Doughnuts!! Or are they...?

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

Bomboloni:
Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 35 minutes
Rising time - 1 1/2 hours plus overnight
Cooking time - 10 minutes
Yield: About 32 Bomboloni
Ingredients
Water, Lukewarm 1/3 cup + 1 Tablespoon
Active Dry Yeast 3 ¼ teaspoon (1.5 pkgs.)
Honey 1.5 Tablespoon
All Purpose Flour 3 cup
Milk 3 Tablespoon
Egg Yolk, Large 6
White Granulated Sugar 1/3 cup + more for rolling
Kosher (Flaked) Salt 2 teaspoon
Butter, Unsalted 3 Tablespoon
Canola Oil 3 cup  (Or any other flavorless oil used for frying)
Raspberry Jam, Seedless ¾ cup (or any flavor jam, preserves, jelly)
Directions:

1. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, mix the water, yeast, honey and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (160 gm) of the flour. (Alternatively, whisk the ingredients by hand.) Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until foamy, about 1 hour.
2. Return the bowl to the mixer, fitted with a dough hook. Add the remaining 1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons (260 gm) of flour, along with the milk, egg yolks, 1/3 cup of granulated sugar and the salt. Mix at low speed until blended, then add the butter and knead at medium speed until silky but sticky, about 5 minutes; the dough will not pull away from the side of the bowl.
3. Using an oiled spatula, scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.
4. In a large saucepan, heat the canola oil to 360°F/180°C. Line a rack with paper towels. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 inch (12 mm)of granulated sugar. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough a scant 1/2 inch (12 mm) thick. Using a 2-inch (50 mm) round biscuit cutter, stamp out rounds. The original recipe said to not re-roll the dough, but I did and found it to be fine. Fry the rounds, 4 to 5 at a time, until they are browned, about 4 minutes (mine only took about a minute each – try to go more by sight). Be sure to keep the oil between 360°F and 375°F 180°C and 190°C. Drain the bomboloni on paper towels.
5. Roll them in the granulated sugar.

Filling Directions:
Fit a pastry bag with a plain donut tip (or a 1/4-inch (6 mm) tip) and fill with the preserves (you can also use a squeeze bottle). Poke the tip three-fourths of the way into the bomboloni and squeeze in the preserves, pulling the tip out slightly as you squeeze to fill them as much as possible. Serve warm.

DBC: Sugar Cookies

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.

Join the club for the recipe! Here are my cookies:

Pumpkin Roll

It's book club time and since I finished the Daring Baker's Challenge forever ago, I made a pumpkin roll!!! Yay for fall!

I got the recipe from allrecipes.com, it's the Pumpkin Roll II. Great ratings and of course.... it was delicious!

Recipe available here.

Chopper's Cookies

I made Chopper some treats today. I had to... he was out and I was on a baking kick so I needed someone else to feed. I found this recipe somewhere... uh... I just can't remember where and the point is I modified it a lot so I'm not too worried about it. :)

Ok... Dog Cookies

2 eggs
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp peanut butter
1 cup chicken stock
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup corn meal

Not too hard... mix it all together, I had problems with it being rather dry so that's why I ended up with much more liquid than my original recipe called for. You actually wrap the dough and chill it for an hour, then roll it out about 1/2" thick and I used Chopper's favorite bone cookie cutter. Then you bake 12 minutes, flip them over and bake another 12 to dry them out.

He loved them.

Oreo Cupcakes

I finally feel like baking cupcakes again. Despite low energy and low tolerance for standing on the tile kitchen floor for too long, I'm back!!

I ran across the recipe for these cupcakes on Fake Ginger. They looked so scrumptious, I just had to try them. Not to mention Oreos are amazing anyway. My in-laws are coming to town today and I spent the morning cleaning and waiting so I finally decided I had enough time to whip these up before they get to town. My loving husband abandoned me to go hunting this weekend, even though his parents will be here, so if he doesn't get one, no spilled milk. :)

I'm not giving the recipe, you'll have to visit the Fake Ginger blog for that, but here's the result:

 I think these may become a most requested favorite at the office. :)

DBC: Brown Butter Pound Cake

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Ok... I love brown butter. We know this from my brown butter discovery while making cupcakes. If you haven't read that one... you should check it out next. :)

So why ruin an amazingly delicious cake by freezing it, covering it in ice cream and who knows what else?? I wanted to stay purist this month. And it helps that my freezer went out in the garage so I lost a lot of food and it was, to say the least, gross when I discovered it so I'm short on freezer space in the kitchen anyways.

On to brown butter pound cake!
Brown Butter Pound Cake
19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.
2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.
5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Note to you - it took an extra 10 minutes for me. It was a cool, humid day so who knows...

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.


I made this for the ladies at book club. I couldn't help but lick the spatula before I washed it. Brown butter is an all time #1 food for me. As for the cake, pretty good. I did pick up some whipped cream and raspberries to accompany the little mounds of heaven and it worked out really well. I hope you discover brown butter too! No one should be without it. And of course I had to charge the battery for the camera so I forgot a picture. :( sorry.

Delicious Banana Bread

Call me crazy but I keep bananas in my freezer. Whenever my bananas are getting too ripe on the counter, I just toss them in the freezer for delicious baked goods. The bananas turn black but the fleshy insides don't lose any of their flavor or texture. Of course, they do not turn black inside! Our freezer in the garage mysteriously unplugged itself and we lost everything in it! Including our wedding cake which we were one week away from enjoying. Did I mention we had the most delicious red velvet cake??!?!? Oh well. So this catastrophe has caused me to clean out and eat the contents of our freezer in the kitchen. Not a bad thing... until you realize how many bananas have been stashed in there. :) Oops. Time to bake apparently.

What to make?? Martha Stewart has some delicious roasted banana cupcakes and I thought about it, but was in the mood for something less sweet. I found a recipe for Banana Bread IV on www.allrecipes.com. Why is it IV? What happened to I, II and III? Hmmm...

So here it is:

5 (yes 5) ripe bananans (thawed if you're me)
4 eggs
1 c. shortening (ew)
2 1/2 c. sugar (next time I'm trying out half brown sugar)
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 1/2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 or so tsp. cinnamon
sugar/cinnamon for topping

Mash the bananas, add the eggs.

In your handy Kitchen Aid mixer, toss in your shortening. Mix it up. Slowly add the sugar. Add in the banana mess. Sift your dry ingredients separately. Toss them in the mixer. Voila! Pour into two greased pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes.

Holy delicious bread crammed with bananas!! I took this to the fire station and it was gone in minutes. Definitely the best banana bread ever. And oops! I forgot a picture.

Coconut... Truffles?

I found a YouTube video for Moroccan coconut truffles, recipe here, which led to making these very simple delights. I made a few minor modifications:

3 c. unsweetened shredded coconut
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
whole almonds

1 c extra coconut for covering



Mix your coconut and milk! Use a small ice cream scoop to make balls out of your mixture. Place an almond in the center before you eject the creamy ball into the extra coconut. Coat with coconut and refrigerate. Serve your delicious balls cold.
Yum.

Peach Clafouti

I found this wonderful dessert in the Tartine cookbook. I whipped it up for book club today and it was quick, easy and wonderful! I thought I would share. Before I could even think about a picture, it was all gone! Hopefully next time.

Clafouti
Lightly adapted from Tartine

2 c. milk
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt
3 eggs
1/3 c. + 1 tbsp flour
2 c. peaches, peeled and chopped

Preheat oven to 425 and butter a 10 inch pie dish.

In a small saucepan, mix the milk, sugar, vanilla and salt. Heat until the sugar is dissolved, just before boiling. While this is heating, add one egg and the flour to a bowl (preferably Kitchenaid mixer) and whisk until there are no lumps. Add the two remaining eggs.

Once the milk mixture is ready, ladle small amounts into the eggs while constantly whisking so you don't scramble the eggs! Keep going until it is all incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the pie dish and place the fruit in the dish, spacing it out evenly. Bake 30 - 35 minutes. Additionally, you're supposed to caramelize some sugar on top (which didn't work out for me so much) by upping the oven to 500 and sprinkling 1/4 c. sugar on top.

Yummmmm!!

Daring Baker's Challenge: Piece Montée or Croquembouche

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.
Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!!! What a great challenge! I had no idea how amazing and easy it was to make cream puffs. Although I made the tower, next time I'm just sticking to the cream puffs. They were so ridiculously amazing and went really well with the book club girls!!

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.

Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.

Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.

Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.

As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.

It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.

Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.