April Daring Bakers' Challenge: Maple Mousse in Edible Containers

I learned something wonderfully terrible today. It may mean the end of my waistline, unless I up my gym schedule to 7 days a week. When the spring weather starts, around Toronto the radio and TV stations start playing advertisements for Canada's Wonderland, our local theme park. And every year, I hear the jingle and see the brightly coloured rollercoasters flash across the TV screen, the craving starts. I want funnel cake. It used to be that I would have to pay the 30-something dollars admission, plus parking and gas money. I'd then have to walk across the huge parking lot and into the park, all the way to Top Gun (Let's be serious, Paramount may have sold the park, but no one is every going to know what you're talking about if you try to tell them that the funnel cake stand is just beside "Flight Deck"). However, today I learned something: with very little effort, and a little bit of time, I can make funnel cake at home.

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. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

As I tried to figure out what my edible container would be, I kept coming back to pancakes. To me, pancakes are the only thing to combine with maple syrup. I considered crepes and waffles, and all sorts of things. But one day a couple weeks ago, that jingle came on the radio, the craving struck, and I knew what I wanted to make.

I also knew that I wanted to take the opportunity to taste-test some genuine New York maple syrup. I had the opportunity to go down to Ithaca, New York for a weekend to meet the boy halfway between Toronto and Philly. We had a blast, and I took the chance to introduce him to the wonders of a Farmer's Market (He has the Reading Terminal Market at his disposal, and he buys his food at ShopRite, I'm jealous). I bought some yummy granola, as well as some wonderful medium amber syrup, which I was able to buy directly from the farmer. I'm pretty big on the whole "direct from the source" supply that a farmer's market provides.

I was also able to use some local (Canadian) maple beer in the funnel cake batter. Overall, it was delicious. (But really, I could have just eaten the funnel cakes straigt from the hot oil and dealt with the 100 pounds of weight gain later).

At the suggestion of the boyfriend, there was maple candied bacon too. I wanted to fit in the original bacon component from the originally-supplied recipe. It was not so awesome. Regardless, the whole thing turned out pretty fab.

March Daring Baker's Challenge: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

I was pulling pictures off the camera tonight, and realized that I forgot to post March's recipe, so this will be short and sweet!

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.


All I can say is that this was easy and fun to make, and was heaven to eat!

February 2011 - Panna Cotta

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.

Well, I'm a Girl Guide leader up here in Canada. I run a Pathfinder group which is girls who are 12-14. For those who are wondering, yes I am insane for choosing to spend time with a dozen girls that age. This past week we were doing a Murder Mystery Dinner Party. The Murder Mystery was Pasta, Pistols, and Passions - an Italian mystery! Perfect! I have an Italian dessert that I need to make and now I had a place to take it.

I whipped up the cookies first a few nights prior. Now, I would have to argue that this is not a recipe for Florentines. Florentines have almonds in them. In my opinion, the recipe we were given was for Oatmeal Lace cookies. Which I make often. And are delicious. They just aren't Florentines.

Now, rule number one - don't use rolled oats. Oops. It's what I had, so I went with it! But they turn out so much better with Quick Oats! I wasn't a huge fan of the cookie recipe - they really didn't turn out. I'm not sure if it was just my oven or the fact that I used rolled oats (well, I know it was partially that) or something else, but they really didn't turn out well.

The Panna Cotta was quick and easy and turned out beautifully! I haven't made Panna Cotta before - just lots of Bavarians. So I was a little nervous about how little gelatin there was in the recipe, but they turned out just right.

The morale of the story is that 12-14 year old girls love any cookie, no matter how good or bad. But gelatin-ized milk? Not a winner. I think maybe 2 of them were brave enough to actually taste it. The rest just looked at it and played with it in the cups and went, "Ewwww." I guess next time I'll save the Panna Cotta for a Murder Mystery with adults.

Now for a few pictures!

It's with cookie doughs like this that I REALLY appreciate having a cookie scoop.



Spreading the chocolate on the cookies. I've got some baked cookies in the background and a few already made in the container.



Completed cookies. I found they baked way too much on the edges and not enough in the middle. Again, not totally sure if it was just my oven or was something else.



Finished Panna Cotta. Sorry, forgot to take pictures so I snapped this one at our Murder Mystery Party. I just did them up in plastic cups. I was going to do a lemon gelee on top but ran out of time. Next time I guess! Maybe the girls would have been more willing to try them with that. Oh well!

December - Stollen

Well, I'm not going to lie and tell you I was excited to be making Stollen. We made it in culinary school and it was just this gross stale bread. Which my chef, who was from Austria, assured us it was supposed to be. They have crazy ideas over in Europe - who wants to eat stale bread!?

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

At school we made the Stollen with the strip of Marzipan down the middle using the traditional loaf shape. I went along with the wreath formation to try something different.

Sadly, I had no rum at work. And my boss was sick so I couldn't make him go to the liquor store and get me some. So, I soaked my raisins in orange juice. On the upside, my boss has had a store of mixed peel in the freezer pretty much forever, so any recipe that uses mixed peel is a-ok in his books! Anyway, I mixed up my bread and tossed it in the fridge to sit until the next day.

The next day I took my bread out first thing and let it warm up. When I got around to it, I rolled it out - it rolled out much easier than most bread. Probably from all that gluten formation from all the kneading! It wasn't hard at all to get the bread into the wreath shape! I shaped it, cut it, and threw it in my proofer! When it was ready to go, I baked it and it baked up lovely! When it came out, I dusted it with a ridiculous amount of icing sugar and it was ready!

I decided to just slice it up and wrap up the slices so the residents at the retirement home could have some in their coffee room. I gave a piece to my co-worker to try and she declared it delicious and said it tasted just like hot cross buns. So, I put my bread out and it was gone very quickly!

My summary would be that I'd rather not make Stollen very often. It's a very involved bread and I personally am not a huge fan. But it was a good challenge and was a great treat for the residents at the retirement home! They certainly enjoyed it!

Now, pictures!

Ahh, here's my favourite kitchen tool - my microplaner! I don't know how I ever zested citrus fruit before!
Here's my rolled out dough. Wasn't difficult at all to get it this thing, which was great!


My wreath prior to proofing! The ends didn't really pinch together, so I just made that spot another "cut."

Out of the oven and covered in icing sugar!


A slice showing the innards! I actually quite liked the spiral pattern that showed up due to the way the dough was shaped.

November Daring Bakers - 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.

Crostata. Or what I would call a tart. Fairly simple. So simple, I completed it within 6 hours of originally reading the post!! I checked it out at 5:30am before work, printed it off, brought it with me, and made at work the morning of November 1st!

I thought about making this a full dessert for the residents at the retirement home where I work, but I was afraid the crust would be really crumbly and it would be hard to make as a large pan of Crostata. Boy was I wrong!

I made just a single batch and I have to say, the dough was BEAUTIFUL! I often have trouble with the recipes we're given, but this recipe was great. A lovely rich dough that was so easy to work with. It didn't break, it rolled out well, it wasn't crumbly. It baked to perfection. Overall, I love this recipe and will be using it again!

I chose to fill my crostata with a marmalade. The residents love marmalade and it makes a good filling for tarts. I went with a really basic lattice top. So basic that I didn't even overlap anything. (Ok, perhaps basic isn't the correct word. How about lazy?)

I don't have one of those lovely pans with the fluted edge and the bottom that removes. I wish I did! So I used a pie plate.

I tossed my Crostata in the oven and it baked up beautifully! Even though I forgot to egg wash it! Whoops!

I tried to get it out of the pie plate and it popped out beautifully!

Overall, I have to say that I love this recipe and would absolutely make it again. I would like to try it with the pastry cream and fresh fruit. Perhaps later in the month.

Now for some pictures!

Here's my mixture after cutting in the butter. While I had a RoboCoupe behind me, I decided to just cut it by hand with a pastry cutter.


My dough in the pie plate. I cut it about halfway down the side of the pie plate as it wasn't supposed to have a huge side. Rightly so - I think an entire mouthful of marmalade wouldn't be a nice as a layer between pastry.


My unbaked Crostata in the pie pan with lattice. Lazy Lattice. It's alliteration. So that means it's ok I was lazy.


My baked Crostata out of the pie pan! I think it turned out not too shabby! I'll cut it tomorrow and put it in the coffee room for the residents.

October Daring Bakers' Challenge - Doughnuts!

October has been a pretty hectic month around here. We've had a wedding and a killer sickness that knocked me on my butt for 2 days. Shanna came to Toronto, and we completed the epic feat of climbing the CN Tower for the Toronto United Way, and it's been United Way fundraising month at work. Not to mention Halloween! However, my mind started churning out piles of ideas when I saw this month's DB Challenge. It is one of Canada's favourites, and it was the perfect thing to bring to work for our United Way potluck: Doughnuts!

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.

I made pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin being one of my favourite seasonal flavours (Pumpkin Spice Latte Season!!!), rolled onto little tiny, Timbit-like morsels. I have to admit, I'm really not a doughnut fan. One of my first jobs was slinging coffee at a little doughnut shop around the corner from my parents' house. Believe me - after smelling like a doughnut 3 days a week, the things really aren't that appetizing. However, knowing how delicious these turned out, and how easy they were considering my preconceptions, may turn out to be dangerous information!

The recipe smelled delicious as I made the dough, but once I dropped those little blobs into the hot oil, the room filled with the unmistakable smell of deep-fried batter, and I got really, really excited.



The finished product was to die for. I could probably have eaten the whole batch myself. Dipped in a quick glaze and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, there were no complaints from anyone.


I think I need to up my exercise regimen... These things are far too good for me to resist!

Well, Mini-Baked Alaska... Not so much a success...

... That should be read as "A really, really messy failure." Needless to say, no one was impressed. However, they were impressed by my fab large baked alaska:


And also, it was the yummiest mocha ice cream EVER!