February Daring Bakers!

This month's daring bakers challenge was to make a chocolate Valentino cake and Ice cream. What a perfect month for a sweet and simple chocolate dessert.


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.


The cake was beyond delicious, and even more simple. I served it with chocolate covered strawberries and whipped cream.

So here's the recipe!

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Mardis Gras!

There are few things in life better than cake. Tonight, after wanting to do it for a long time, I finally made cake balls. I originally got the idea from the wonderful Bakerella. I've wanted to make them since right before I went onto The Martha Stewart Show to talk about her cake balls.


The idea is simple, you take the cake and basically mush it into crumbs. Once its a big pile of crumbs, you mix in frosting. I used my favorite cake recipe, and I used store bought cream cheese frosting. Although this is my favorite cake in the world, the cake came out dry and crumbly, I couldn't even get it out of the pan without it breaking. This lent itself wonderfully to cake balls. Once I realized there would be no cake in it's future, I decided to go ahead and give it a try! I took the mushy frosting cake mixture and formed it into balls and dipped them in chocolate. I decorated them with green, purple and gold sprinkles in honor of Mardis Gras.

They were really one of the best cake experiences I've ever had. I suggest you make them the next time you have spare cake parts.

Nothing beats fresh baked goods...

I'm endlessly inspired by other bloggers. I love browsing and getting recipes from fellow cooks in the blog world. I find Chuck from The Knead For Bread, to be an absolute genius. I think he has some of the most appealing pictures and recipes out of any of the blogs that I follow.

Inspired by his post on English muffins, I decided to give his recipe a try, and actually go all out and top it with tomatoes, spinach, and poached eggs as he did. I started getting them ready at around 10pm last night, which was a little late for such an endeavor, but I was excited to try them.


English Muffins
Adapted from The Knead For Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (approximately 110 degrees F)
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 packet instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white
cornmeal

Method:
Mix together Water, 1 cup flour, yeast, and baking soda in a large bowl. In a separate clean bowl, whisk egg white to stiff peaks, don't over beat or egg white will become dry and separate. Mix 1/3 of the egg white into the batter, and mix until combined, continue with the rest of egg whites. Once fully incorporated, start adding the remaining 2 1/2 cups of flour, 1/2 cup at a time. With about 1 cup remaining, move dough to counter and knead in remaining flour. Knead for 7 minutes, until dough is very smooth. Transfer to a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for approximately 1 hour, until doubled in size.
Once dough has doubled in bulk, turn it out onto a floured surface, press with knuckles to release some air, then roll out to 1/2 inch. Cut out 3 inch circles, you can mash up the remaining dough and roll the scraps and cut again, repeat until you don't have any more dough. Place circles on a cookie sheet coated with cornmeal, and top with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 1 hour.
10 Minutes before you're ready to cook them, turn on your griddle to medium high heat. Spray griddle with nonstick spray. Place each muffin on the griddle, I was able to cook 8/batch. Flip every 4 minutes, cooking for a total of 16 minutes. Repeat with second batch.

I topped mine with vine ripened tomato, fresh spinach, and a poached egg. I also added thick sliced local bacon, for those who eat pork products.


They were also delicious with a bit of butter and strawberry jam.

Crepes

A light, sweet, delicious dessert that's low calorie too!

Crepes filled with cool whip and strawberries topped with chocolate sauce:
Recipe adapted from Alton Brown:

Ingredients:
2 Large eggs
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons melted butter

Method:
Place all ingredients in blender and blend until well combined.
Let rest for one hour in the refrigerator, this allows the bubbles to dissolve, which will make the crepes less likely to tear while cooking.

Heat crepe pan and pour 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan. Rotate pan until thin, even circle is made. Cook crepes until lightly brown, flip and cook for additional minute.
Repeat until all batter is used.

Smells like Christmas...

If you were to ask my mom, Christmas isn't Christmas without snickerdoodles. These are her favorite cookie, so when I went on my baking adventure 2008, I had to include them for her. I made 7 types of cookies, all with different flavors and textures. The simplest of these was the snickerdoodle. With just a simple coating in cinnamon sugar before baking, they have a subtle sweetness that matches their chewy texture beautifully.

Classic Snickerdoodles

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter; softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

• Heat oven to 400 degrees
• Mix sugar, butter, shortening and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
• Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire rack.

Cookies cookies everywhere...

These cookies go by many different names Russian tea cookies, pecan balls, or in my family, snowballs. All of the recipes are very similar and they are topped with the unmistakable adornment of crisp white powdered sugar. The look of a powdered doughnut draws in kids and the unmistakable flavor hooks them for life. The cookie is slightly dry, and barely sweet, and definitely not overwhelming. My cousins have been known to eat entire tins before realizing what they were doing, or being caught by their parents!

Grandma's Snowballs
This recipe is written exactly how my grandmother wrote it on her recipe card...Not my style, but it is her recipe after all...

Beat well:
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together:
Egg mixture
1 cup butter or crisco
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar; sifted

Sift together:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Add:
1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Chill 30 Minutes in refrigerator

Form into 1 inch balls

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Bake 8 to 10 minutes

Roll in powdered sugar immediately out of oven; Caution will be hot!!

Cool and roll again in powdered sugar

Cookie Spectacular.

I truly love the holiday season. Everything about it makes me happy. It is the time of year when I get to spend copious amounts of time with my family, bake obscene amounts of cookies, and finish the day with a wonderfully delicious Harpoon Winter Warmer. I really love that beer, I look forward to it all year long.

For my first of the many holiday cookie posts to come, I'm going to highlight chocolate chip cookies. This recipe was adapted from all recipes. This dough is by far the best cookie dough any of us have ever had.

Chocolate chip cookies - Makes 3 Dozen (we got closer to 5 dozen worth of dough, but we actually produced 4 dozen cookies)

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup butter, softened (I like to leave my butter out overnight if I know I'll be baking the next day)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 (3.4 ounce) package jell-o brand vanilla instant pudding mix
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
• In a large bowl cream together butter and both sugars. Blend in instant pudding mix. Add eggs and vanilla extract.
• Mix in flour and baking soda.
• Once blended stir in chocolate chips.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until edges are slightly browned.