Daring Bakers: Meringue Coffee Cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. These are a close cousin to cinnamon rolls, but with a few twists (literally!).

Before the fillings are layered on the rolled out dough, meringue is slathered on.

Then comes the filling, which can be anything you chose really. I decided to follow the recipe, which included a light sprinkling of cinnamon sugar (just enough!), chopped pecans, and chocolate chips.

The dough is rolled up jelly-roll style and arranged in a ring.

The dough is cut through in various places. These slits can be as shallow or deep as desired.

The rings are allowed to rise, then brushed with egg wash and baked. And voila!!

These were very tasty and I loved the addition of chocolate chips. They were different from regular cinnamon rolls in that the filling seemed to melt into the bread, which was not a bad thing. I'd like to try this was a really generous layer of cinnamon and sugar and see what happens.

Thanks to Ria and Jaime for a great challenge! It was enough to bring me back from a long hiatus from daring bakers (I'm half surprised I haven't been kicked out).

If you'd like to see the recipe, click on the links in the first paragraph to either Jamie's or Ria's blogs.

Gingered Carrot Cookies, Crostata, Semolina Cake!

I am waaaaaay behind schedule this week. Not only did we host Thanksgiving dinner, but my parents came to visit (yeah!) and we also had my son's birthday party (I won't bother showing you a picture of the 12 brownies (from a box) with candles in each one.... boring).

So anyway, I'm going to get caught up on the sweets and treats I made last week.


We did a "rewind" (i.e. previous recipe) for Tuesday's with Dorie this week. I picked the Gingered Carrot Cookies that were chosen by Natalia from gatti fili e farina in August of this year. I didn't make them the first time around and figured I'd serve them on Thanksgiving.

These were a moist, spicy cookie that didn't really scream "carrot cake" but they had a great texture due to the coconut, carrots, raisins and nuts. I decided to pump them up a notch with a little cream cheese frosting on top. It seemed like an obvious choice. These were a big hit with the T-day crowd.

Next up is the Crostata we were challenged to make for the Daring Bakers. I chose to fill my crostata with the most lovely and delicious butterscotch pudding we made a couple of years ago for TWD. It's so good I want to hide it and not share with anyone.


OK, go ahead and say it, I won't get my feelings hurt... this is one of the most boring, drab, dull, tan desserts ever photographed and posted on the web.

This was another Thanksgiving dessert and I was lucky to get a picture.

The crostata crust was cookie like thanks to the inclusion of egg in the recipe and held up very well even after several days. A winner in my book, for sure.

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

Last but not least is the Caramel-Topped Semolina Cake for French Fridays with Dorie.


This was a unique dessert. Honestly, I think it would have been perfect for brunch because it almost seemed like sweetened breakfast food. Not surprising since the ingredient list includes farina, which can be substituted with Cream of Wheat hot cereal.


Here's the thing, though. I do NOT like Cream of Wheat. And farina? Searching for that unusual ingredient was not going to happen during Thanksgiving week. Fortunately, I discovered that Malt-O-Meal hot cereal is also made with farina, and I just happen to love the stuff. So that's what I used.

It was quite tasty and had a very moist, dense texture. Almost like Italian polenta, if you've ever had that. But again, I would be more tempted to eat it for a weekend breakfast than serve it as dessert.

OK, that's about it! Now I can try to get caught up on this week's recipes for TWD and FFwD.

You can find the cookie recipe at Natalia's site. The Semolina Cake recipe isn't available, sadly, but you can find it in Dorie Greenspan's book "Around my French Table". As for the crostata, I used the this version of the crust recipe...

Pasta Frolla
Ingredients:

•1/2 c. minus 1 tablespoon [105 ml, 100 g, 3 ½ oz] superfine sugar (see Note 1) or a scant 3/4 cup [180ml, 90g, 3 oz] of powdered sugar
•1 and 3/4 cup [420 ml, 235 g, 8 1/4 oz.] unbleached all-purpose flour
•a pinch of salt
•1 stick [8 tablespoons / 4 oz. / 115 g] cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
•grated zest of half a lemon (you could also use vanilla sugar as an option, see Note 2)
•1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl
Note 1: Superfine sugar is often also referred to as ultrafine, baker’s sugar or caster sugar. It’s available in most supermarkets. If you cannot find “superfine” sugar, you can make your own by putting some regular granulated sugar in a food processor or blender and letting it run until the sugar is finely ground.

Note 2: There are different ways of making vanilla sugar. I keep vanilla beans in a jar half-filled with sugar until I need to use them, for example, to make vanilla ice cream. After I remove the split bean from the custard that will go into the ice cream maker, I rinse it, dry it and put it back in the jar with sugar.

Making pasta frolla by hand:

1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.
3. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).
4. Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
6. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
7. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

Making pasta frolla with a food processor:

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

Daring Bakers: Doughnuts (and Cinnamon Rolls!)

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

This was my first time making donuts. I guess I was thinking donut-making was far more complicated.

It's not.

A standard yeast dough is rolled out and the donuts are cut and allowed to rise.



A few minutes in hot oil and voila! Donuts!

Who knew?


The whole experience went really well and I didn't have any problems except one. My oil got too hot and I think some donuts got darker than I expected. However, if I ever decide to do some serious donut making, I'll dig out my deep fryer, with it's temperature control, and then I'll be golden. Like donuts.

And how did they taste? Wonderful! They were just as good or better than any purchased donuts I've tried. If I make these again, I'm definitely going to try a chocolate glaze. Those would rock!

Quickly, before I go, I'll share what I did with the rest of the dough (I made 1/2 recipe and only made 6 donuts... I don't need platefuls of donuts around my house!) I rolled out the rest of the dough into a rectangle about a scant 1/4 inch thick and layered on melted butter, a generous sprinkling of cinnamon, and sugar and rolled them up into cinnamon rolls.


I thought I'd try making them in a muffin tin, for a change of pace.


They were quite good, but I think I won't make them in a muffin tin again. They seemed dryer and more chewy on the bottoms. Still good, though.

OK, that's that. Thanks to Lori for a fun and tasty challenge!

Yeast Doughnuts:
Recipe from Alton Brown on the Food Network
Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes
Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size

Ingredients
Milk 1.5 cup / 360 ml
Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz
Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)
Eggs, Large, beaten 2
White Granulated Sugar ¼ cup / 60 ml / 55 gm / 2 oz
Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz
Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz
All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:
1. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
2. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
4. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
5. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
6. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
7. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
8. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
9. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
10. Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
11. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
12. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

Daring Bakers: Decorated Sugar Cookies

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

Mandy added an extra challenge to the challenge by making it themed. We were to make decorated sugar cookies with a theme of "September".

I thought I'd make it a little "Diary in Cookies" to chronicle some of the more interesting happenings in my family this month. The big event this month was "back to school" after an extra long summer break.


This is my son's first year of middle school. Guess what time the middle school bus comes.

6:30 a.m.!

Oh sweet mother! I do not want to hear this at 5:45 am:


I'm not a morning person. This is about what I look like in the morning.


But... I'm slow but surely (sort of) getting used to it (I think, maybe).

September hasn't been all school and early rousing... we've had some fun too; like family birthday parties.


And watching the Cincinnati Reds as they march their way toward the playoffs (YEA!).


Another noteworthy event from this month was that my husband spent most of it in Thailand, on assignment with his job.


And... that's about it for September!

I used a slightly different method for coloring the cookies than using colored icings. You see, I despise coloring icing. I don't know why, but I do. Instead, I outlined all of my cookies in black and then filled in with white. I then let them sit overnight for the royal icing to harden some.


Then I used edible markers in some cases...


and watered down food coloring in others. When using this method, I dab the first bit of paint onto a paper towel so I don't lay down too much color. You have to be careful not to wet the royal icing too much.


I guess I need to admit that I don't use this coloring method often, mostly because I'm not crazy about hard royal icing on my cookies. But if you don't mind royal icing, it can be a time saver when you aren't making a large quantity of cookies. If you try it, you need to experiment to make sure the cookies turn out like you want... it's a little less predictable than coloring with paint on paper.

OK, If you'd like to see the recipes we used this month, please visit Mandy's site. She's got them posted. I have to admit that I prefer my own sugar cookie recipe just a bit more, so I'll post it here. But be sure to stop by Mandy's site, she's got some excellent tips and how-to photos.

Thanks Mandy, for a great challenge!

Melissa's Sugar Cookies

This is my go-to sugar cookie recipe that I got from a friend and cookie-decorator extraordinaire. These cookies are soft and cakey with just a hint of salt. This recipe is perfect for cut-out cookies or, any other sugar cookie needs, such as Halloween mummies.

1 C. sugar
1 C. salted butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2-1/2 to 3 C self-rising flour

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add 2-1/2 C. flour. If dough is sticky to the touch keep adding flour until no longer sticky. I typically use about 2-3/4 cups flour.

Dough does not need to be chilled, but can be. If the kitchen is warm, I will chill my pan of cut out cookie shapes before baking to keep them from spreading in the oven.

For cut out cookies, roll to desired thickness (I use a smidge thicker than 1/4 inch), cut shapes with cookie cutters and lay on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 6-9 minutes. I like them just set with no brown edges. Watch the tops while baking, when they no longer have a sheen, they're done.

If you want, stop by my "no cookie cutter? no problem" post to see how I roll them to a perfect thickness every time.

OK, see you next month!

Daring Bakers: Ice Cream Petit Fours

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


I have to admit this is not my best work. At least these petit fours tasted pretty darn tasty to make up for their homeliness.

Our school district is having the longest summer break in recorded history, so in this, our 14th and final week of break, I'm just trying to hold on to the last whisp of sanity I have without putting any of the 4-foot tall members of the family up for adoption. Things like getting my Daring Bakers challenge to look appetizing or even posted have taken a back burner this month.

But anyway, there you go, I did it. And I'm glad I did. I love anything with brown butter in it, so I enjoyed this cake (although by itself, it was a little dry). Next time I will have to try this with some fantastic browned butter ice cream that I've made before and fell deeply, madly in love with.

For some infinitely more beautiful and inspired versions, please check out the Daring Baker's Blogroll. You can find the recipes below.

Chow!

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (165g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise OR 2 teaspoons (10ml) pure vanilla extract
2 cups (500ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon (5ml) pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams. Scrape out the seeds of the vanilla bean with a paring knife and add to the milk, along with the bean pod. Cover, remove from heat, and let infuse for an hour. (If you do not have a vanilla bean, simply heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.)

2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2 litre) bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.

3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour ¼ cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.

4. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract (1 teaspoon [5ml] if you are using a vanilla bean; 3 teaspoons [15ml] if you are not using a vanilla bean) and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze in an ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can make it without a machine. See instructions from David Lebovitz: http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html

Chocolate Glaze

9 ounces (250g) dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 ml) heavy (approx 35% butterfat) cream
1 1/2 tablespoons (32g) light corn syrup, Golden syrup, or agave nectar
2 teaspoons (10ml) vanilla extract

Stir the heavy cream and light corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add the dark chocolate. Let sit 30 seconds, then stir to completely melt the chocolate. Stir in the vanilla and let cool until tepid before glazing the petit fours.

Assembly Instructions – Ice Cream Petit Fours

1. Line a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) pan with plastic wrap, so that no sides of the pan are exposed and so there is some extra plastic wrap hanging off the sides. Spread 1 ¾ to 2 cups (450ml to 500ml) ice cream into the pan. Cover with more plastic wrap and freeze several hours.

2. Once the brown butter pound cake has completely cooled, level the top with a cake leveler or a serrated knife. Then split the cake in half horizontally to form two thin layers.

3. Unwrap the frozen ice cream. Flip out onto one of the layers of cake and top with the second layer of cake. Wrap well in plastic wrap and return to the freezer overnight.

4. Make the chocolate glaze (see above.)

5. While the glaze cools, trim ¾” (2cm) off each side of the ice cream cake to leave a perfectly square 7.5” (19cm) ice cream cake. Cut the cake into twenty five petit fours, each 1.5”x1.5” (4cmx4cm).

6. Glaze the petit fours one at a time: place a petit four on a fork and spoon chocolate glaze over it.

7. Place the petit fours on a parchment-lined baking sheet and return to the freezer for one hour.

Daring Bakers: Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.


You can see from Sunita's how-to and recipe (on her blog) that this is a thin chocolate cake first layered with cream filling and then rolled jelly-roll style. The cake is sliced and then used to line a bowl. The "bowl" of cake is then filled with ice cream and fudge. The cake is inverted and voila! An extra fancy ice cream cake.


I decided to forgo the fudge filling and do a Neapolitan theme instead. For the strawberry ice cream I blended some vanilla ice cream with strawberries in the food processor... so easy!

This was a great dessert! I loved the cake and whipped cream layer, I might have to make that by itself next time.

I can't help but thinking my cake kind of looked like a mutant-cake-monkey.



If you'd like the recipe, please visit Sunita's blog. She has a most-excellent pictorial how-to as well.

OK, can't wait to see what next month's Daring Bakers Challenge is. Hopefully it will be as fun and tasty as this one.

Daring Bakers: Croquembouche

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

This recipe is all about cream puffs. Kicked-up-a-notch cream puffs. Piled high in a gravity-defying mountain of cream puffs, glued together with sticky (then oh-so perfectly crunchy) caramel.

Sweet, sweet cream puffs. How do I love thee?

It all starts out as pate a choux being piped onto parchment paper. (Lucky me, I have a group of lovely friends that also like to bake. I enlisted their help taking on this month's challenge. We've also baked some other fantastic treats that I will share later.)


The magic little pastry puffs are cooled and then filled with heaven's gift to the pastry world, pastry cream.


Next comes the stacking, a scary proposition for a first timer.


A healthy drizzling of caramel and then it's time to stand back and admire. Ahhh....


oooh...


Last but not least, dig in. Wish I had some pictures of the carnage to share with you.

Oh my, this was such a lovely challenge. I didn't think cream puffs could be improved upon, but the crunchy caramel did just that. Thanks so much to Cat for the challenge. I seriously loved everything about it!

Croquembouche
Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring ¼ cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.

For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.


Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!

Daring Bakers: Traditional English Pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

For those that don't know, a "traditional British pudding" is a dessert that is cooked by steaming. It's more cake or pie-like than it is like typical American-style pudding. Esther also added a very interesting ingredient challenge, suet, a solid fat that comes from cows.

I wasn't quite up to using the suet as-is, since I didn't know the good parts from the bad, so I heated it until the fat liquefied then I strained it through cheesecloth. Below you can see the suet raw, after straining, and once it's had a chance to harden back up.






I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by how beef-ish my house smelled afterwards.

OK, so far, so good. I decided to mix the suet crust in the food processor. Here you can see pre- and post-processing (say that three times fast).




I lined my Pyrex blow with the crust and added apples mixed with sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice to the brim.

I have to admit I had my doubts when I noticed my crust tasted ever so slightly beefy.




Oops, didn't have quite enough crust left to cover the top properly. But, since the top would eventually become the bottom, I didn't sweat it.


I sprinkled the top with sugar and a little bit of Lyle's Golden Syrup.


It was at this point that I sadly realized that this particular "pudding" isn't actually steamed. It's baked. D'oh! Looks like I'm only only half finished with this challenge. But anyway, here's the pudding after baking and unmolding.




Isn't it pretty? It was delish too. The pastry was pleasingly flaky and crumbly, and didn't taste like beef after all. It was very good with apples. I would definitely try this again.

I chose to made the Toffee Apple Pudding from The Pudding Club website (recipe is---> HERE.)
OK, that's all folks. Thanks so much, Esther! I really enjoyed trying this most interesting dessert.