Daring Bakers: Gingerbread House - Happy Holidays!

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I have long wanted to try to make a homemade Gingerbread House and my six year old and I had already determined that THIS was the year we were going to do it. We've been planning and plotting since, well, pretty much since Halloween and hadn't gotten around to doing too much about it. When this month's Daring Bakers' challenge was announced I was so happy and relieved - especially since it has been a while since I've been able to get my act together enough to participate.

We stayed pretty traditional in our house shape (though we did want to try this Manor House version) mainly because I wanted to make two small houses - one I could attempt to decorate, and one I could just let my boys have their fun with - not that my decorating job was much better - LOL!

I hope everyone's holiday season has been all they hoped it could be and then some. We are hanging in there on the homefront here - just trying to wait out this third trimester and get as close to our March 1 due date as possible. Honestly, for the most part, it has been pretty good so far... which half the time makes me feel like I'm waiting for the axe to fall. The other half of the time, I just try to stay positive and think good thoughts!

Thank you again and again and again for coming back here and checking up on us - I truly do appreciate it so much! I hope that as the holidays wind down I'll have the chance to start finding some time to relax and catch up on visiting and catching up on my blogging friends lives. In the meantime, please know I am thinking of you and hoping for the very best for you all!

Daring Bakers in June: Bakewell Tart... er... Pudding

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

A little history provided by the hosts of this month's challenge:

This tart, like many of the world's great foods has its own mythic beginnings…or several mythic beginnings. Legend has it in 1820 (or was it in the 1860s?) Mrs. Greaves, landlady of The White Horse Inn in Bakewell, Derbyshire (England), asked her cook to produce a pudding for her guests. Either her instructions could have been clearer or he should have paid better attention to what she said because what he made was not what she asked for. The cook spread the jam on top of the frangipane mixture rather than the other way around. Or maybe instead of a sweet rich shortcrust pastry case to hold the jam for a strawberry tart, he made a regular pastry and mixed the eggs and sugar separately and poured that over the jam—it depends upon which legend you follow.

Regardless of what the venerable Mrs. Greaves’ cook did or didn’t do, lore has it that her guests loved it and an ensuing pastry-clad industry was born. The town of Bakewell has since played host to many a sweet tooth in hopes of tasting the tart in its natural setting.

Bakewell tarts are a classic English dessert, abounding in supermarket baking sections and in ready-made, mass-produced forms, some sporting a thick sugary icing and glazed cherry on top for decorative effect.

So, you know what they say about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions? That is what this month's challenge was a bit of for me. Procrastination galore. The Bakewell Tarts we were given to make are made up of three components. None of them too difficult at all.

You have a sweet shortcrust pastry, a layer of jam, and a top of an almond cream mixture called frangipane. My good intentions were to make my own jam, since I usually make several kinds each year (strawberry, peach, pear, plum, blackberry, cherry). Well... not only didn't that happen for me this month, but I have been pretty much completely out of my homemade jams and need to get to work. The only one I had on hand during the challenge was a strawberry vanilla one that I haven't perfected yet - it is very fresh, bright and yummy tasting, but it didn't set right and is also too runny.

So, there go my good intentions - I used Simply Fruit Seedless Black Raspberry Jam for my jam layer - it was absolutely delicious! It is one of the jam flavors/varieties I am hoping to make this year. For the challenge I made 6-inch mini tarts. I just happen to like a more of a crust-to-filling ratio than the 9-inch tart would have allowed.

We really enjoyed this tart and I will make these again I am sure. It didn't take too long to put it together either, so it is a treat I could toss together at most any time. I really hope you give this a try! Next time I plan on making the whole cherry jam, cherry on top, frosted version - that should be really sweet!

Bakewell Tart / Pudding

Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Jasmine’s notes:
• If you cannot have nuts, you can try substituting Victoria sponge for the frangipane. It's a pretty popular popular cake, so you shouldn't have any troubles finding one in one of your cookbooks or through a Google search. That said, our dear Natalie at Gluten a Go Go has sourced some recipes and linked to them in the related alt.db thread.
• You can use whichever jam you wish, but if you choose something with a lot of seeds, such as raspberry or blackberry, you should sieve them out.
• The jam quantity can be anywhere from 60ml (1/4 cup) to 250ml (1cup), depending upon how “damp” and strongly flavoured your preserves are. I made it with the lesser quantity of home made strawberry jam, while Annemarie made it with the greater quantity of cherry jam; we both had fabulous results. If in doubt, just split the difference and spread 150ml (2/3cup) on the crust.
Annemarie’s notes:
• The excess shortcrust can be rolled out and cut into cookie-shapes (heck, it’s pretty darned close to a shortbread dough).

Sweet shortcrust pastry

Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film

225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)

15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Jasmine’s notes:
• I make this using vanilla salt and vanilla sugar.
• If you wish, you can substitute the seeds of one vanilla bean, one teaspoon of vanilla paste or one teaspoon of vanilla extract for the almond extract

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula

125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose i

n colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Daring Bakers: Strudel - Strawberry 'Toaster' Strudel

The May Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Since I am not a big fan of baked apples I decided to stray from the filling and, as you can tell, from the rolled up shape. I made the strudel dough as directed, then, instead of filling and rolling, I folded the dough in half (longest edge to longest edge).

I then added about a tablespoon of homemade strawberry jam and spread it in a small rectangle along one half of the dough, leaving about a two inch space between the jam to make 10 spots. I folded the dough the long way again to fold over the jam and cut the pastries into rectangles as shown.

Before baking I pricked the dough a couple of times and baked the pastries for about 18 minutes. Once they had cooled a bit I drizzled them with a simple icing of a mixture of powdered sugar and heavy cream.

The strudel 'squares' were flaky, tender and a little crisp at the same time and we loved them. The dough itself was easy to make, and tough to roll to the right size. Mine was probably a few inches short in the size but it was still very, very thin.

See more strudel at The Daring Kitchen

Daring Bakers: Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I happen to love cheesecake, so I was excited by this choice. I knew I would want to do something different with it though and therein was the challenge for me. I couldn't make up my mind. I made a toffee cheesecake a while back for Tuesdays with Dorie which was insanely good, but I didn't want to just do the same thing here.

I finally decided on a chocolate crust, substituting homemade chocolate wafer cookies, a vanilla bean flavored cheesecake batter, and topping it off with some small strawberries brushed with a little warmed strawberry jam for extra sweetness and shine.

Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

I also decided, in honor of the Blogging for Babies event, to make my cheesecake in my mini loaf pan as individual bar sized cheesecakes. It was fun and easy. To save on frustration with attempting to remove the cheesecake bars from the pan I just made a mini 'sling' out of parchment paper to place in each cavity. If you don't have a mini loaf pan you could easily do the same thing with muffin tins.

This cheesecake was very good and was easy to work with, but I have to admit that my favorite cheesecake recipe, hands down, is still the one from Dorie Greenspan. I dream of that cheesecake - the flavor, texture and ease of preparation, are all perfect in my book.

You can visit the Daring Bakers at their new home at The Daring Kitchen to see more amazing cheesecakes!

Daring Bakers in February - Chocolate Valentino and Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

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.


February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan and can be found on Dharm's or Wendy's blog, listed above.

For my ice cream recipe I chose to make a Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream from David Lebovitz's fantastic book, The Perfect Scoop (which I am sure will be being used a lot today around blogs!). It is the same ice cream I used the other day with my TWD Caramel Crunch Bars.

I really liked the flavor of this cake - but if you like chocolate, why wouldn't you since it is a full pound of melted chocolate, somehow held together with just eggs and butter. It was a lot of fun to make, but even though I used an instant read thermometer to check the temperature of my cake for doneness, it still seemed a bit undercooked.

The ice cream was super easy to make and is absolutely refreshing and delightful. I will definitely be making this ice cream all summer long. I made a small change to the recipe and mascerated the strawberries with some really good pure vanilla (bourbon) extract instead of vodka (since I don't have any). It seemed to have worked just fine and there was a nice lovely little hint of vanilla to the ice cream as well.

Be sure to head over to the Daring Bakers blogroll to see all the chocolatey goodness. I would like to say a thank you to everyone who comes here and reads this blog, even when things have been a bit slow this past month. Today's Daring Baker's post marks the 200th post on PheMOMenon as well as my one year anniversary of joining the Daring Bakers. It has been a great year and this community continues to not only amaze me, but really, to often restore my faith in the goodness of the majority of people around the world. So, again, thanks for being here! I really do love you guys!

Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

Source: The Perfect Scoop

Makes about 1 1/4 Quarts

1 pound fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled
3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vodka or kirsch (I used Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla)

1 cup sour cream
1 cups heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

Slice the strawberries and toss them in a bowl with the sugar and alcohol, then stir until the sugar starts to dissolve. Cover the bowl and let it stand at room temperature for one hour, stirring every so often.

Pulse the strawberries and their liquid in a food processor along with the remaining ingredients until almost smooht but still slightly chunky (not fully pureed). Refrigerate the mixture for one hour, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers instructions.

Daring Bakers in November - Caramel Cake

The Daring Bakers' Challenge for November was to recreate Shuna Fish Lydon's (of Eggbeater) signature caramel cake. I was really excited because I have been looking for a good recipe for a caramel frosting and cake. While I enjoyed making this (even the dangers of making the caramel syrup) I knew that, even though I do love my sugar, that this was going to be borderline too sweet for me. The cake was dense, moist and delicious and the frosting was creamy, buttery and had a wonderful caramel / vanilla taste to it. For the vanilla in my frosting I ended up using vanilla bean paste. Both were fantastic, but I think I would like the frosting on a dark chocolate cake or something to offset the sweetness instead.

Thanks go out to our hosts this month Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, Jenny of Foray into Food and Alex of Blondie and Brownie, as well as Shuna of Eggbeater for the recipe and support of the groups efforts with graciously allowing us to use her recipe and taking questions, and Natalie from Gluten-a-Go-Go for helping with all the alternative baking questions.

Check out the Daring Bakers blogroll to see all the amazing caramelized sugary goodness this month!

CARAMEL CAKE WITH CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

10 Tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/4 Cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 Cup Caramel Syrup (see recipe below)
2 each eggs, at room temperature
splash vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350F

Butter one tall (2 – 2.5 inch deep) 9-inch cake pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth. Add sugar and salt & cream until light and fluffy.

Slowly pour room temperature caramel syrup into bowl. Scrape down bowl and increase speed. Add eggs/vanilla extract a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down bowl again, beat mixture until light and uniform.

Sift flour and baking powder. Turn mixer to lowest speed, and add one third of the dry ingredients. When incorporated, add half of the milk, a little at a time. Add another third of the dry ingredients, then the other half of the milk and finish with the dry ingredients. {This is called the dry, wet, dry, wet, dry method in cake making. It is often employed when there is a high proportion of liquid in the batter.}

Take off mixer and by hand, use a spatula to do a few last folds, making sure batter is uniform. Turn batter into prepared cake pan.Place cake pan on cookie sheet or 1/2 sheet pan. Set first timer for 30 minutes, rotate pan and set timer for another 15-20 minutes. Your own oven will set the pace. Bake until sides pull away from the pan and skewer inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool cake completely before icing it. Cake will keep for three days outside of the refrigerator.

CARAMEL SYRUP

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup water (for "stopping" the caramelization process)

In a small stainless steel saucepan, with tall sides, mix water and sugar until mixture feels like wet sand. Brush down any stray sugar crystals with wet pastry brush. Turn on heat to highest flame. Cook until smoking slightly: dark amber.

When color is achieved, very carefully pour in one cup of water. Caramel will jump and sputter about! It is very dangerous, so have long sleeves on and be prepared to step back.Whisk over medium heat until it has reduced slightly and feels sticky between two fingers. {Obviously wait for it to cool on a spoon before touching it.}Note: For safety reasons, have ready a bowl of ice water to plunge your hands into if any caramel should land on your skin.

CARAMELIZED BUTTER FROSTING

12 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons caramel syrup
Kosher or sea salt to taste

Cook butter until brown. Pour through a fine meshed sieve into a heatproof bowl, set aside to cool.

Pour cooled brown butter into mixer bowl.

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, add confectioner's sugar a little at a time. When mixture looks too chunky to take any more, add a bit of cream and or caramel syrup. Repeat until mixture looks smooth and all confectioner's sugar has been incorporated. Add salt to taste.

Note: Caramelized butter frosting will keep in fridge for up to a month.To smooth out from cold, microwave a bit, then mix with paddle attachment until smooth and light

(recipes above courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon)

Daring Bakers Toss Dough!! Pizza Time

For the very first time, the Daring Bakers have taken on the challenge of making pizza! Specifically, “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice” which Rosa, of Rosa's Yummy Yums, says "yields a beautifully tasty, thin, crispy, yet chewy pizza crust" - and it did! By the way, did you know that Mr. Reinhart has a blog?? Probably, but I didn't! Now I do. How fun!

Anyway, I have wanted to try making this kind of pizza crust ever since there was an extensive article in one of my copy of Cuisine at Home several years ago. The longer fermenting period and the idea that I could toss pizza at home was too fun. For some reason though I just always never found the time. Now I don't know why. The actual 'active' time that this recipe takes is so minimal. I think the problem for me is that when it comes to meals I haven't always been very good at planning ahead. Now, I am working at that more, and with the nudge from the DB challenge - the time of the tossing of dough in our house had finally arrived! I can't wait to see how the other Daring Bakers fared with tossing their dough.

As part of the challenge we were given the task of providing a photograph of our dough tossing experience and were challenged to try it with at least three of the dough balls. Well, I was determined to try it so I actually tossed all of them (especially since we didn't get much lift-off until the third round). It will be really fun to practise my technique and get better at this. My five year old thought it was the coolest thing he had seen me do in a long time. We usually make homemade pizza a couple of times a month so it would be really fun to incorporate this tradition into our routine.

After two not so good attempts at tossing the dough - it just stretched over my knuckles - I finally got my third dough ball into the right texture to give it a few tosses. It was a kind of giddy feeling and experience.

The only piece of specialty equipment I didn't already have was a pizza peel. I have wanted to get one for a long time, but just never have. I thought about trying to get one this time, but they were almost $30 and that just wasn't happening. So, I spent $1.50 instead on a nice, rectangular, clean piece of cardboard - a big sheet cake board. It worked perfectly. I just set the parchment onto the cake board and put the cornmeal on the parchment. I would still like to have a peel, but in the meantime, this works just fine.

For our toppings we didn't really get creative, because, well, this is what my son likes and it was just the two of us - cheese and pepperoni (aside from our usual bbq chicken and bacon topping) and this was a quick to put together dinner the other night. I did try to be a little creative though and I made my own 'stuffed crust' pizza. I used some pieces of string cheese, pulled into about three pieces so they weren't super thick, and wrapped them in the edge of the crust (sorry, no pictures of the how-to). It turned out really good and helped solve the problem for those who don't always like the crust edges (I do, but the five year old doesn't).

Thanks as always to Lis and Ivvone for creating this dynamic group and letting us all be a part of it. I know I don't get around to comment much, but I am seeing how you did and it is alot of fun! Anyway, I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did this month! Thanks to Rosa for a great challenge - you can find the recipe and directions for your own toss worthy dough on Rosa's blog and of course in Peter Reinhart's “The Bread Baker's Apprentice”!

Daring Bakers in September: Turbinado Crunch Lavash and Homemade Preserves

Another month has gone by already and I can't believe it! Time really does fly when you are busy I guess. For that, I am grateful that this month's Daring Baker's challenge, hosted by Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and co-host Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl and of course created by Lis and Ivonne, was not anything that was a long, drawn out process. I don't have anything against projects that are really long or take a lot of time, but this past month with my 5-year old just starting kindergarten, and everything going on with our very active 11 month old, I don't think I would have been able to make it.

So, I'm glad that this month the challenge was to make Lavash, a type of cracker. I have always thought about making crackers, but have never gotten around to it, so I was happy to give this a try. The real challenge for me this month was the fact that our lovely hostesses challenged us to go vegan. Yes, vegan. Me. I know. Laughable, really.

I am always up for a challenge and I have great respect for those of you out there that have the conviction and make the choice to be vegan or vegetarian. I am pretty sure I would die of starvation.

Anyway, the challenge of making this vegan meant that for the dip we were supposed to make to go with our crackers we also had to forego any animal products or by-products of any kind, including dairy, cheeses, honey, etc. This proved to actually stump me quite a bit for the first part of the month.

It finally occurred to me what I wanted to do just last week. I had recently made two kinds of homemade jam/preserves and though I had thought about topping my lavash with cinnamon and sugar, I opted to just go with some raw turbinado sugar. It ended up looking very pretty and being very tasty, with or without the jams. For one of the jams I made Peabody's mom's Pear Nutmeg Jam (visit Peabody for the recipe - it is a truly unique and extremely delicious jam - thanks again!). I also made a small batch of plum preserves which is incredibly good. Be looking for both jams to appear on this blog again soon with a recipe I have been playing around with that I love.

Thanks to Natalie and Shel for a great challenge and a great new recipe - and for making me think outside my regular options. Be sure to check out the Daring Bakers' Blogroll for more fabulous cracker and dip creations.

Lavash
Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers

1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour
1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
1 Tb (.75 oz) sugar
1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil
1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature

Raw Turbinado Sugar for topping

1. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, sugar, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

2. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. The dough should pass the windowpane test (see http://www.wikihow.com/Determine-if-Bre … ong-Enough for a discription of this) and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4. Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Line a sheet pan with baking parchment. Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices (or sugar) on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.) Be careful with spices and salt - a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough. You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking. If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first.

5. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

6. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. You can then snap them apart or snap off shards and serve.

RECIPE - Recipe Reference: The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread, by Peter Reinhart. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA. Copyright 2001. ISBN-10: 1-58008-268-8, ISBN-13: 978-158008-268-6.

Quick Plum Preserves
Gourmet July 2002

Active time: 45 min Start to finish: 2 hr
Servings: Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

2 lb firm-ripe red, black, or fresh prune plums, halved and pitted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick (I used 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

Coarsely chop plums (I pulsed them to small chunks in the food processor) and stir together with sugar, water, and cinnamon stick or powder in a 2-quart heavy saucepan.

Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally (more often toward end of cooking to prevent sticking), until thickened and reduced to about 2 1/2 cups, 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Discard cinnamon stick (if using) and cool preserves. Transfer to an airtight container and chill, covered.

Cooks' note: • Preserves keep, chilled, 1 month.

Daring Bakers in August: Chocolate Eclairs

Welcome to the August 2008 challenge. This month's hosts were Tony Tahhan and MeetaK! MeetaK chose a recipe from her "darling sugar daddy Pierre Hermé" from a cookbook written by Dorie Greenspan: Chocolate Desserts By Pierre Hermé . While Meeta has had this book for ages. I have wanted it for ages, so I although the recipe is here for me to make and as I reminder, the month got away from me and I haven't been able to make it yet.

So, make sure to check out the other Daring Baker's blogs for their creations. My apologies to our hosts and all for waiting til the last minute and nissing the boat! I promise to be back on the ball next month!

Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé

- Éclairs consist of 3 elements:- Pâte à Choux, also known as Choux Pastry or Cream Puff Dough
- Pastry Cream
- Chocolate Glaze

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(Makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 4 1/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes: The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:

1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.

2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(Makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together veryquickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your hand mixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:

1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by PierreHermé

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stopping) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat). Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:

1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(Makes 1 cup or 300g)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:

1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly
in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(Makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar 1)

Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:

1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.

2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Daring Bakers in July: Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

Prepare yourself for one of the strangest analogies concerning baking that you may ever hear from me. Before I get to that though, let me take care of some formalities. This month's Daring Baker's Challenge put before us was chosen by Chris over at Mele Cotte (which is where you can find the recipe as well). I can completely see why she chose this cake because it looked fabulous - and thoroughly complicated. Many components, many skills needed. The end result - well, it really was nothing short of fantastic - and surprisingly different than the Opera Cake from May, which is the only other nut based cake I have made before. The flavors all blended and complimented each other perfectly and the texture was amazingly light and airy.

However, this recipe, in all of its 9 pages of printed glory, task after task and component after component, had me swearing up and down that this cake would most likely never be made by me again. This is the cake that took large portions of two whole days to make, we had to make a cake, a glaze, a ganache, a whipped cream, toast and skin the hazelnuts, make caramel, make nut brittle, make it into praline paste, make a swiss meringue buttercream, make a sugar syrup, torte the cake, use all of the above components to put it all together - along with appropriate waiting, cooling, chilling, wrapping, decorating, etc, etc.

Add on to that trying to make it in a strange kitchen with plenty of challenges (long story short - well, environmental conditions, unknown oven and wrong pan size all contributed to my cake basically falling apart - thus why the layers look so awful and crumbled!).

In other words this was basically a complete process in craziness to make. While I enjoyed the challenge - since I decided to make this at my parents place - they basically thought I was nuts. For two days I just heard "is it done yet?" "You still have to do what??"

So... the analogy that occurred to me as I sat tonight thinking about what I had to say about this cake? Well, it is no secret that pregnancy is not easy for me. I have long believed that women must have some switch in their brain that as soon as you get that sweet baby (or not too long there after) even though the pregnancy itself was (for me anyway) an awful, painful, life threatening experience that I didn't think I would ever be able to or want to repeat - then you find yourself thinking about going through it all over again, because the end result is so worthwhile.

So... while I don't think this cake is near as wonderful as my babies - and I know I couldn't go through making this cake often, its siren song is already calling to me to try again. It really was a delightful new experience to eat (if not entirely to make).

Make sure to check out the amazing creations of all the other Daring Bakers and their adventures.

Daring Bakers Danish Braid - Better Late Than Never!

Because this month of July is turning out to be even crazier than June was, I am so so glad that I was able to get the time this past week to make the Danish Braid from June's Daring Baker's challenge. I was determined to get to it and though I didn't get to it until after the posting date and I didn't get to make all the variations I wanted to - let me just tell you - I am SO glad that I got to it! This dough is so good!!! And, it was fun to make!

Well, since I'm still a crazy person I'm going to keep my comments brief, but the dough was flaky, tender and tasted wonderful. I used the combination of nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger in the dough instead of cardamom and it was delicious. For my filling I made a simple cream cheese filling and a layer of raspberry jam.

The other half of my dough is in the freezer, just waiting until I have another chance to do something fun with it and makes some other pastry shapes.

Thank you to Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’? for choosing such a wonderful selection for June that got me to try making something I've wanted to for a long time.

The recipe for the Danish dough comes from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking.

DANISH DOUGH
Makes 2-1/2 pounds dough

Ingredients

For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DOUGH

Combine yeast and milk in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed. Slowly add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice. Mix well. Change to the dough hook and add the salt with the flour, 1 cup at a time, increasing speed to medium as the flour is incorporated. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, or until smooth. You may need to add a little more flour if it is sticky. Transfer dough to a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Without a standing mixer: Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain. Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

BUTTER BLOCK

1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free. Set aside at room temperature.

2. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

4. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.

CREAM CHEESE FILLING

Makes enough for two braids

Ingredients
8 oz cream cheese, sotened
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg

2/3 cup raspberry preserves

Beat all ingredients (except the preserves) together in a mixing bowl until smooth and light, approximately 3 minutes.

DANISH BRAID

Makes enough for 2 large braids

Ingredients

1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

2. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.

3. Spoon the filling to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.

Egg Wash

Whisk together the whole egg and yolk in a bowl and with a pastry brush, lightly coat the braid.

Proofing and Baking

1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.

2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.

3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.

Daring Bakers and the Opera Cake

It's time again for another Daring Baker's post and this time the Daring Bakers have gone to the Opera to boot - Opera Cake that is. This month the theme came to us from none other than the Daring Baker's fearless creators, Lisa and Ivonne, with co-hosts Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea of Whiskful . It was also our lovely hostesses idea to give us all the opportunity to dedicate our post to Barbara of Winos and Foodies. As they pointed out, though Barbara she is no longer an active member of the Daring Bakers, as Lisa "so eloquently put it," Barbara will "always be an honourary Daring Baker for her bravery and character in the face of a challenge." So, as a tribute to the incredible, "un-sinkable" Barbara, who as you may know is the mastermind behind the Taste of Yellow food blogging worldwide cancer awareness event for Lance Armstrong's LiveSTRONG Foundation.

Barbara is incredible for so many reasons and has been one of my favorite bloggers to read and be inspired by, and not just because of the wonderful food she makes, but because of what a beautiful and incredible person she is. She is a wonderful inspiration and support to so many - myself included.

So, for this May Daring Bakers Challenge we were also given the task to choose our flavor combinations from an array of choices as long as they were "light" to call this "A Taste of Light" in honor of Barbara. I chose to repeat the flavors of the Lemon and Raspberry Whoopie Pies I made last month for Barbara's event.

Thanks to the Daring Bakers for another great challenge - make sure to check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see everyone's creations!

A few notes about what you see in the pictures and what you see in the recipe. I cut the original recipe - which is shown below - in half and baked one half-sheet baking pan and cut it into three equal rectangles for a long rectangular cake that made about 10 servings. Also, in the layers in the picture you can see that I tried to do a layer of preserves and then the buttercream on top - this really didn't work very well - so I have left the directions for that out since I don't recommend doing it. I think that the top layer, when I just mixed the preserves into the buttercream was my favorite. This cake seems to be too absorbant to have the jam layer without turning your cake layers into mush.

Also, it should be noted that I chose to use the buttercream recipe from a previous DB Challenge - Dorie's Perfect Party Cake. There was some confusion with the two versions of the buttercream recipe given for this challenge, and since I knew I wanted to make the lemon version anyway, I decided to make Dorie's version again.

Either way, this cake was fun to make and was very, very yummy. Though there are four different steps (or five) in the recipes to make, none of the recipes is especially difficult to make. My real mistake in the assembly, as mentioned above, was not taking into account how absorbant the cake was going to be with the jam layer I attemped.

I will be excited to try this again with some other, more traditional Opera Cake flavors. Thanks again to our four lovely hostesses for a great recipe and super fun challenge!

Raspberry Lemon Opera Cake

For the joconde:
(Note: The joconde can be made up to 1 day in advance and kept wrapped at room temperate)

What you’ll need:

• 2 12½ x 15½-inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans (Note: If you do not have jelly-roll pans this size, do not fear! You can use different-sized jelly-roll pans like 10 x 15-inches.)
• a few tablespoons of melted butter (in addition to what’s called for in the ingredients’ list) and a brush (to grease the pans)
• parchment paper
• a whisk and a paddle attachment for a stand mixer or for a handheld mixer
• two mixing bowls (you can make do with one but it’s preferable to have two)

Ingredients:
6 large egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp. (30 grams) granulated sugar
2 cups (225 grams) ground blanched almonds (grind blanched almonds in the food processor with a tablespoon or two of the flour that you would use in the cake - you will need about 2 cups of blanched almonds to create enough almond meal for this cake.)
2 cups icing sugar, sifted
6 large eggs
½ cup (70 grams) all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. (1½ ounces; 45 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. Divide the oven into thirds by positioning a rack in the upper third of the oven and the lower third of the oven.

2. Preheat the oven to 425◦F. (220◦C).

3. Line two 12½ x 15½- inch (31 x 39-cm) jelly-roll pans with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a handheld mixer), beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy. If you do not have another mixer bowl, gently scrape the meringue into another bowl and set aside.

5. If you only have one bowl, wash it after removing the egg whites or if you have a second bowl, use that one. Attach the paddle attachment to the stand mixer (or using a handheld mixer again) and beat the almonds, icing sugar and eggs on medium speed until light and voluminous, about 3 minutes.

6. Add the flour and beat on low speed until the flour is just combined (be very careful not to overmix here!!!).

7. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond mixture and then fold in the melted butter. Divide the batter between the pans and spread it evenly to cover the entire surface of each pan.

8. Bake the cake layers until they are lightly browned and just springy to the touch. This could take anywhere from 5 to 9 minutes depending on your oven. Place one jelly-roll pan in the middle of the oven and the second jelly-roll pan in the bottom third of the oven.

9. Put the pans on a heatproof counter and run a sharp knife along the edges of the cake to loosen it from the pan. Cover each with a sheet of parchment or wax paper, turn the pans over, and unmold.

10. Carefully peel away the parchment, then turn the parchment over and use it to cover the cakes. Let the cakes cool to room temperature.

For the syrup
(Note: The syrup can be made up to 1 week in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator.)

What you’ll need:
•a small saucepan

Ingredients:
½ cup (125 grams) water
⅓ cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract

1. Stir all the syrup ingredients together in the saucepan and bring to a boil.

2. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.

For the buttercream:
(Note: The buttercream can be made up to 1 month in advance and packed in an airtight container. If made way in advance, you can freeze the buttercream. Alternatively you can refrigerate it for up to 4 days after making it. To use the buttercream simply bring it to room temperature and then beat it briefly to restore its consistency).

What you’ll need:
• a small saucepan
• a candy or instant-read thermometer
• a stand mixer or handheld mixer
• a bowl and a whisk attachment
• rubber spatula

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable (puree in food processor to make it smooth if necessary)

To Make the Buttercream:
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat.

Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.

Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.

On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly. When you are ready to assemble the cake, stir in the raspberry preserves for in between the layers.

Refrigerate the buttercream, stirring it often, until it’s set enough (firm enough) to spread when topped with a layer of cake (about 20 minutes).

For the Glaze:
(Note: It’s best to make the glaze right when you’re ready to finish the cake.)

What you’ll need:
• a small saucepan or double boiler

Ingredients:
14 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup heavy cream (35% cream)

1. Melt the white chocolate with the heavy cream. Whisk the mixture gently until smooth.

2. Let cool for 10 minutes and then pour over the chilled cake. Using a long metal cake spatula, smooth out into an even layer.

3. Place the cake into the refrigerator for 30 minutes to set.

Assembling the Opéra Cake:
(Note: The finished cake should be served slightly chilled. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 day).

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Working with one sheet of cake at a time, cut and trim each sheet so that you have two pieces (from each cake so you’ll have four pieces in total): one 10-inch (25-cm) square and one 10 x 5-inch (25 x 12½-cm) rectangle.

Step A (if using buttercream only and not making the ganache/mousse):

Place one square of cake on the baking sheet and moisten it gently with the flavoured syrup. Spread about one-third of the buttercream over this layer. Top with the two rectangular pieces of cake, placing them side by side to form a square. Moisten these pieces with the flavoured syrup. Spread another third of the buttercream on the cake and then top with the third square of joconde. Use the remaining syrup to wet the joconde. Spread the remaining buttercream on top of the final layer of joconde and then refrigerate until very firm (at least half an hour).

Make the glaze and after it has cooled, pour/spread it over the top of the chilled cake. Refrigerate the cake again to set the glaze. Serve the cake slightly chilled. This recipe will yield approximately 20 servings.

Daring Bakers: April Challenge - Cheesecake Pops

It's that time again! The fabulous Daring Baker's are once again flooding the foodosphere (I have no idea if that is a real word, but it's late, and there you go). This time it is with lovely little Cheesecake Pops. Yup, yummy goodness of baked cheesecake, scooped, dipped, dressed up and on a stick. What's not to love, right? Right.

As you can imagine, with this past week has been busy with the roundup for the Blogging for Babies Event (and don't forget to check it out and vote for your favorites to help them win some prizes!). Then the March for Babies was held this morning and went really well - but more about that later. You're here for cheesecake, right? Right.

So, a lot of the DB's sounded like they had trouble baking the cheesecake, and I took my cue from them. I didn't deviate from the recipe, but partly by default and an uncooperative baby, ended up letting the cheesecake bake for about 60 minutes, when it still was just barely setting and then it actually had to sit in the water bath while it cooled til I could get back to take it out later - so, because that ended up being perfect (lucky for me and those 40 oz of cream cheese the recipe calls for). The cheesecake consistency was the perfect for scooping. I would say my only "complaint" if any was my utter clumsiness in actually trying to get these babies into a good shape. I used my 2 oz scoop and even weighed them just to be safe, but they were so soft I couldn't work them into nice round balls (or any other shape for that matter). Once frozen there was no shaping either. So, I just scooped and let it take its own rough shape. So, while I'm sure that my Cheesecake Pops aren't the prettiest out there, overall I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

I chose to dip mine in bittersweet chocolate and red candy melt (from Wilton) with a layer of graham cracker underneath. The big surprise (for me anyway) was the fact that I liked a couple that I left with just the graham cracker (no other coating) the very best. I guess I'm a cheesecake purist or something.

So, here you go. The recipe with a few notes from me in italics. Thank you to our lovely hostesses this month, Elle at Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah at Taste and Tell. I thought their challenge and recipe was absolutely inspired and definately a challenge. Thanks again!

As always, don't miss out on what all the other Daring Bakers and Alternative Daring Bakers have offered up this time around. Seriously, go check it out!

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops (I got closer to 30 at the almost exact weight of 2 oz)

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes. (Mine baked for about 60 minutes until it was pretty set if not completely firm and barely golden - as I mentioned above though, I ended it taking it out of the oven and not getting to take it out of the water bath until it had pretty much cooled completely. I think that actually worked in my favor because I was firm and well set, but not browned. It was either end up burning it before I could take it out of the oven though, or take it out before it was completely done. So, there you go, lucky for me the carryover heat really did the trick).

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

How to Bake a Daring Cake - Dorie's Perfect Party Cake Revamp

This month the Daring Bakers are flooding the food blogging world with Dorie's Perfect Party Cake, as chosen by Morven of Food Art and Random Thoughts. She also decided that we could all play with the flavors to our hearts content as long as we used the original recipes as our base jumping off point.

So, while I made an orange-strawberry version with some dulce de leche, there are many surprises waiting at the Daring Bakers' blogroll .

Let me start by saying thank you to Morven for the theme and the recipe - I loved this cake! Making it was as much of a pleasure for me as eating it was. My only regret was adding the dulce de leche on top because it slid off (even more than in the pictures). Next time I will just serve that alongside for anyone who wants more than in the layers.

I also wanted to mention that, hands-down, my favorite part of the entire process was rubbing the zest with the sugar. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that getting in there with your fingers and working the sugar until it is moist and fragrant had a completely calming effect on me. I think I would happily wake up and do this every morning to help wake up. It was awesome and I had to taste just a little of the orange sugar which, of course tasted like candy. I loved it so much that I sprinkled more on the top of the cake to highlight it. That was absolutely my favorite part!

I had actually never made buttercream before and though I gave some passing thought to not trying it this time either, I knew I wanted to make it and see what it was like. I am so glad that I did. I actually didn't have any trouble with it and it was a pleasure to work with. I added 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste to mine for flavor and the lightly speckled effect. I now know that I will use both recipes many more times to come.

I layered the cakes with strawberry buttercream (by taking 1/3 of the entire buttercream and mixing in some smooth pureed strawberry preserves) and a center layer of dulce de leche. It was awesome!

Here was the process of rubbing the sugar with the orange zest - I wonder if Blogger is working on smell-o-vision capabilities - oh well, until then, you HAVE to try this.

Here is where I added the butter and creamed it. As you can see, mine never got very light and fluffy, but I pressed on and it didn't seem to be a problem.

Here is the cake and the layering process. Yeah, now you can see the problem with the dulce de leche. The inside layer of the cake wouldn't have oozed as much if I hadn't poured it onto the smooth side of the cake. Next time I'll know better.

And here is the piece I ate for Easter. The orange-strawberry-dulce de leche combo was insanely good and the cake was devoured very quickly at a friend's house where I took it as Easter dessert. I was even told that it was the "best dessert" they had ever had. Since they have had some amazing desserts, this is high praise indeed. I am thrilled to have this recipe, and the ability to play around with the flavors, in my arsenal.

Orange Infused Party Cake with Vanilla, Strawberry & Dulce de Leche
(Adapted from Dorie's Perfect Party Cake)

For the Cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Buttercream:
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon orange juice (from 1 large orange)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

For Finishing:
1/2 cup strawberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable (puree in food processor to make it smooth if necessary)
1/3 cup dulce de leche

Getting Ready:
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet (I didn't have a big enough baking sheet so I just baked them directly on the rack).

To Make the Cake:
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl. Put the sugar and orange zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed. Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated. Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients. Finally, give the batter a good 2-minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.

Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean. Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners. Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream:
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes. The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream. Remove the bowl from the heat. Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth. Once all the butter is in, beat the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes. During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again. On medium speed, gradually beat in the orange juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla. You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly. When you are ready to assemble the cake, place 1/3 of the buttercream into a seperate bowl and whisk in the strawberry preserves for in between two of the layers.

To Assemble the Cake:
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half. Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper. Spread it with one-half of the preserves/buttercream mixture. Top with another layer, spread with a layer of dulce de leche and then do the third layer the same as the first with the remainder of the strawberry buttercream. Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.

Serving:
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold.

Storing:
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.