The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S of Baking Without Fear.  She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I’ve been meaning to make macarons since spring, when it wasn’t warm and I could still use the oven to my heart’s content without creating a heat wave. Then I had an army of excuses: I had no almond flour, no candy thermometer, no time, and just the thought of making them only to fail was exhausting.

Of course, that’s what the Daring Bakers Challenge is for: to push you to do things you do not like (haha), but we enjoy tough love anyway. I’ve been so busy with other things that the deadline for the challenge really crept up and then whacked me on the head last night. Yes, I only did my challenge last night. Oh, not just last night…LATE last night.

This is how I roll…

My fellow Daring Bakers have talked about their failures even after numerous tries with the recipe posted by the challenge’s host, so they eventually sought someone else’s recipe. I followed suit. I was doing this last-minute that I really cannot afford to try many times just to make it work. I need it to work the first time. Tall order.

I’ve had my eyes on Jef and Eliza’s (MyFoodGeek.com) macaron recipe for the longest time, so I picked that. Others I know used Helen’s (MyTartlette.com) or Aran’s (Cannelle et Vanille) recipes — and hundreds of readers can attest to the reliability of their recipes, so do check them out.

Ok, so I sort of used the recipe from My Food Geek. I made a boo-boo. What else is new? To make the long story short, I could not follow baking directions for the life of me. My macarons probably have way too much sugar in them. The truth is, now that they answered my question, my macarons shouldn’t have had sugar syrup. Haha. What do I know? As long as I saw magma-like batter last night, I thought I was doing the right thing. No wonder I’m bouncing up the ceiling all night and I’m having major drawbacks from the sugar rush this afternoon.

I won’t even tell you how many mushroom-like sugary caps I’ve eaten. I even had to bite into another one for the photos. Good reason, no?

I really am just glad that they closely resemble the real thing, except for the fact that:

• These babies have ‘skins’ that remind me of ostrich eggs; and
• They have prim and proper “feet”. They stay within the perimeter of the mothership, no feet sticking out to the sides. No, ma’am. You’d think my macarons went to the Miss Manners night school for misbehaved macarons!

Their skins are so smooth and almost pebble-y. I did not use blanched almonds, so you see the flecks of almonds on them. What’s more, I made penance for my tardiness with the Daring Bakers gods by not only grinding my own almond powder, but painfully sifting it. It think that paid off.

One pivotal factor that made these macarons look like this is the drying/wait time. The first 3 trays that I put in the oven didn’t have time to sit. I mean, c’mon, I’m not a patient person at all. After 3 erupting episodes, I quickly searched on the internet and found out from a Pierre Hermé (the god of macarons) recipe that you should let them sit to brood and ponder their soon-to-be esteemed footed life for at least 45 minutes. So I did that. In the meantime, here are the remains of the magmatic macarons that certainly weren’t shy about their eruptions. [Some went totally criminal: Macawrongs!]

Macaruins

The 4th tray in the oven, which sat on the counter for the longest 45 minutes of my past-midnight baking shenanigan, came out with beautiful, proper hats and walking feet. As for the filling, I made buttercream and used the rose water given to my friends. That thing is strong…like, I-want-to-put-it-on -me strong. But it was delicious.

I think I will try to make some again this week, if I don’t die from all the sugar. Hah.

I’ll post the recipe tonight! Watch out for my blank promises. LOL.

Macarons with Lemon-Rose Water Buttercream (recipe last updated 11/12/2009)

These are my first ever macarons and I completely made a mistake on the recipe I was following. This mistake, however, gave me such smooth, perfectly shaped macarons. A number of people still requested the actual recipe I ended up with for the macarons. So here it is!

This recipe makes about 30-35 sandwiched macarons.

Ingredients

Macarons

• 100 grams egg whites (give or take, 3 large eggs), divided
• 100 grams confectioner’s sugar
• 100 grams sliced or whole almonds (can be blanched or not, up to you)
• 180 grams granulated sugar
• 90 grams water

Macaron Filling

• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 ½ cup confectioner’s sugar
• 4 teaspoons rose water [You can use less for just a tiny hint.]
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• a drop or two of red liquid food coloring (Optional. Amount will vary depending on your color preference.)

Equipment

• Food processor or grinder/chopper
• Hand or stand mixer with whisk attachment
• 2 Large size bowls
• 1 Medium size bowl
• Small sauce pan
• Candy thermometer
• 2 to 3 baking sheets (we will bake double-panned, having an extra sheet will allow you to continuously bake one batch after another)
• Silicone baking mat or Parchment paper sheets to fit cookie sheet
• Piping/Pastry bag with plain tip (a storage bag like zip lock would work, too)
• Spatulas

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 300°F with the rack in the upper middle portion. You can pre-heat later on during Step #11). Place baking sheets one on top of the other (called double panning) and place the baking mat or parchment paper on the topmost sheet, and set aside.For the meringue cookies –
2. Grind almonds and confectioner’s sugar together in a food processor for 2-3 minutes, until you get a a powdery texture. If you have a mini one, you can use half the sugar for it to fit.
3. Sift mixture into a large bowl. If you still have big pieces left, put them back in the grinder.
4. Stir 40 grams of egg whites (about 1 egg white) with the ground almond mixture using a spatula. Mix until you get a uniform paste. Set aside.
5. Whisk 60 grams of egg whites (about 2 egg whites) on high speed in a large bowl until you achieve soft peaks. Set aside.
6. Pour water and granulated sugar into a small pan and place on your stove on high heat with the candy thermometer dipped into the mixture. Allow to boil until it reaches 230°F.
7. Resume whisking the egg whites on med-high speed in the large bowl and slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the bowl. Whisk for about 10 minutes. You will end up with a puffy and shiny meringue.
8. Quickly fold meringue into the bowl with the almond paste for 30 seconds, then slowly to check the consistency. Do not overmix. The resulting mixture would be thick, fluffy and viscous. It will not be watery. It will almost feel and look like marshmallow fluff.
9. Transfer meringue mixture into a pastry bag.

10. Pipe mixture onto a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Create small domes about 1-½  inch in diameter, 2 inches apart from each other to allow for spreading. If you have 3 baking sheets, you can pipe on 2 sheets.

11. Leave on your kitchen counter for at least 45 minutes, to allow a film to develop on each circle.

12. Place baking sheet into the oven and bake for 12 minutes.

13. The cookies should be easy to peel off the pan. If not, put return the baking sheet into the oven for 2 more minutes.

14. Allow the cookies to cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring. Bake the next pan. Don’t forget the 45-minute sitting time for the piped meringue.

15.  The baked cookies have a smooth, eggshell-like top, a soft-ish center, standing on frothy-looking “feet”.

For the buttercream –

16.  Mix butter in a medium bowl until fluffy. Pour confectioner’s sugar and mix with a spatula until most of it is incorporated. Beat for a few seconds.

17. Pour rose water, lemon juice and a drop of food color and mix with a spatula first, before using your mixer.

Assembling the macarons –

18. Spread buttercream on the flat side of the meringue cookie and top with the flat side of another meringue cookie to form a sandwich. Press lightly.

Enjoy, but watch out for the sugar rush!

I dropped off the universe, didn’t I? And left you hanging about my Dobos Torte. It wasn’t intentional. I had just been busy with work, entertaining house guests, taxes (lovely), health issues, and catching up with friends. Sorry lovelies!

So finally, here’s a slice of the Dobos Torte shot to show off its fabulous layers. This gives me flashbacks (I almost said backflash…hmm) of the dreadful sinking feeling when I discovered that each layer will be baked individually. And in the process, perfect the technique to: quickly change the cookie sheets, run the hot one with cool water, wipe it dry, put new paper with the circular pattern to follow, and spread another layer of batter thinly…precisely. After baking the second layer in the oven, it began to feel like an assembly line and I was working in the kitchen from one counter to another in orchestrated moves. I really did not want it to end. But as with any Daring Bakers challenge, just when you start enjoying it, you move to the next one! Hey, I’m not complaining. I’m always relieved after I finish each challenge.

The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel, although you may find variations with 6 to 12 layers. József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, invented it in 1885 and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners’ and Gingerbread Makers’ Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

The Dobos Torte or Torta entails baking the sponge sheets, making the caramel wedges, preparing the buttercream, and assembling the cake. As per the recipe and notes of our hosts, Lorraine and Angela, I heeded their advice to cool the layers in the fridge first, separated by parchment paper and well-wrapped. I made the buttercream while the layers were cooling, at three in the morning. That’s how I roll when I couldn’t sleep. Let’s make buttercream while the rest of the world is in deep sleep! As I said in my previous post, it was heavenly and I was pointing my toes as I walked in delight. I had to restrain myself from eating the bowl of buttercream. I wrapped the bowl and put it in the fridge before I could commit that sin.

The next evening, I took out the best sponge layer to create the caramel wedges. This part is tricky and requires that your mind isn’t sleeping: you pour caramel made of sugar and water, with lemon juice, over on sponge layer, let it cool for a bit, slice, and fully cool. I cut the sponge layer into 12 slices first before pouring the caramel. I think that saved me half a woe of cutting. After the caramel solidifies enough to be cut, you use a heated and well-oiled knife to cut through the caramel. I didn’t heat the knife because I couldn’t think of how to do so, but I oiled it before making my first attempt at cutting. After a few light strokes, it had become evident to me that it would not work out because not only was the caramel sticking, it was breaking and the sponge cake was tearing apart. Look at the center of my caramel layer on the right (iPhone shot!) and you will see the slight tear in the middle right there.

The knife just won’t cut it, no pun intended. I had to think of another way to cut it without breaking it. My next brilliant idea: use a pizza cutter. Oiled.

And it worked! The oiled pizza cutter made cutting these wedges a breeze, if I dare say so! I wiped it regularly with a paper towel that’s been well-dampened with oil and it was like magic. So there…that was my A-HA! moment with the caramel wedges.

Once the wedges were cut, I placed 12 toasted and peeled hazelnuts/filberts on the top of the cake for the wedges to lean on. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t perfect. I had to move them around several times.

Now onto the finished product.

You’ll notice from the first photo above that the butter cream looks shiny and gooey. I tried eating it cold (check out the cold cake with dull-looking buttercream) and at room temperature, and I’m all for the latter. It looks, tastes, and feels better in the mouth. The sponge layers are soft-er, and the flavor of the chocolate buttercream tastes like Christmas morning in your mouth: it will make you smile because it’s so smooth and rich. The chocolate layered with sponge cake creates a good balance of textures. The lemon-y caramel wedges were (I think) meant to counteract the sweet cake.

I have to say that the sponge layers were a bit dry. It could be my baking, the cooling, or something, but it lacked the softness and moisture that I wish was there. Even with the buttercream, it was lacking in overall cake moisture. The caramel wedges were a bit too tangy for me, but our house guests LOVED them. It was too strong of a contrast for me. Perhaps next time I make this (if I will), I will decrease the lemon juice, and add a dollop of crème fraîche when served. It’s already making me drool.

Somebody asked me how food on this site seem to look perfect, and if they are really perfect. The answer? They’re certainly not. The topmost picture? I didn’t even notice the dark spot behind the caramel wedge until I was resizing it. I did try to take a photo of the slice at another angle, but that didn’t turn out well because of the chocolate right here. Oops. But I’m showing it here to show you just one of the many food styling gaffs I make. When the chocolate softened, the wedge slipped and I had reposition it again and I didn’t even check the back. Hehe. I think I’ll have to check my camera in case I accidentally wiped chocolate on it!

Just like the headshots you see in magazines, these food photos are not as perfect in real life. I just try to emphasize the good features. :-)

I joined this fantastic, dedicated, inspiring and fun group of bakers last March: The Daring Bakers. I wanted in on the amazing and hugely popular–yet highly secretive–monthly challenge. You can’t “reveal” the recipe and results until the designated date.Let me tell you, most of the recipes the “hosts” (it’s different every month) pick ones that I would not willingly subject myself to by my own choice. That’s the beauty of it. Even if you can clearly see the recipe is The Tome of recipes, you still go ahead because you know that several hundreds of the other members are doing it with you…through days, nights, arm/back/leg pain in the kitchen, several trips to different markets to procure all the ingredients, thinking of variations to make,…until you all come up with the results, take a bite and pat yourself on the back.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Every month, I tell myself that I’m going to finish the challenge way ahead of the 27th deadline and reveal. Then I think about having to keep it to myself for days or weeks! That’s hard. I finished this last Tuesday and took photos, then more photos of the sliced cake the next day. Then forgot to post. Haha. This is classic.

The finished cake was a beauty to behold!

I’ve never made buttercream in my life, and having a taste of this cake’s fresh chocolate buttercream was dreamy. I was Mmm-Mmm–Mmm-ing at 3am while gliding in the kitchen.

And that’s all I’m going to say for now. Wait until I post more photos later. Sorry, foodies, cooks, bakers, and food voyeurs, it’s a busy day ahead. Please come back later. :) I will also let you know what I did to have an almost stress-free slicing of those pesky, sticky caramel slices!

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 3 Stages of Food Love:

The first look…

The first slice…

The first bite…

And I thought I won’t be able to make it to the deadline of this month’s Daring Bakers challenge. I am so glad I did! I’m ecstatic about the results–and that’s a huge understatement. The frangipane top is light, fluffy-spongy, perfectly ‘toasted’ with a subtle sweetness that gives you a hint of almond, which can almost be mistaken for coconut. The moist portion in between is made of homemade blackberry jam** with a consistency that is heaven-sent because it neighter left the upper filling and the crust soaked, nor left it wanting for taste or texture. The bottom is a semi-flaky crust that’s solid and holds well during cutting, yet crumbles at the right time when you bite into it.

Can you tell I’m in love?

Oh, yes! The best thing about it all is that it’s really easy to do. It’s not time consuming, won’t break your back and people will go Oooh, Ahhh, MMmmm over it. I think I can pretty much guarantee that, unless they don’t like almonds or are allergic to it.

Thanks Jasmine (Confessions of a Cardamom Addict) and Annemarie (Ambrosia and Nectar) for this month’s DB challenge! I absolutely, thoroughly, love it.

I will talk about it more and post additional photos in a bit. For now, I want to make the DB challenge deadline! :-) Recipes are available at the websites of our challenge hosts above. I’m sorry I don’t have the recipe for the blackberry jam.

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** I wish I could say I made it, but my friend’s mom did and it’s almost a year old so I decided to use it before it goes to waste! That’s another ‘win’ for Eating Down the Fridge.

Whew…last minute!

I had my Daring Bakers challenge in my to-do list last weekend but plans changed because the fiance came over for the weekend to surprise me. What can you do, eh? Haha.

So last night, after making a dinner of tuna beet salad with homemade mayo (because I ran out!) and already invested on a lot of elbow grease for that mayo, I stretched the dough for the strudel:

And let me tell you now that it was a lot of work and it tested my patience. After a while of gently coaxing the dough to stretch…stretch a little more…go on…I almost went into this Zen-like phase of going around the dough to stretch it. It was very meditative until I tear my first teeny hole.  Have I told you before that I’m a perfectionist? After that I got too cautious and I guess that made my dough not as thin as it should be, but I swear I can see the threads of my cotton fabric at the bottom very clearly.

These delicious Rainier cherries from the Granville Island market made it into the strudel:

And so did the raspberries I got there, too. I added a tiny bit of dried cranberries to soak up the extra juice from the raspberries. I’m not going to admit that I was eating while preparing them. Mmm.

I rolled it and slathered it with butter. Perhaps too much butter, I know. But one cannot have enough of it!

After about 37 minutes, I took out the strudel and waited for another half hour before slicing. It kept falling apart while I sliced it, but it did taste good!

It’s not the most photogenic (cooked) dish on earth and I wish I could give you a bite to make it better. Next time I think I’ll use white sugar instead of my trying-to-be-healthy choice of raw sugar to make it less dark. What do you think? Perhaps the raspberries were a bad idea because they become goo. I don’t know…but it sure was yummy.

I’ll post the recipe tomorrow!

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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. — Many thanks to Courtney and Linda for the challenge. It was indeed a challenge! :D

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

I always talk about one of my common indulgences during the week: coffee with Bailey’s Irish creme. So I thought, why not put those lovely flavors in a cheesecake? After all, the Daring Bakers Challenge this month calls for playing with a basic cheesecake recipe.

For those of you not familiar with the Daring Bakers, it’s a group whose members undertake monthly baking challenges. :) I was crazy enough to join. Haha. It is so much fun. Last month was my first time and I had an initiation by fire with the spinach lasagna. This month is a sweeter challenge. Yumm…cheesecake!

I’ve made many cheesecakes before because it’s been requested so many times. My “signature” cheesecake was a no-bake one that is light and not anywhere as decadent as your average cheesecake. So it’s nice to go for something different. I took the good things from my old cheesecake and used that for this month’s recipe–lemon juice and zest in the crust and my foil-wrapping  technique that makes cooking and cleaning with the springform pan much easier.

Admittedly, although I knew what flavors to incorporate in my cheesecake, I wasn’t quite sure how until I was making it. And I’ve had a few Uh-Oh (not A-Ha!) moments. I separated the cheesecake batter into 3 parts for the 3 flavors: coffee, dark chocolate and Bailey’s. They tasted right individually, however I ended up with 3 liquids with different viscosities, with the coffee liquid as the least viscous — and I want that the most dominant flavor because I want it to be mainly coffee cheesecake. Hmm. I guess I should have thought of that when separating the batter because the most dominant liquid I had was Bailey’s. Not that I’m complaining, Gimme more, I say.

In the end, I just poured the liquids from the most, to the least, thick. I wasn’t ecstatic about the top:

Before I combined all the liquid mixtures, I saw that the coffee batter was too thin so I added an additional egg. Haha. Bad move…look at that top!!! The dark spots were from the cocoa powder that I thought to add at the very end. Yet another Uh-Oh moment. I should not have added it directly to the mixture.

But then here comes the A-Ha! moment: The Taste and texture! The cheesecake was a nice, smooth indulgent bite that melts into a comforting silk mousse of coffee, chocolate and my favorite Irish creme. Wow.

And three taste testers agree! :-)

I still need to work on my viscosity issues, but this is a winning cheesecake overall. My cake-top problem could easily be ‘fixed’ with a dusting of cocoa.

The basic cheesecake recipe is here, and I’ll be posting my recipe tonight. Done! Thanks Jenny! And thanks to Abbey, too.

Now I can relax again until the next challenge. But for now, here’s the recipe: Continue Reading

I like a good challenge and whenever I see those lovely food blogs with results from the Daring Bakers Challenge, I’m in awe and envy. When I finally got around to joining the group, I froze when I saw my first challenge for March 2009: Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna (Lasagne Verdi Al Forno). I was expecting to make dessert or bake cakes — something for my insatiable sweet tooth…something easier. But no, it turns out my “initiation” into the Daring Bakers would be a very laborious one. I was as scared as I was decades ago when the swimming instructor asked us to jump into the pool at the 6″ feet mark on our first class. Are you serious? What did I get myself into?!

THIS, dear readers:

YUMMMMMMM. As with life’s big challenges, this challenge has great rewards. This lasagna melts in your mouth. There’s homemade lasagne, and then there’s memorable homemade gourmet lasagne. I could not believe how delicious it was! I can still remember the taste of the ragu, the nice tenderness of homemade pasta, the rich bechamel sauce.

This lasagne marks a few firsts for me:

1) Very first lasagne. You read that right: I’ve never made lasagne in my entire life. It just looked like it was too much work. Yeah, look what I ended up doing! Haha.

2) Bechamel sauce.

3) Handmade pasta and without the aid of a machine, too. Oh, dear, this is a biggie. The whole thing was a workout.

4) Ragu sauce. I don’t think I’ve ever spent more than two hours to make a pasta sauce. No sir.

Woohoo!

Would I make it again? YES! But not without a pasta machine. ;-) The challenge did not require us to buy one, but god, I wish I had. Oh well, that’s done. I can now say that the very first lasagne I made entailed a back-breaking 2-hour manual pasta rolling ordeal. No wonder I put it off for more than a week! I had to muster enough courage and strength to get the ball rolling. Literally. This started out as a dough ball that you flatten with your rolling pin if you do it by hand. It has a gorgeous green color because of the spinach.  I used frozen chopped spinach and this is an egg pasta.

I dried it as cut sheets for 24 hours before cooking. I dared not to take photos of the transformation of our dining room into a pasta drying area with the sheets hanging on freshly cleaned table cloth-covered chairs.

It’s more delicate than store-bought pasta, understandably. I had some tears here and there. It looked very pretty as I assembled the dish. This is how one layer looks like, beginning with the spinach lasagna sheet overlapping each other:

Rich and creamy bechamel sauce:

The MMMMM-inducing ragu sauce:

More bechamel on top of the ragu sauce.

Topped with grated parmigiano reggiano cheese:

And this is the topmost layer of my lasagne, with a generous amount of bechamel and grated parmigiano reggiano cheese:

Our kitchen smelled amazing while it was cooking:

Here, the fruit of my labor:

I started making this 4pm (for the pasta sheets) and we ate this at 11pm the next day. It’s no walk in the park, but I’m glad I did it! WHEW!!!!!!

I will post a PDF recipe tonight. :)

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.