Coconut! No Hazelnut! Noo Coconut!

Happy Holidays!

This was my first challenge as part of the Daring Bakers, and while things definitely didn’t go 100% according to plan, I can’t get over how much fun it was!

After a long and brutal month of excessive work and snow in the northeast, today marked my first day of vacation down in the slightly warmer southeast. I had whole day….A WHOLE DAY….with no snow to shovel, no errands to run, and a big ol’ Yule log to bake. I also had the pleasure of my three siblings’ company in the kitchen. Aside from being delightful, they were also very good at hollering directions when I’d left the recipe on the other side of the room.

Things started out well. The cake batter was silky and gorgeous, and the cake came out slightly golden and not too dry. (I followed the recipe as written, but I ended up leaving it in for about 8 or 9 minutes.) I had decided to fill the roll with a coconut filling that my grandmother uses in her to die for coconut sour cream cake. Word of this decision began to spread, and after a few minutes, I heard my brother wail: “What?!? Coconut?? Nooooo”. He looked pretty forlorn, and this was, after all, the season of giving. So I reluctantly agreed to go with a chocolate hazelnut filling instead. And then I changed my mind. I really wanted the coconut. I’d do half and half….a black and white Yule log! (Later we learned that he doesn’t even like cake that much and might not even eat any. Much sighing and eye rolling ensued.)

I made the fillings. That all went fine. But then it came time to roll. That was a rather messy process, as I’d put a little too much filling on before rolling, and both fillings were a little on the thin/runny side. No biggie, messes can be cleaned up. However, I also don’t think I rolled it tight enough. I’m curious to see what it looks like when we cut into it.

Buttercream time! Chocolate buttercream! After it curdled, I used the tip for fixing buttercream that I’d read on the Daring Bakers blog, and it worked beautifully. Everything post-icing-the-log was just fun. My sisters, brother, and I gathered around a ball of marzipan, molding four distinctly different types of mushrooms that I’m sure say a lot about our personalities. (I’m not sure mine say anything flattering.) I’d made meringue cookies several times before, and I was tempted to go this route, because of its familiarity. I’m glad I didn’t. The marzipan came together very easily, offered an opportunity to play with food, and the almond scent was intoxicating.

Finally, I topped the log with some shredded coconut snow, added a few cranberries and mint leaves dipped egg whites and sugar, and then arranged the mushrooms as artfully as I could. It’s not perfect, but it’s not bad! It’s pretty gosh darn cute. All and all, I feel good about my first challenge, and can’t wait to see what January brings.

Amy B

First Daring Baker Challenge: White Chocolate Raspberry Yule Log

So not only was this my first Daring Baker challenge but it was also my first time making a yule log. Since I was home for Christmas, I had the pleasure of having a wonderful assistant – my mom! I decided I wanted to try something different, so I decided to make a white chocolate genoise cake. I followed the recipe with the only exception being that I added 3 oz of melted white chocolate chips. I melted the chocolate over a simmering pot of hot water and then added the melted chocolate right before I folded the flour in.

It looked like it deflated the eggs a little bit, but nothing too bad. I almost forgot to butter the pan underneath and on top of the parchment paper (which could have led to disaster), but luckily my mom reminded me. I was also worried that there wasn’t enough batter – it made a very thin layer in the jelly roll pan, but I think it turned out all right.

I found a very good King Arthur article on yule logs – so I followed their suggestion on how to roll the log. I had decided to do a raspberry buttercream filling (my family has an aversion to coffee-flavoring – don’t get me wrong, I love coffee… just not so keen on coffee-flavored things). So I knew that I didn’t want to put the filling in while the cake was still warm, so (at King Arthur’s suggestion), I laid out a tea towel and doused it with powdered sugar.

We then flipped the cake out onto the tea towel and, again, covered the top of the cake with massive amounts of powdered sugar (so that nothing would stick). At this point, I thought the cake was a bit underdone (I was really worried about overbaking it, so I took it out after about 9 min in a 325 convection oven). I then rolled the cake up, with the tea towel still on it. I set it to cool for the next couple of hours.

My attention then turned to the filling: raspberry buttercream. To make the buttercream raspberry-flavored, we decided to puree and then strain some raspberries with a tiny bit of sugar. This was my first attempt at buttercream – and, it appeared to curdle. I looked up a bunch of different things on the web, trying to figure out what had happened (and turned to the old trustee “Best Recipes” from America’s Test Kitchen). Everything said to keep beating it. So I tried that, but it didn’t seem to work. We ended up adding some powdered sugar until the consistency was right, threw it in the fridge, and hoped for the best. A little while later, it looked better and tasted good, so we used it. Unrolling the log was nerve-wrecking, but it didn’t split at all! I was very happy about that.

In the meantime, we made marzipan and worked on the buttercream frosting for the outside. I decide to make this chocolate buttercream (rather than coffee) and this time my mom suggested beating the eggs a lot longer (and heating them to a bit higher temperature). So we ended up with what looked like meringue (many websites said that buttercream is just meringue + hot sugar syrup).

I tried to color it with just the cocoa powder, but it wasn’t a rich enough brown, so I added some brown food coloring (in paste form). That seemed to do the trick. We had to chill the log a couple of times (the raspberry buttercream filling was pretty soft – probably due to the puree we added for the raspberry flavor/color). And in the end, I think I chilled the chocolate buttercream frosting a bit too long, as I had to wait a bit for it to warm up so it was easier to frost.

We made marzipan for the mushrooms/decorations. I forgot we had paste food coloring (which probably would have given us more vivid colors) so we just colored the marzipan with regular food coloring. We made mushrooms (dusted with cocoa powder for the dirt), elves, and presents. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could make meringue mushrooms (I wanted to try those) – but maybe next time! We dusted it with powdered sugar to make it look like there was freshly fallen snow…

So now.. for the final pictures:

Overview: Whimsical on one side.. Mushrooms on the other


Meeting the mushroom requirement… check!


The mushrooms looked surprisingly real!


Naughty or Nice…?


Christmas Elf #1


The Whimsical Side

Thanks for reading! -Laura

There's No Fear in Yule Log Baking!

Whew, my first challenge is done and I’m so relieved. It was a very long and arduous process but well worth the results! But before I get into the details, I’d like to thank everyone who gave such helpful hints that steered me clear of the gravest mistakes!

I first decided on the components of my yule log- I opted for a coffee pudding filling and a chocolate flavored genoise. I figured the pudding would be a great way of using up some of the extra egg yolks. The genoise, which I made with some trepidation turned out okay. I think I lost a little volume while folding in the dry ingredients but it came out light enough. Gone is my fear of genoise!

While warm, I rolled up the chocolate genoise with a kitchen towel as I would do with the jelly rolls I made. Then I attacked the butter cream. I chose to use dark chocolate and crème de cacao instead of coffee. I took extra care to make sure it didn’t break following all the wise advice available. I felt though that the color was still too pale.

Then came one of the best parts… making the meringue mushrooms. They are so cute that whatever fatigue I was experiencing after 6 hours dissipated once these lovely creations came out of the oven!

Then came the assembly. I filled and frosted my roll taking care to add the little branch on the top. I still didn’t like the color of my log. So I melted some dark chocolate and spread it on a baking sheet. I broke this into strips and then I covered up my roll and tried to make it look like bark. I succeeded in some areas but it wasn’t as neat as I had hoped.

With all the mushrooms sticking out and the crumbly chocolate bark, I am loathe to slice this pretty cake! Thank you so much for a wonderful induction to the daring bakers… I’m looking forward to January’s challenge!

Pixie

A Yule Log in Tuscany

This challenge was a real challenge and frankly my results, although tasty, were somewhat mediocre. I am in the middle of renovations to my very old home in Tuscany and my kitchen is being redone, leaving all my appliances and utensils and plates in my living room scattered about. In order to bake this cake, I had to first find the ingredients which have been placed into various unlabeled bags, plug various appliances in and set them on top of coffee tables and begin the baking process upstairs while preheating the old oven in the kitchen downstairs. Needless to say, this was tedious.

The cake was dry in my opinion, probably because I am unfamiliar with the oven downstairs and was distracted by the buttercream which was difficult since it was made half upstairs then transferred downstairs to be completed. The downstairs kitchen has no heat at the moment (also due to renovations), so while I had good intentions of running a fork over it, it hardened like chocolate instead on the top - no idea what I did wrong there.

The one fun thing was playing with marzipan..... Firstly because I love eating it. Anything almond makes me swoon. I enticed both kids to help me and we had a lot of fun. The mushrooms were cute although I have to say my fingers are still very green and very red from smooshing the food coloring into the marzipan... and the mushrooms are not really edible decorated the way they are because the little "speckles" on top of the mushrooms are actually this digestive bicarbonate grain that comes in jars here in Italy - I had to improvise, could not find dragees at my store but as I was checking out I passed the "indigestion aisle" and lo and behold, this fit the bill. I suppose you could save the mushrooms for after the cake and get a digestive in the mix as well! :-)

This was an awesome challenge. I had a ton of fun with the marzipan. The buttercream would have been better if it had been warmer in my house. Everything TASTED great and the fact that people had second helpings was a fabulous compliment. Thanks again for letting me be a part of such a great group!

M.

Daring Non-Blogger

I'm very excited to finish my first challenge!!! I was hoping that the challenge would be a yule log this month, so thanks to Lis and Ivonne for reading my mind and picking a wonderful recipe, perfect for the holiday season. It was a joy to make and a joy for my family to eat at our annual Christmas gift exchange and dinner held at my house this year.

The genoise was light and airy - although I think I would bake it one or two minutes less next time. I rolled it in a tea towel to cool (excellent tip fellow DBers!) but still ended up with some cracks when rolling. The log was filled with chocolate hazelnut spread, toasted hazelnuts and some of the coffee buttercream (and maybe a splash or two or three of rum!!). Everyone raved about the buttercream and I was quite proud of its lush, silky texture. It hid the cracks amazingly well and tasted incredible - definitely one I would use again. Everyone was fooled by the mushrooms and they were passed around to make sure that they were in fact made of marzipan and weren't just from my vegetable crisper.

I have to admit that the daring part of the challenge for me wasn't the baking. I had so much fun making components of the recipe that I had never made before and putting the log together. The challenge for me, I found, was more in the blogging itself and the picture taking. I spend a lot of time at work on technical writing that I find it hard to sit down and write like I am talking to a friend. But I realized that being daring means really participating in the group, trying to find my voice and giving all aspects of the challenge a try. And I really did try with the photos. My hubby can attest to that -we had every light on in the house at 11pm moving the cake from room to room to find good lighting and a workable background. I took picture after picture trying to find a shot that could convey how good the cake actually looked in person rather just than a shadowy lump on the plate. Well...I came to the conclusion that photography really isn't my thing and I need more than a point and shoot camera if I want nice pictures. Since my frustration with the camera was starting to colour, what had been up to that point, a really stress-free, successful baking session, I decided to call it a night.

My good friend and neighbour Shelly came to my rescue the next day by offering the photography services of her husband Jason. He did a wonderful job with the pictures and even brought some props (the cute birch trees) to enhance the look. While the rest of drank some wine and relaxed, he was an artiste with the log and came up with some wonderful pictures. Thanks Jason for your help (and now you know what the pictures are for!) Luckily I've since found out that I have many friends with photography skills who would like the chance to practice their skills in the food styling arena. So while I can be daring in the kitchen and with my writing, for now I can leave behind the stress of photography to those who find it their daring challenge.

Happy holidays to all! K

My Bûche de Noel

I was so excited to finally join Daring Bakers this month. Browsing food blogs has become my newest obsession since we are in the “non-busy season” at work, and the Daring Bakers seemed like such a fun group. And I am always looking for excuses to bake. I might have waited until January to begin though because I already had tons of baking planned for December. I hosted our 2nd Annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest and Cookie Exchange. Most of the guests were my husband’s fellow graduate students who were in the middle of final exams, which meant that I made all of the gingerbread houses, and the cookie exchange was basically me giving away dozens and dozens of cookies in exchange for smiles. I love to take care of those people though, and they really appreciate it. I really wanted to make the Yule Log to serve at that party, but that just didn’t happen. My next project was making Christmas goodie bags for my whole office, so the Yule Log was still on hold.

Finally I was able to make the Yule Log, or Bûche de Noel as I like to call it, last weekend. When my husband saw what I was up to, he begged me not to make it! I think he is getting tired of the constant visions of sugar plums that have been dancing in his head all month during his sugar comas. Since most of our friends have left town for the holidays already, we didn’t have anyone to share it with, so he’d be forced to eat the whole thing himself. I decided to only decorate a tiny, tiny piece of the log and freeze the rest to serve when everyone is back.
I really didn’t have any trouble with any part of the Bûche. My cake looked kind of funky when it came out of the oven, but it rolled very nicely. I had added cocoa powder to it because I am just a chocoholic. I rolled the cake immediately in a humidified towel, then filled and rerolled it once it cooled.

Somewhere I had seen a filling recipe using mascarpone cheese and Nutella, so I whipped that up to fill my Bûche. I thought that would be an excellent way to prevent me from just eating all of that deliciousness that is Nutella right out of the jar. Luckily I did have leftover filling, so I can eat that right out of the Tupperware container! I left that to set in the refrigerator overnight.

The buttercream frosting scared me a bit with all of the trouble that was being posted on the DB blog, but I thought I’d really be daring and try to chocolatize mine anyway. I added melted and cooled unsweetened chocolate before mixing in the butter. It tasted amazing, but was a little thin – very shiny though. As I was waiting for the mushrooms to bake, my husband started hovering around the cake wondering when he could eat it. Funny how he didn’t even want me to make it in the first place! I told him he’d have to wait for the mushrooms to go on and for me to photograph it.

The meringue mushrooms were not a problem either. I have made meringue cookies before, so I knew what I was getting into. I also added some cocoa powder to the meringue mixture – this time for color, not just for the sake of being chocolate. I thought they turned out pretty cute. I stuck a few in the cake but I had tons leftover since my little Bûche was so tiny, so I ate them up.

Finally my teeny little Bûche de Noel was complete! My husband dug right in and thought it was delicious. He especially loved the filling, but I didn’t tell him about my secret stash in the Tupperware. He ate about half of log. He ate the other half the next night! So much work gobbled up in just two nights! I’m sure he is looking forward to the rest of the log coming out of the freezer next month!

Bobbie Sue

My Yule Stump

My baking library isn’t huge, but it’s pretty comprehensive. And in a few of my cookbooks are recipes for Buche de Noel, a.k.a. Yule Log. Even though I’m Jewish, I joked with Z. that one day I’d make us a Yule Log for the holidays. We both knew I’d never actually be crazy enough to attempt making one. I mean—genoise, buttercream, meringue mushrooms? No way! Leave it to the Swiss Colony.

Then a little thing called the Daring Bakers happened, and, honey, guess what, I’m making a Yule Log!

I wasn’t bothered, though. This is exactly why I joined DB, to push me out of my comfort zone and into terrifying terra incognita. Making the Yule Log was a two-day affair, made a little more complicated by a few choices I made.

Day One: Meringue Mushrooms. I was amazed how quickly and easily these came together. I don’t consider myself a sculptural artiste (leave the fancy fondant to some other baker, thanks), but within a few hours, I had beautiful meringue mushrooms sitting on my counter like some episode of the Smurfs. For a few, I affixed the stems and caps together with meringue, but the majority I glued with melted semisweet chocolate, per Z.’s request. Later on, when we noshed on them, it was the perfect combination of ethereal meringue sweetness with the assertive darkness of chocolate.

Also on Day One, Hazelnut Pastry Cream: I decided to fill the cake, per the DB creative allowance, with a Hazelnut Pastry Cream. I have an ongoing “challenge list” of my own, and pastry cream was on there. So pastry cream it was. Killing two birds, &c. I used the recipe from the Nick Malgieri book “Perfect Cakes,” from which we took our original Yule Log recipe, and combined it with hazelnut praline paste. I was very careful about watching the temperature of the cream, tempering the eggs and straining the cream, since I have a tendency to get distracted, wander away, and then ruin my work. It’s happened before. After chilling, the pastry cream turned out great, with a nice hazelnut flavor that wasn’t overwhelming. With a smile, I crossed “pastry cream” off my challenge list.

Day Two: Genoise. Another first for me. And it went like a charm, again, thanks to being patient and attentive. The cake puffed nicely in the pan, and as soon as it was done, I followed the suggestion I saw in Cook’s Illustrated Baking book to roll the cake immediately in a clean dishtowel covered with powdered sugar. I let the cake cool, and when I unrolled it, it was slightly curved and more inclined to be rolled up again with the pastry cream.

Making the pastry cream as the filling may have crossed something off my challenge list, but it presented a new problem after I spread it onto the genoise. The cream, even though it was fully set, gushed out of the cake as I rolled it. Pastry cream squirted out in a creamy deluge I call the Great Pastry Cream Flood of ’07. I’ve got a pretty short fuse when it comes to baking (just ask Z., who’s had to talk me down from some serious baking snits), but I managed to shrug this off and laugh. Like I said in my last post about the potato bread, nobody’s going to die. It was easy having this cavalier attitude when I knew that there was no pressure. I didn’t promise anyone the Yule Log, and, since it was only me and Z. (and maybe his mom) who were going to eat it, I didn’t have to pretend that my baking was always perfect. So this was error number one, but not insurmountable.

I scraped away the lake of pastry cream and refrigerated the cake while I made the buttercream. More caution, since I’d been careful to read Lis and Ivonne’s suggestions about making sure all the ingredients were the right temperature. It came together with little fuss and a whole lot of butter.

I realized error number two when it came time to cut off the end of the cake to make the stump on the Yule Log. I’d rolled the cake from short side to short side, not long side to long side, resulting in a wide cake that, when the end was removed, became a Yule Stump, not a Yule Log. Sigh. I went ahead and frosted it, then decorated with my meringue mushrooms. But there was no denying it. I had a Charlie Brown Yule Log. All it needed was Linus’ blanket wrapped around it to make the sad picture complete.

Fortunately, when it came time for the unveiling, Z. and his mom were both wildly enthusiastic and duly impressed with the effort. And the taste—very, very good. The genoise had a lovely, even crumb and tender texture. The buttercream was silky, and what pastry cream remained inside the cake itself was rich but not cloying. Z.’s mom scraped her plate clean (and mine, and Z.’s), Between the three of us, we finished the Yule Log in one sitting. Later that night, Z. and I polished off the meringue mushrooms while watching “The Biggest Loser,” enjoying the taste of irony.

So, mistakes were made, obstacles overcome, phobias laid to rest. And isn’t that what the Daring Bakers are all about?

Happy Holidays!
Ami

Kickin' Frustration's Heiney in the Knead

I found this recipe to be very straightforward and good in terms of bread-baking. What I decided to do was make one very enormous loaf of bread for sandwiches since we were receiving our container from America with movers coming to help unpack the container and I wanted to make sure we had enough sandwich bread on hand.

The dough was not hard to work with in my opinion. I used a fair amount of potatoes - 16 ounces - but if I were to make this again I probably would not use that many potatoes simply because I am a fan of very airy, holey bread and this was more dense with a tight crumb.

However, I received rave reviews on the bread and it was tasty. I wished I could have made a focaccia and plan on trying to make one with potatoes and rosemary on the top the next time.

This was a fun challenge, it made me realize how nice it is to get my hands dirty with dough and knead out frustrations. Thanks for a great recipe!

Monica

** Hi it's Lis :) I want to apologize to Monica and all of ya'll for getting her post up so late. She got it to me in plenty of time, but I dropped the ball and didn't see it until just recently. I'm so sorry! Forgive me? Please? Pretty please?

xoxo

Potato Rolls for Thanksgiving

I made my November recipe on November 12 because I was afraid I would run out of time before Thanksgiving. My mother and I have been doing the recipes together and we decided to make rolls to freeze for Thanksgiving.

We were able to complete the recipe as it was written and our bread rose as expected. We made balls for our rolls, put them in the pan to rise and we must have made the balls of dough too large or did not put them far enough apart because when they rose the second time it looked like one big piece of flatbread. I cooked it but they had not risen high enough and it was mostly crust.

I thought the recipe was good but I would make either a loaf of bread or foccocia the next time. It is the type of bread I would serve with soup or an entree salad but not with a big dinner. We had a good time making it and this recipe made me want to try some other bread recipes. I am looking forward to December's challenge.

Kathy

Need to Knead (and add flour too)

After my fist DB challenge last month, I was really excited to see what the next one would be. I checked the website maybe 120 times until I finally saw the next challenge posted- Tender Potato Bread. I was thrilled with the choice because my husband A* is a bread baker (and bread lover) and I’ve helped him make bread before, so I relished the prospect of doing it on my own, with maybe just a little bit of help from him. Also, both A* and his mom spoke of the wonders of potato bread (how soft and delicious it is, with little specks of potato in it). Once I read the actual recipe, it thought it was… interesting. It was kind of Talmudic, having both the canon and commentary all rolled into one. I found it just a little bit confusing but appreciated all the notes and suggestions from someone who had tried the recipe already.

Before I started, A* and I decided that he would be more of a consultant so I could actually learn how to do it on my own. I appreciated having him there for reassurance and support, as well as actual coaching, but I wonder whether having him there made me less daring. For example, he disagreed with the recipe at several points and I had to remind him that I was supposed to follow the recipe as it was (such as not using the sponge method). In the end, I have to admit I ended up going with his deviations a couple of times. My yeast, for example, was very close to its expiration time and A* was surprised by how little yeast the recipe called for, so I ended up putting in more yeast (about 3 tsp) just in case it was weak. Also, I realized at the last minute that I only had salted butter, so A* said it was OK to use that and omit the salt (as it turns out, a mistake). Oh well… I tried to keep to the spirit of the recipe as much as I dared.

The process was a little bit scary for me, but only because I was concerned about the dough being too sticky and how I would knead it. When I saw the first mixture was basically liquid I almost freaked, but A* reminded me to look at the next step in the recipe (add more flour). The stickiness proved to be a problem throughout… I kneaded and kneaded for what felt like hours and every time I felt I was ready, I would call A* over and in the 30 seconds it took him to get to the kitchen, the dough was really sticky again. I swear this cycle happened MANY times. A* kept telling me I was focusing too much on kneading and not enough on incorporating flour, which only kind of made sense to me and proved very hard to implement. I’m not sure what I would have done if I hadn’t had A* there to tell me how long to knead it for. From recipe, it was hard to tell when to stop, and I likely would have stopped too soon (potentially the first time it stopped being sticky before it got sticky again).

FINALLY, I got it to a place where I felt it was not ridiculously sticky and set it to rise. A* suggested oiling the rising container, but that wasn’t in the recipe. I ended up acquiescing because, alas, the dough was getting sticky again, and I’m really glad I did because it was REALLY sticky after the rise. Then came more kneading, more sticking, and more blasted suggestions about incorporating more flour. Finally, I was ready to shape! We decided to do a focaccia and 2 small loaves (I only had small loaf pans). I made the focaccia with dried thyme (no rosemary in my supermarket for several weeks now; I don’t know what that’s about), and after baking it came out pretty if a bit pale.

The loaves got a light oiling and then an egg wash (A*’s suggestion) and came out beautifully golden, with a crisp crust (see picture at the beginning)

Audience Response/My Response:

The audience this time was just A* and me, as we were having a lazy day alone and home. We both thought the texture and look of the bread were perfect and liked the nuttiness of the whole wheat but found it kind of bland. We agreed that it definitely needed more salt. I’m not sure if this was because I decided that adding salted butter was enough (and it actually wasn’t) or if kosher salt (which I used) is less salty per teaspoon than table salt (which I think it is) or if the recipe really needs more salt, or maybe all three. A* noted that too little salt is better than too much because you can add salt to the toppings. We ended up eating the bread dipped in olive oil, balsamic, and lots of kosher salt.

We were also a bit disappointed that there weren’t any actual potato bits, although the crazy kneading probably obliterated them. A* thought the amount of potato was probably too conservative (even though we used 16oz.) because we ended up with barely any potato taste and no chunks.

What I learned/practice:

1) Kneading bread is fun! It’s like playing with A LOT of play-dough at a time. However, apparently you have to remember that it’s not just about the squishing and folding but also about incorporating the flour, which took me forever to learn.

2) Kneading is easier, at least for me with my little hands and short arms, when you use smaller amounts of dough. (Corollary- I may need to start exercising to build some arm strength if I want to knead the whole dough effectively).

3) Pizza stones are awesome for baking bread! That part is definitely going into our permanent baking repertoire. In our past bread baking forays, the bread came out with a very soft crust and I like solid crusts. The pizza stone really helped with that!

4) I’m not sure I can say that I can now make bread totally on my own (I got a lot of coaching) but at least I’m closer!

The final verdict:

I had lots of fun making the bread and it was delicious if a bit bland. Next time I would add more salt, potentially egg wash the focaccia, and come up with some flavorings just to experiment. A* wasn’t too convinced with this recipe, as he thought that it didn’t call for enough yeast, salt, or potatoes and he prefers the sponge method like in the Tassajara Bread Book. All in all, I think the potato bread concept is a keeper, as is using a pizza stone for baking, but we’d probably use a different recipe. We might even start baking bread regularly... but only after I finish my dissertation!

First Challenge Complete - Nobody Dies!

I was nervous about this, my first DB Challenge, since I’ve never baked yeasted bread before. And then my husband and I tried a few weeks without white flour in our diet (it wasn’t fun, lots of brown rice), so I couldn’t find a good time to bake the bread. On the day I’d set aside to make the bread, what wound up happening was that, due to poor time management skills on my part, I didn’t start making it until pretty late. The loaves wouldn’t go into the oven until nearly bedtime. So I made up the dough, let it rise once, shaped and then refrigerated it overnight. It was a pretty sticky dough, but I kept flouring it liberally and it really didn’t give me too many problems, which was a pleasant surprise.

My husband is the bread baker in our duo, so he had expressed some concern about using only two teaspoons of yeast in the bread, but we both found that his concerns were unfounded. The next morning, I discovered that my rolls and the loaf of bread were huge! Even the cold of the refrigerator couldn’t stop them from expanding exponentially. (Sadly, no picture of this stage exists, since I was too quick to subvert the problem before photo documentation.) I had to punch them down in the pan before putting them in the oven, lest they turn into some I Love Lucy-esque monstrosity. I also forgot to slash the loaves and rolls, as well as do a wash of butter or olive oil, so I pulled them out and did a belated slash and oil. We got a little over-exuberant in the oil department, which wound up creating a very crispy bottom on the rolls.

And when I opened the oven, gasp! I’d made bread! And nobody died!

I was pleased with the chewy texture and uniform crumb, though I think I didn’t add enough salt. It didn’t have that doughy, unfinished homemade-bread taste that marred a few of my husband’s early bread forays, a nice turn of events. We had the rolls for lunch and toasted a few slices of the loaf for our sandwiches today. Very nice, if I may pat a flour hand on my own back.

Given that I have a huge sweet list of things I’d like to bake, I don’t know if I’ll rush back to make this recipe again, but my husband may use the recipe soon. In the meantime, I’ve made two different pumpkin pies and a lemon cheesecake for Thanksgiving dinner, and am looking forward to finding sweet, creative uses for the cans of pumpkin my mom overbought. Hmm…I’m thinking pumpkin doughnuts with a maple glaze….Anyway, I was very grateful for the chance to challenge myself outside of the dessert range, and am eagerly looking forward to the next DB Challenge!

Ami

Yay, my first DB challenge!

I had a lot of ideas for things to do with this recipe, lots of pesto and garlic and cheese floating around in the back of my mind, but what really happened was I got busy, I had to host Thanksgiving, life in general was not kind to the idea of me doing something interesting and yummy with this bread. So, I just got a chance to make the bread yesterday, and I really wish I’d had time to work with it a bit more. I made it simply as the recipe described, no time to get Daring, but I would have liked some added flavor. The end result was okay, but I’ve made better bread. I thought it was a little bit salty, and it just didn’t stand out as “great bread.” My husband really liked it for a turkey sandwich; he described it as hearty, and he liked the chewiness.

As for actually making the bread, I enjoyed working with the soft dough, although it was challenging to knead because of the stickiness. It has been a long time since I’ve made bread by hand, but I think I’m going to let the bread machine and the KitchenAid take a rest, and do it the old fashioned way a little more often.

I’m not sure if my kitchen was really warm, or what happened, but it rose a lot more than I expected, and my large loaf ended up overflowing the loaf pan and getting a mushroom shape.

I braided the rest of the dough, but instead of rising up, it sort of oozed out sideways. Maybe I should have put the braid into a loaf pan to contain it and make it go up.

So, in conclusion, I really liked that this challenge got me in the kitchen making bread without machines, and I plan on doing that a lot more, but I don’t think I’ll be making this particular bread again. I can’t wait for the next challenge, and I am proud to now officially call myself a Daring Baker!

Brooke

Tender Potato Bread - Gluten Free!

First, I created a gluten free flour mixture consisting of Amaranth, Sorghum, and a bit of Teff flour to help bind the final bread together a bit better. To this mixture I also added a dash of xanthan gum to help make this a bit more like the wonderful images I've seen people post on here.

Once I made the potato bread and it turned out wonderfully, I decided that I would make a focaccia. This was a particularly wonderful treat for me since I can't even remember the last time that I had focaccia. I made a rosemary, olive oil and sun dried tomato focaccia.

After making all of these I had a few friends come over and try out my first Daring Bakers challenge. I didn't tell them that I made them gluten free, and honestly, I don't think that they would have known if I didn't tell them when they were leaving. Thank you so much for posting this wonderful challenge. This recipe will certainly be something that I use on a regular basis.

Tevis

October Daring Bakers Challenge

I am a new member of Daring Bakers and I really enjoyed making this dessert. My mother came over and it was a great activity for us to do together and was something I probably would never have chosen to try myself. The dessert was delicious and I think we are going to make it Thanksgiving with a few changes. I can't wait for next month's recipe. I made the custard before I made the cake to give it a chance to cool. I decided to use one and one-half teaspoons of vanilla instead of the vanilla bean. I had read on the daring bakers blog that the custard of some of the members had been runny. This was true of my custard as well so I decided to serve it in marguerita glasses. I put about three-fourths of a cup of custard in each glass. Then I made the sponge cake in the ramekins as directed in the recipe. These turned out perfectly. When I baked the sponge cake, I used water instead of orange juice and used one and one-half teaspoons of vanilla. I liked the vanilla flavor of the sponge cake. After unmolding the cake from the ramekins I sliced it in half and laid it across the width of the glass to cover the custard. I then drizzled the chocolate on top.

I was very pleased with the presentation and the dessert was very good but next time I would cut the cake in bite-size cubes to make it a little easier to eat. Thank you for letting me participate.

KJ

A Comedy of (Custard) Errors

For my very first Daring Bakers challenge, I received the recipe for Bostini Cream Pie, an orange flavored cake and custard dessert with chocolate sauce on top. I have to admit that I had pretty mixed feelings about it- I was really excited to try something I had never heard of before but also disappointed because: a) I don’t like oranges, b) I’m not the biggest fan of fluffy cakes, and c) I initially thought it was Boston Cream Pie, a dessert I LOVE. Sadly, I didn’t have enough imagination to find a good substitute for the oranges and, frankly, I wanted to be a purist for my first challenge, so despite my objections, I decided to give the recipe a try just as it was written.

I started with the milk-cornstarch mixture, which I set aside and pretty much forgot about. Then I moved on to what seemed like an endless number of eggs to separate. Then I heated the cream mixture and tempered the eggs and cooked the custard. AND THEN… I looked at my counter at the lonely container of milk and cornstarch that had been left behind! I swiftly apologized to the milk mixture and mixed it into the cooking custard, wondering what I missed in the recipe to have forgotten this. In hindsight, I maybe should have just forgotten the milk altogether at that point, because the custard tasted richer before adding it, and even with the cornstarch, it never quite set up. Also, the distraction of finding the milk and having to cook the whole thing longer made the custard curdle a bit. It was fine after straining, but I have a feeling the custard did not come out exactly as it was supposed to. I also didn’t realize I didn’t have the right size of ramekins, so I used smaller ones, which I think was fine.

The chiffon cake portion was less eventful, although I realized I didn’t have any more custard cups, so I had to bake it in a cake pan and later cut out the rounds to put over the custard. That worked out just fine and left me with lots of cake edges to munch on. When it was time to put the Bostini together, I got the custards out of the refrigerator and realized that they were still very soft! This was pretty annoying because a) it dashed my plans of unmolding them and presenting them in the cool layered look I had seen online and in some of the DB posts, and b) I have made several successful custards in the past and this one, my first public posting challenge, had not turned out right. I decided to just assemble them in the ramekins, drizzling the chocolate glaze a la Jackson Pollock over the dessert. In the end, I was pretty happy with the results. The Bostini did look pretty cool, if I do say so myself. The pictures don’t quite do them justice!

Audience Response:

I valiantly served the Bostini at a business dinner for my husband and some of his colleagues, all of whom seemed very impressed. The colleagues all seemed to enjoy them, although eating them was a somewhat messy undertaking because the custard slushed out a bit when we tried to cut through the cake. Everyone gave them thumbs up! My husband later said that he liked his Bostini a lot despite not loving orange and chocolate together, but felt that the custard seemed almost bland when paired with the very flavorful cake and chocolate sauce. He also said that it was hard to get a good solid bite with all three components together. His final verdict: he wouldn’t request for me to make it again (because it seemed too stressful and time-consuming) but he liked it enough to potentially order it in a restaurant.

My response:

To my surprise (as a custard-lover and orange-hater), the chiffon cake was my favorite part of the dessert. I thought the texture was great (not so fluffy that it felt like eating a sponge) and it was so flavorful! I agree with my husband that, in comparison to the cake, the custard did seem kind of bland. In the end, I liked the custard OK and thought its texture was fine with the cake, although a richer, firmer custard would probably have been better. I disagree with my husband’s opinion that it was hard to get a bite with all three components, but wonder whether there were just too many components.

What I learned/practiced:

1) As it turns out, I might not hate oranges after all!

2) I can safely say that I had never separated so many eggs at any one time in my entire life (I was also separating eggs for chocolate pots de crème at the same time!). I think I got to be a real pro too… I was even able to separate 6 eggs without breaking a single yolk, making a cool flower pattern in my yolk bowl.

3) Since I only made half the recipe, I got a great arithmetic refresher with all the fractions. I also figured out new ways to measure 3/8 of a cup or ½ an egg yolk, a great skill to have for the future I think.

4) I got a friendly reminder to read the whole recipe CAREFULLY to make sure I’m accounting for all ingredients. I figured out that, for the custard, I just missed one word (“whisk IN the eggs” rather than just “whisk the eggs”) and it made me leave out a whole major component. Now I know to really read and pay attention to the recipe before starting.

The final verdict:

I’m not sure I would make Bostini again. They were pretty time- and energy-intensive and I found the custard to be more finicky that other recipes I’ve used in the past. If I make it again, I would probably find a different custard recipe that was richer and firmer (or perhaps I would ACTUALLY follow the recipe correctly!).

Sandy

All Because of an Egg – A.K.A. The Last Farfallina

Wow, so this challenge took me a month - truly. I started with the idea of doing a star shaped cake but got beaten to the punch. Then out of curiosity made a butterfly cake which looked amateurish and terrible, THEN decided on a simple cake which I stuffed with the custard and made into a profiterole. My goodness I truly hope the next challenge I can manage in a more efficacious manner. HOWEVER truth be told, I enjoyed each and every flop since I loved tasting each cake.

M.