Daring Bakers: Milan Cookies

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.
The challenge this month was to make one or both of the above listed cookies. Because of time constraints for the challenge deadline, I chose to do the Milan Cookies only but plan on doing the Chocolate-Covered Marshmallow Cookies at a later date (probably for Care Group in mid-August, as I usually try to coincide Daring Baker challenges with Care Group...somewhere to take the food so it won't end up around my waist!).

Usually I don't post the Daring Baker recipe because I'm not sure it's okay to have thousands of bakers posting the same recipe that typically comes out of a cookbook. However, this recipe is available on-line and so I'll link to it (above) and post it as well (below).

Now, for the part I know you're all waiting anxiously for... (I'm the chick in purple)
So, Gina, tell us, how was baking the Milan Cookies? It was oh. so. easy!
And, what were they like? Well, I thought they were a little soft because I only had bread flour. I was pleasantly surprised that they were not too lemony, especially with all that lemon extract! And someone at church said, "These are much better than the store-bought ones!" Since I'm pretty fond of the Pepperidge Farm version, I took that as a compliment. Oh, and I wanted to make mint Milan cookies, but I was unable to find spearmint oil for the chocolate ganache filling and was too lazy to drive all over looking for it. :)

Here are the baked cookies awaiting filling and sandwiching. Some are a little more done than I'd like but my oven leaves a lot to be desired in the calibration department. :) It's almost 30, I'm giving it a break (and hopefully the old heave-ho early next year!)

And here are the sandwiched cookies. The blue in the background would be my oldest daughter, ready to pounce. And then, she discovered I'd used semi-sweet chocolate...and she was truly bummed.

Prep Time:
20 min
Inactive Prep Time:
0 min
Cook Time:
1 hr 0 min

Level:
0

Serves:
about 3 dozen cookies (I made "mini" cookies and easily had twice that)

Ingredients

* 12 tablespoons butter, softened
* 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
* 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
* 2 tablespoons vanilla extract (yes, really two TABLESPOONS)
* 2 tablespoons lemon extract (yes, really two TABLESPOONS)
* 1 1/2 cups flour
* Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:

* 1/2 cup heavy cream
* 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
* 1 orange, zested (I really dislike chocolate and orange, I skipped this)

Directions

Cream the butter with a paddle attachment then mix in the sugar. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.

Cookie Filling: In a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl. Whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools). Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Daring Bakers: Bakewell Tart...errrr...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.  The recipe will be posted on the host blogs.

In the recipe directions for the frangipane, it said:  "The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine."  Um, yeah...you could say it curdles...

However, it bakes up wonderfully!  I used a raspberry preserves (because I like the seeds!!) and a wee bit of chocolate in the bottom of the tart...errr...pudding crust.  Katherine and I cut into it while it was still warm - it was okay but not making my heart throb.  I had another piece for breakfast on Thursday morning - loved it!  So did Nin and Natalie (our friend who comes over to spend the day with us while I work).  Annie didn't like the seeds in the raspberry preserves at all.

I'll definitely try making this again.  The pastry crust wasn't nearly as difficult to make as I was afraid it would be and I actually did quite well!  And hey! I finally got to use the tart pan that my friend Kathie gave me for my birthday last year!!!  :)  Fun!!!

Daring Bakers: Apple 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 Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Linda and Courtney will have the recipe posted - and you should know that with as much as my kids love apples and raisins, I followed the recipe almost exactly.  I used dark raisins (I just got 5lb of organic raisins from the co-op I'm in, I wasn't about to buy more) and I soaked them in bourbon (have it in the cabinet for when I make Pork Tenderloin with Mustard Sauce - which pretty much rocks my world, by the way).  Other than that - I followed the recipe exactly.

Oh. My. Gracious. Ho.Ly. Moly. I was so excited about the challenge this month - even though I'm late posting (sorry!!!).  I've wanted to try strudel.  I mean, I am married to a guy of German descent, afterall.  I need something "German" in my repertoire, right? Ummm, this ain't it.  ;)   

Actually it wasn't that bad - until I went to the final stretching of the dough.  I'd gotten it almost paper thin with the rolling pin - yay.  Perhaps that was my problem.  Perhaps I should've stopped with the rolling pin sooner.  I had floured the heck out of my flour-sack towel - but there was one spot that I must have missed.  A spot about the size of a small cookie - HUGE hole in the middle of my dough.  Huge.  {mutter and try really hard to not cuss, but I wanted to}

Roll out another batch of dough and it won't get as thin as the other did.  I think I was scared.  And as a result, I overfilled the dough.  Brad started snacking before it was cooled and said it tasted good.  I said, "Well, it's so bloomin' ugly, it should taste good!" 

I'll definitely try again!  I enjoyed working with the dough even with the issues. 

Daring Bakers April Challenge: Cheesecake

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

I would have a photo here - but once again, the Daring Bakers challenge went to Care Group and the camera didn't.  It was desimated by the time the night was over!  I chose to make a turtle cheesecake - actually, I did a turtle topping.   I made the cheesecake as Jenny gave the recipe (see her blog, link above).  I did leave out the optional liqueur and I used chocolate graham crackers for the crust.  I used chopped pecans, mini chocolate chips and, due to time constraints, prepared caramel sauce for the topping.  This thing was EASY to make and I will definitely be making it again, trying some of the other ideas that Daring Bakers gave for flavors.  I will also say, it definitely needs to chill overnight - be sure to plan for that!!

Also, instead of using a springform pan I used a foil casserole pan - this was due to the water bath (not wanting soggy crust) and due to the fact that I was hauling this thing to Care Group.  It filled the pan, it was delicious.  I have a weakness for cheesecake.  I want to make this again!

Daring Bakers: For the Love of Chocolate

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.

Due to my being a total moron and mother of four children (three of whom have been sick over the past 10 days), we have photos of the cake but not the cake & ice cream.  :)  And like November's challenge, I enjoyed the main recipe so much, I made it more than once.

Cake:

Once again, the challenge for Daring Bakers comes to the rescue when I have to take dessert to a potluck dinner with Care Group friends.  We had dinner at Jon & Mandy's (paella, which was wonderful).  I made the cake with Ghirardelli 70% Cacao Extra Bittersweet bar and it was delicious.  This cake is chocolate, eggs and sugar - I mean, really now.  Let's talk about how light and moist and PERFECT it was (thank goodness. I'm always afraid I'll do this and take it to a dinner and have bombed on the recipe).  It *does need* something creamy to cut the richness of the chocolate - so if you make this (and DO! It's easy, it's fabulous), remember to serve it with whipped cream or ice cream.  The night we had it with friends, we served it with an all-natural, premium vanilla-bean ice cream.  I did it again, later in the month, to serve with the ice cream recipe I'd decided to use.   The important thing to remember about this recipe is that it is ALL about the chocolate you use to make it. Use cheap chocolate, it's going to taste like cheap chocolate.  Use the best chocolate you can get your hands on or afford.  Ghirardelli was my budget limit when I made it this month - however, if I can get my hands on a pound of Amano....mmmmmm, THAT would be a most awesome cake.  (let me channel Bill & Ted here for a minute)

Ice cream: (no photo available thanks to the distraction of sick little Eggs) Brad and I received a Donvier Ice Cream Maker as a wedding gift and we've used it - oh, maybe five times in the past 19 years - errrr...um.... - 18 years, 363 days ;) .  However, I've never gotten rid of it.  This past summer, though, I did break it out again and make ice cream with the girls.  We had great luck with the French Vanilla Ice Cream recipe that came in the instruction booklet for the maker. So, I elected to make that again. 

French Vanilla Ice Cream
3 eggs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
1 cup sugar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .250 ml
2 cups light cream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .500 ml
2 cups milk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .500 ml
2 tsp vanilla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 ml
Beat eggs and milk together in a large saucepan.
Add sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring
constantly until thickened (approx. 10 min).
Mixture should smoothly coat the spoon.
Cool, then add cream and vanilla. Refrigerate
overnight. Makes about 1Qt/.9L.

A delicious, delicious month to be a Daring Baker.  Thanks to our wonderful hosts this month!

Daring Bakers: Caramel Cake with Browned Butter-Caramel Icing

edited to add: Pilgrims and Indians were made by my oldest daughter and me a couple of years ago (when she was three). I got the idea out of Family Fun magazine (my favorite magazine on the planet, I think). You can find them here should you wish to recreate for your own table next year. :)

Oh. My. I love the flavor of caramel and I like browned butter - combine the two - and well, as my 4-year-old says, "It was deee-yi-cious!!" The Daring Bakers had a great challenge for November. Just ask my waistline!

Dolores of Culinary Curiosity was our host this month. Co-hosts were Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo), Jenny of Foray into Food. And Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go was the go-to-girl for info on alternative baking.

Our hosts this month chose Shuna Fish Lydon's signature caramel cake (this is where you'll find the recipe for the cake -- QUICK -- GO THERE! You want to make this cake!!!!) We also had an optional challenge: Alice Medrich’s Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels which I did not do since it was optional and my life is insane at the moment.

The first step in making this cake is to make a caramel syrup. This requires cooking sugar and water on the stove, waiting for it to turn an amber color and then pouring cold water into it. The recipe warns of splatters. I am (a) chicken of splatters (which is yet another reason we never have fried food in this house - I cook my bacon in the oven) and (b) often surrounded by little people when I'm in the kitchen. The idea of something hot and sticky splattering everywhere, when two of my little people recently ended up with 2nd degree burns thanks to hot tea....not something I was looking forward to. However, one of the other Daring Bakers, Linda, shared a tip about making the caramel syrup:

When I was ready to pour the water into the bubbling caramel syrup, I took a piece of aluminum foil, cut a quarter-sized hole in the center and placed it over the pot of boiling syrup. Then I slowly poured the cold water through the hole. Worked like a charm. Not a splatter outside the pan or on my hand.

I used that tip and it was definitely a great one, especially since Elizabeth and Annie were in the kitchen with me while I was making it.

I made this cake for dinner with three other couples and it was well received. I have to admit being very nervous as I'd not tasted it before. When I cut it at Janet's I dished some onto a plate and said, "Let me take a bite of this before you give any other pieces out! If I messed it up, we'll eat the apple pie Teresa brought!" But...mmmm...good cake! Dense, moist - very good. The icing was rich but not too sweet. No photos and we devoured the cake, then what was left over, my girls had for breakfast on Saturday morning. (yeah, cake for breakfast -- but then their morning snack was no-sugar-added organic applesauce so we made up for it)

I'd also volunteered to take a dessert to choir retreat at the church on Saturday (our church choir spends one day hammering out Christmas music in order to not have to add additional rehearsals during the holiday season). After tasting the cake I decided I'd do the same recipe as cupcakes. The recipe made 21 cupcakes - perfect! 18 for choir retreat and one for each of my girls. I filled the cupcake liners two-thirds full, baked them at 350 for about 13 minutes. They were delicious! I will definitely be making this cake again. And again. And again! Even my husband, who doesn't really like cake, liked it!

Be sure to check out how other Daring Bakers fared - and I know some make the caramel candies, too. Mmmm! You'll definitely want to check that out!

Daring Bakers: Whoops! I'm LATE!

I am such a bad girl!  This was supposed to have been posted on Wednesday and life caught up with me...eek!

October's hostess was Rosa's Yummy Yums.  She was originally slated to hostess with a couple of other ladies - one of them was Sher, who sadly passed away in July from a massive MI.  As a tribute to Sher, Rosa elected to continue with the idea Sher had about the challenge for October.  Pizza dough!  We've recently ventured into the world of homemade pizza dough (sourdough and in the bread machine) but Rosa was having none of that. ;)  We had to actually toss the dough this time!  We were unable to get pictures and I have a lot of practicing to do!!

RECIPE SOURCE:  “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.  You can see the recipe here, on Rosa's blog.  

We used homemade pizza sauce (recipe here), ground beef, cheese and caramelized onions (mmmm!).  I had a lot of help in making the pizza, as usual.  Brad caramelized the onions because he loves to do that and because he can't stand to be left out of any part of preparing dinner.  Katherine helped put the meat and cheese on the pizzas.  I told Brad that the next time we make pizza using caramelized onions we're leaving off the sauce because it totally overpowered the onions.  By the way, if you've never had caramelized onions on a pizza...oh my gracious...what are you waiting on?!  Yummy!

For more pizza ideas and quite possibly photos of folks tossing their pizza dough - check out other Daring Bakers!

Daring Bakers: Lavash Crackers and Vegan/Gluten Free Dip

I've been wanting to try my hand at crackers for a while now. And along came another Daring Bakers challenge to make me do just that!

Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and co-host Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl chose Lavash Crackers from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. The Challenge: You can make the Lavash Crackers either with all purpose wheat flour or you can try making them gluten free. You may use any variety of spices/seeds/salt to top the crackers. All dips/spreads/relishes/salsas must be vegan and gluten free. I went with all-purpose flour and did a simple sesame seed and kosher salt topping on the crackers. My spread for them was hummus. I chose David Lebovitz's Cabbagetown Hummus Recipe and it was wonderful (recipe linked). Once again, my 4 year-old declared my efforts as "dee-yi-cious" and this time, my 7-month-old was able to partake (both crackers and hummus). I am definitely going to make these crackers again for Harrison's snacking enjoyment. And for the adults, I'm going to make some "Razorback Caviar" to serve with the crackers when I make them again. (recipe below)

Razorback Caviar with black-eye peas
2 cans (14-15 oz) black-eye peas without bacon, drained
1 can (14-15 oz) white hominy, drained
1 can (14-15oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 8oz bottle Italian salad dressing
1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained

Mix, refrigerate, serve.
This is a great recipe to use fat-free salad dressing in because there are so many other flavors going on you won't miss the fat in the dressing. :)

The Crackers:
I had to keep a close eye on the crackers once I put them in the oven - they browned very quickly but that's an issue with my oven not the recipe.

Ready to go into the oven

And here they are out of the oven:

You can check out other Daring Bakers' Lavash Cracker and Vegan Dip (and I would if I were you - there were so many wonderful ideas and combinations). Many thanks to Natalie and Shel for a wonderful challenge!

Daring Bakers: Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé

Our wonderful hosts for the Daring Bakers challenge this month were Tony Tahhan and MeetaK. You can find the recipes we used for this challenge on Tony's and Meeta's blogs.

Their challenge for us was the Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé with the following specifications:

• The dough used for the eclairs must be a pâte à choux from Pierre Hermé
• Keep one chocolate element in the challenge. Choose which chocolate element you want to keep. Then feel free to mix and match flavors to the base recipe.

Ready to fill...

I decided that since this is my first  Daring Bakers Challenge I wasn't going to deviate.  I elected to make both the chocolate pastry cream and the chocolate glaze.  However, I have extra dough piped and in the freezer so I'm going to bake them and fill with vanilla pastry cream (I think I'll use Dorie Greenspan's vanilla pastry cream from Baking: From My Home to Yours).

I'll discuss in the order I made everything because I'll get confused otherwise. (hey, I have four kids five and under - I barely have a brain)

The Chocolate Sauce - this was really easy to make: chocolate, water, cream and sugar - boil, stir constantly, reduce heat, continue to stir until thickens.  Easy peasy.  My sauce separated some and I'm not sure what the deal was there - I don't *think* I overheated it; but this was the first time I'd made chocolate sauce, so I may have. It didn't taste burned or anything.  :::shrug::: 

The Chocolate Glaze -  this one got me in trouble on Sunday morning because...um...well, my husband got up Sunday morning and wondered why the kitchen was so hot.  I'd left the burner on all night long!!!! ACK!  Thankfully our house didn't burn down.  Since it called for 7 tablespoons of the chocolate sauce, I had to deal with the separation a little bit. More annoying than anything else - didn't seem to affect the taste and when I glazed the eclairs, they looked fine.

The Chocolate Pastry Cream - I managed to not scramble all of the yolks (yay!)  I had a teeny bit of scrambling when I strained the mixture - hey, look ma! I can temper eggs (another thing Martha Stewart always intimidated me by doing).  Brad had to help me because Harrison was flipping out and I had to calm him, plus get the chocolate melted (duh!).  He did a great job of getting it to the point that it was ready for the ice water bath.  This stuff...deadly yummy! 


The Pâte à Choux - I'm not sure why I'd always let Martha intimidate me about pâte à choux - honestly, it wasn't difficult at all!  It came together wonderfully and piped well, too.  However, I've learned an important lesson - when you have a 2 year-old who likes to pull the knobs off the stove - make certain that when hubby puts them back on - he does it correctly.  Translation - when you turn it to BAKE - make sure the BROILER isn't on.  (duh!)  I realized the error about 4 minutes in to the baking time and corrected it.  It didn't seem to affect the choux all that much.  It puffed wonderfully but the "broiled" ones got a little darker (not too dark, though).


Ready to eat...

The girls and Brad each tried an eclair before we left for Care Group and they declared them "delicious" (or, as Nin says "Dee-yi-shush!").  Everyone at Care Group said they were really good and several people had more than one.  I came home with an empty platter.  I'm glad I was able to have a little extra dough so I piped about a dozen more (this makes me think I didn't pipe the original ones "fat" enough) and they're in the freezer ready to bake!