze almond milk (original flavor) for the milk in the recipe. Many thanks to Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases for choosing Real Butterscotch Pudding on page 386 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Some of you may remember that I had no luck when I made the arborio rice pudding, but that was not the case this time.  Both Master Chow and I have milk allergies (his is a lot worse than mine), and pudding is one of those desserts that just sends our immune system into over drive.  This is not lactose intolerance, folks, it’s an allergy, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE butterscotch pudding, so I was determined to make this.

Success!  For some reason, cream doesn’t cause the same reaction as straight milk, so I left it in the recipe.  This is a delightfully buttery, creamy, scotchy recipe (I used Chivas Regal 12-year aged whiskey), that will find a permanent spot in my cooking repertoire.  I licked clean every bowl and cooking utensil that I used to make this.  I did not want to wait until I had refrigerated the pudding, I loved it so much.  Try this recipe – it’s fabulous!

A couple of thoughts:  real butterscotch pudding traditionally does not have any booze in it, but Dorie has made me a convert.  My point is, if you don’t want it in the recipe, leave it out.  Second, save yourself a lot of hassle, and if you want to avoid all the pots, pans, food processors, etc., just get yourself a good immersion blender and do the whole thing in a pot and another bowl for tempering.

To see the results of the other bakers, check out the TWD blogroll. Now, excuse me, I have some more pudding to eat. Recipe after the jump . . . .
continue reading "TWD- Success with Almond Milk Butterscotch Pudding!"

** Updated with photos (such as they are) and recipe**

Thank the TWD founders for allowing us to go out of order this month!  I was able to make Dorie’s Tall and Creamy Cheesecake (pages 235-7 of Baking: From My Home to Yours), a pick by Anne of Anne Strawberry, but I did tweak it quite a bit.  The result was a cheesecake that I liked so much, I’m definitely putting it on the repeat list, and so far the only cheesecake to have made that list is my grandmother’s.

First, if you’re wondering where the pictures are, they are on my hard drive back home.  After being home for two days from my food-poisoning-Las Vegas-trip, I got on a plane again and headed up to Wisconsin to visit my auntie.  My pics are at home, and she has dial up, which makes it virtually impossible for me to hot link to blogs, etc.  ‘Nuff said.  When I get back in a week, I’ll upload my pictures, and add recipes and links that I’m unable to include right now.

Second, I made a lemon version of the cheesecake, but I added more lemon than Dorie’s recipe called for.  By that I mean that I used a lot more lemon, and I’m glad I did.  My notes, however, are also back home.  Inspiration for that came from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.

Third, my crust was inspired by Shirley Corriher’s nut crust (found in her lovely new book, BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes, and an America’s Test Kitchen’s animal cracker crust.  All I can tell you at this point is that I used a cup of macadamia nuts, ground, plus about 1-1/2 cups of ground animal crackers, mixed with 6 Tbsp. of melted butter.  I pressed that into a 9-1/2 inch pan, and baked it until golden brown.  I allowed it to cool, and then poured in the cheesecake mixture.

Speaking of the cheesecake mixture, I remember that in addition to lemon juice and zest, I added a couple drops of lemon oil to punch up the flavor.  I also used all low fat cream cheese and sour cream.  Instead of a full 1-1/3 cups of either sour cream or cream, I used 1/3 cup of the low fat sour cream, and then I whipped 1 cup of the cream, and gently folded that into the cheesecake mixture – another idea from Shirley Corriher.

My cheesecake pan has a lip, so it would not fit in my roasting pan.  I ended up cooking it at about 275 F to 325 F for 2.5 hours, and I constantly fiddled with the temperature, and cooked the cake until the top was a light golden color, and about a 3-inch circle in the middle “jiggled.”  I placed a pan of water in the oven to do what I could do keep it in a moist environment, but I’m going to get another pan because this should really be cooked in a water bath.  All that being said, the cheesecake turned out fabulously, and this is coming from someone who is not a big fan of cheesecake.

Finally, as if all that wasn’t enough, I topped the whole thing with a passion fruit “curd.”   I found a recipe on the Food Network site, and I took one look at it and new that it would NOT set like a curd, but might make a tasty sauce.  I was right – the sauce was fantastic on the cheesecake, absolutely fantastic.

Thanks to Ann for a great pick!  Next week:  butterscotch pudding!  Be sure to check out the TWD blogroll to see what others have been up to.  Recipe after the jump . . . .
continue reading "TWD – A Spectacular Tall and Creamy Lemon Cheesecake with Passionfruit Sauce"

I’ll try to get a post up by tomorrow.  I got in last night, after a three hour mechanical delay.  I should also mention that I had no culinary adventures in Las Vegas.  I was in a seminar (or driving back and forth from it about 14 hours a day), and I was exhausted.  I did visit a couple of buffets, the Bellagio and the Mandalay Bay, and they were . . . not good.  Either my taste has improved, or the quality has deteriorated, or both.  The baked goods were virtually inedible.  I blame Tuesdays with Dorie and the Daring Bakers for that!

And you want to know what the final straw was?  On Monday night, I had dinner at a Certain Establishment (not one of the aforementioned buffets), and I GOT FOOD POISONING!  I missed the last day of my seminar, since I spent it in my room, running to the bathroom.  Then I had to get on a plane yesterday morning, sat on the runway for 2.5 hours before they de-planed us and put us on another plane.  I got home about three hours late, and I never want to leave again.  But I’m getting on another plane in two days to visit my favorite auntie, but she is totally worth it!

So, if I haven’t been visiting your blogs much, please know that I haven’t forgotten you.  At least at my auntie’s I’ll have some computer time to catch up with what all of you have been doing!