THE DARING BAKERS’ APRIL 2011 CHALLENGE:

MAPLE MOUSSE SERVED IN AN EDIBLE CONTAINER

Here’s my take on this month’s challenge. I nearly didn’t do the challenge this month due to shifting house at the very end of March, having no instructions left with the oven in the new house and the general chaos that accompanies a house move. But find it hard to let a chance to bake go by!

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container.
After a bit of thought I decided to make mini-pavlovas to contain the maple mousse. Both turned out fine but was a bit disappointed with the presentation – because I usually bake at night I didn’t put the mousse into the pavs until the next day – the mousse had set beautifully in the bowl but didn’t look so great spooned into the pavs.
It was also a very sweet combination and can appreciate the idea for having a savoury container

The mousse is a great recipe and thanks Evelyne for the challenge :)

THE DARING BAKERS FEBRUARY 2011 CHALLENGE: Here's to a Creamy Dreamy Crunchy Sweet February!

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Here’s my effort – Giada’s Vanilla Panna Cotta, Nestle Florentine Cookies with Watermelon Sorbet. We have recently been on a big trip (for us from New Zealand) to London – our grown up kids for Christmas had booked for us to visit two Gordon Ramsay restaurants in London and on both occasions we had panna cotta with watermelon sorbet – delicious – my inspiration for making the sorbet and of course watermelons are in abundant supply down here just now.

My Panna Cotta was very soft, I think due to the gelatine ( Davis brand– very limited range down here and no setting data on packet ) – when I make again I will increase the amount a little. But the texture was otherwise very smooth, tasted a little sweet for me though.

The Nestle Florentine Cookies turned out quite big and I certainly didn’t get the 2 ½ - 3 dozen stated in the recipe, also I used golden syrup in place of dark corn syrup. Also delicious but quite sweet.

I found the watermelon sorbet recipe on line and had fun making it – it teamed well with the quite rich Panna Cotta – our cream in New Zealand is really creamy.

I enjoyed this challenge – it wasn’t too complicated and I produced 3 things that I will most definitely make again and again either together or separately – thanks Mallory.

Download the printable .pdf of the challenge HERE!

A slide show of other Daring Bakers results can be seen here http://thedaringkitchen.com/

Daring Bakers' January 2011 Challenge

Biscuit Jaconde Imprime/Entrement

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

This was all very new to me and a challenge - a challenge because at the moment I'm in a really busy phase, we have our house on the market - so it needs to be in a pristine state of tideness and decor perfection most of the time !!! Additionally I'm just starting back at work after a six week summer break, am busy preparing for the new school year and having professional development days. I almost opted out from this challenge but seeing I had last month thought I'd really challenge myself to achieve it.

The filling is a blackforest mousse - chocolate mousse made from scratch with cherries macerated in Grand Marnier, topped with whipped cream, fresh cherries and chocolate shavings - I used left over jaconde to make the base.

Haven't been able to upload other photos but will try again later :(

NOVEMBER 2010 DARING BAKER CHALLENGE: CROSTATA!

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.

Short and Sweet

Am a short on time this month but this turned out sweet ! Fortunately the challenge is something I’ve made many of over time. I also watched my Mum make them time and time again – they were only ever called pies or tarts, but came in all flavours, sizes and varieties, with lattices and lids.
My in-house tasters report this was delicious.

OCTOBER DARING BAKERS CHALLENGE:

Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts

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

Wow - this was really good fun. I made the first recipe by Alton Brown and made doughnuts with and without a hole. The dough really rose up as you can see and I took the advice of another experienced Daring Baker and added very little extra flour throughout the rolling and resting process. The dough is certainly silky !

I made sure the oil for deep frying (Alfa One Rice Bran ) was heated to the correct temperature and the doughnuts cooked so quickly - could only manage one in the pan at a time. Some Daring Bakers were concerned about frying and greasiness, I can honestly say that this recipe cooked in Rice Bran Oil is not in the least fatty or greasy - the crust is very thin and light.

I coated the ring doughnuts with cinamon sugar (1/2 cup caster sugar + 1 Tbs cinnamon).

The whole (round) doughnuts were injected with strawberry jam (preserve) and dusted with icing sugar (confectioner's, powdered).

This challenge was great ( thanks Lori)- it's really interesting making something at home that you have only ever tasted the commercial version of. I've been thinking about that a lot lately - of course most things were home baked before they were ever commercially produced but so often your first experiences of a product is the mass produced variety - I'm thinking especially about icecream - how delicious home-made is and doesn't have all those emulsifiers and additives - guess the same goes for doughnuts.

Look for other Daring Bakers' efforts here !

Daring Baker's September 2010

Get Creative!
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.

The theme was “September”. It may have been back to school; the start of Spring or Autumn/Fall depending where we are in the world; September could also be someone special’s birthday or even the beginning of our favourite sporting season. Whatever happens in our life in September, that’s what our cookies had to be about.



September is Springtime in New Zealand, so I purchased a couple of flower cookie cutters and set about making flower themed sugar cookies. Piping is something I’ve not done much of and it is definitely a challenge for me – guess it’s one of those things where practice makes perfect and patience is an asset.

Sugar cookies aren’t really that big of a thing in New Zealand, mostly seen at Christmas time. I think they are starting to be more popular. Early on in the challenge someone posted a link to a site called University of Cookie http://www.universityofcookie.com/ , which is amazing but made me feel pretty overwhelmed! I can see that this is a real big deal in the U.S and when I have more time I will watch the video tutorials on that site, there is also a stream on flickr.com where there are literally thousands of photos of the most amazing decorated sugar cookies – stumbled across it and now can’t find it again.

These are my attempts at decorated sugar cookies – I learned that it is best to tint/colour all the royal icing before thickening or thinning it to get a consistent colour – hence my two tone pink flower cookies.!

SPCA CUPCAKE DAY
Monday 30 August was New Zealand's annual SPCA CUPCKAKE DAY - the day when people in their workplace or school or neighbourhood bake and sell cupcakes to fundraise for the SPCA ( Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ).
I co-ordinated the day in the school where I work, we had a fantastic day with over 500 cupcakes donated by students and parents - we sold them to the students at morning tea and lunchtime and were able to send off a donation to the SPCA for NZ$541. Here are some of the wondefully decorated cupcakes.