Daring Bakers: Tart or Pudding? You decide.

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.

Thank you Jasmine and Annemarie for a very history filled challenge!

As you may have already guessed, there is much debate on whether or not this dessert is actually a pudding or a tart. Now on the one hand it does have a crust like a tart, but on the other hand the top is rather sponge like and you can put a cream sauce on it. Unfortunately, I myself could not decide due to some, err... oh hell, the thing was so good I didn't really care to decipher if it was more of a tart or pudding. So it looks like you'll just have to make it yourself and decide the great debate: Tart or Pudding?

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding
Makes one 23cm (9” tart)
Prep time: less than 10 minutes (plus time for the individual elements)
Resting time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes
Equipment needed: 23cm (9”) tart pan or pie tin (preferably with ridged edges), rolling pin
One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry (recipe follows)
Bench flour
250ml (1cup (8 US fl. oz)) jam or curd, warmed for spreadability (I made a strawberry jam, but I think any kind of berry would be good, or even store bought jam if you prefer)
One quantity frangipane (recipe follows)
One handful blanched, flaked almonds

Assembling the tart
Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it's overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm (1/4”) thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. (After the jam, I added some chocolate chips.) Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Sweet shortcrust pastry
Prep time: 15-20 minutes
Resting time: 30 minutes (minimum)
Equipment needed: bowls, box grater, cling film
225g (8oz) all purpose flour
30g (1oz) sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) salt
110g (4oz) unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 (2) egg yolks
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract (optional)
15-30ml (1-2 Tbsp) cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Frangipane

Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Equipment needed: bowls, hand mixer, rubber spatula
125g (4.5oz) unsalted butter, softened
125g (4.5oz) icing sugar
3 (3) eggs
2.5ml (½ tsp) almond extract
125g (4.5oz) ground almonds
30g (1oz) all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Annemarie’s notes:• Add another five minutes or more if you're grinding your own almonds or if you're mixing by hand (Heaven help you).

If you enjoyed this, please stop by here and check out everyone else's posts!

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!

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Dissection of a bad cupcake

So what makes a cupcake "bad" you might ask. Well let me fill you in on a bad cupcake with my list of 3 sure ways to tell if a cupcake is truly "bad".

1. It can be used as a weapon.
Example: You see that woman who used to shamelessly flirt with your boyfriend/significant other, even though she knew he was taken, so you chuck the cupcake at her and it knocks her unconscious. Oops, now run like hell! ( joking :), or am I? )

2. The frosting can be used as a lube. Get your minds out of the gutter :)
Example: Your secret cookie stash cabinet has developed a noisy hinge. You could use the bad cucpake frosting to oil it up so your boyfriend/significant other doesn't catch you mid-cookie sneaking. Now try not to look like a deer in the headlights and start babbling about how you just found these cookies, and instead say, "Oh I was just coming to find you and see if you'd like a cookie."

3. You've tried this place's cupcakes not once, not twice, but 5 TIMES! to see if the cupcakes have changed from bad to good.
Example: There is this great little restaurant with a cute little bakery by you. Now this bakery has tasty bread, to-die-for fruit tarts, and your all-time favorite sweet, pain au chocolat. But honestly, I'm convinced they couldn't make a decent cupcake if their life depended on it. And don't even get me started on the mountain of inedible frosting they use.

List aside, did I mention that the cupcakes are always so pretty and twice the size of a normal cupcake? You're thinking about #1 now and picturing a softball instead of a cupcake, aren't ya? I really really wish that their cupcakes would magically change to something delicious. Or at least something I wouldn't mind using up a daily amount of calories on.

Now for the unveiling of the place with the "bad" cupcakes. Drumroll please...
Medici.
Originally from Chicago, they decided to build another Medici here in Normal. Now don't get me wrong, the restaurant is lovely and almost everything their bakery makes is good, except for those damn cupcakes. Who oh why can they not be good?! If I had remembered to take my camera with me, you could have seen how beautiful the cupcakes are, but alas I only had my phone camera to work with. So my apologies for the bad pictures of the bad cupcakes :(

And as for this bottom picture, no I did not eat the whole cupcake. I spread the cupcake love around and gave each of my co-workers a piece :) Aren't I so sweet and nice? (wink, wink)

Stay tuned for my next bakery adventure!

Daring Bakers and a have-it-your-way cheesecake!!

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

Since I've never made cheesecake before, I was super excited to tackle this challenge. I immediately began thinking of flavor combinations. That's right, Jenny said we could do any flavor or crust, as long as we followed the base recipe. Yea!

I finally decided on a mint Oreo crust with the plain cheesecake, dotted with Andes mint pieces and topped with melted Andes mints and mint Oreos. Go ahead and start drooling, you have my permission :)

Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

crust:

2 cups/180 crushed mint Oreos

1 stick/4 oz. butter, melted

2 tbsp./24 g sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:

3 sticks cream cheese, 8 oz. each, room temperature

1 cup/210 g sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup/8 oz. heavy cream

1 tbsp. lemon juice (I left this out because of all the mint flavors)

1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)

1 tbsp. liquer, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake (I left this out as well, but maybe next time I would add mint Bailey's)

1-2 cups Andes mint pieces

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180c = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too - baker's choice. ( I put the Andes mint pieces on top of the crust and poured the batter over it.) Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done - this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finishing cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!

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Hoppy 1 Day After Easter!

I was so distracted by my very own Easter bunny, aka Sir Hops Alot, that I almost forgot to post these yummy cookie bars that I made for my co-workers. And yes, I did name my rabbit Sir Hops Alot. Go ahead, I'll give you a couple of minutes to have a good laugh...

Now back to these cookies or should I say cookie bars. I'd like to thank whomever thought to put sugar cookie dough into a cookie sheet and make these seriously wonderful treats. Lately over on Tastespotting I'd been seeing pictures of sugar cookie bars showing up. So I pulled out my recipes and found my sugar cookie dough. Since it looked like many people were spreading their dough onto a cookie sheet I did have to double the recipe, which I have already doubled at the bottom. So totally worth it!

Sugar Cookie Bars

1 cup of butter (I used unsalted) softened

1 1/2 cups of sugar

4 eggs

3 tsp. of vanilla

5 cups of flour
(plus a little extra to help keep your fingers from sticking as you press the dough into the pan)

1 tsp. of salt

1/2 tsp. of baking soda

-Preheat oven to 375 F.

-In a large bowl, cream your butter and sugar together.

-Add each egg one at a time, mixing between each addition.

-Add vanilla, mix, and set aside.

-In a medium bowl combine your flour, salt, and baking soda. Make sure to give it a little whisk.

-Gradually add your dry mixture to your butter and sugar mixture until all the flour is incorporated.

-Grease your cookie sheet (13x18) and spread dough out onto it. Use your hands and a little bit of flour to pat it down evenly in the pan.

-Bake for about 12-15 minutes. (Mine took about 15 minutes.)

-Once they've cooled you can cut them into any shape and frost with whatever frosting you love. (I made a basic powdered sugar buttercream frosting and then sprinkled with large colored crystal sugar. Mmmm :) )

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!

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Pure Decadence

This is exactly the phrase that comes to mind as you take your first bite of Decadence's signature cheesecake. White chocolate, milk chocolate Heath toffee, caramel bits, oreo crust....oh sorry I went into a cheesecake trance. You would too if you could taste this cheesecake. This was hands down, one of the best cheesecakes I've ever tasted. Sorry Cheesecake Factory :(

Now cheesecake was not the only thing I had planned on trying. My sole purpose was to try their pain au chocolats from the day they opened. Because I can count on one hand the number of bakeries here in town that actually know what these are, let alone make them. While it may not have been a real Parisian chocolate croissant, it came sort of close.

It had the right amount of chocolate and it had a nice flaky outside. The only problem was that it was a bit heavy. I'm not sure what the French do to make their croissants light and airy, but it's a technique I've yet to taste on this side of the pond. That's not to say that I won't be going back for another Decadence pain au chocolat. I'll just be continuing my search for the perfect american version of these delicious chocolate bundles of heaven :)

In the meantime, if you find yourself in central Illinois craving a pain au chocolat, you should stop on over at Decadence. You may find me drooling in front of the cheesecake display.

Stay tuned for my next bakery adventure!

The Art and Soul of Chocolate Chip Cookies

372,000. That is how many results you will find if you type chocolate chip cookie recipe into Google. Amazing! Since I was a little girl, the chocolate chip cookie has been my favorite cookie. Of course who doesn't like eating the dough, but it's more than that. There is just something about the aroma these cookies give off as they are being baked. And let's not forget the warm, melty goodness when you eat one straight from the oven. Mmmmm, heaven. Add an ice cold glass of milk and you're set. Ok, now I'm starting to get hungry. Good thing I froze some of this dough ;)

After my wonderful description (wink, wink) of the chocolate chip cookie, you will understand my excitement over receiving the ART & SOUL of BAKING by Cindy Mushet for Sur la table, for my birthday! Yea! And of course I just HAD to read it from cover to cover. So what was the first recipe I tried? Devil's food cupcake? Nope. Dairy challah? Guess again. Chocolate Chip Cookies? Ding ding ding! Yup, I tried the chocolate chip cookie recipe. Surprisingly, the recipe was very close to the Tollhouse recipe. But oh so much better! Trust me, you will never go back to that Tollhouse recipe again.Because in my oh so humble opinion, it is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever tried. I'm including the recipe below. If you decide to try it, please drop me a comment on your own results.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe by Cindy Mushet

the ART & SOUL of BAKING

1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) of unsalted butter, softened (65-68 degrees F)

3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) granulated sugar

3/4 cup (6 ounces) firmly packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

6 ounces good-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch chunks, or 1 cup (7 ounces) dark chocolate chips *(I used Ghiradelli 60% Cacao bittersweet chocolate chips.)

6 ounces good-quality milk chocolate, chopped into 1/4-inch chunks, or 1 cup (7 ounces) milk chocolate chips *(I used Ghiradelli white chocolate chips instead.)

1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces) chopped nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, or hazelnuts), chopped, toasted, and completely cooled (optional) *(I did not put nuts in mine.)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position an oven rack in the center. Line the baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Place the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of the stand mixer and beat on medium-low speed until smooth and blended, about 2 minutes. You can also use a hand mixer and a medium bowl, although you may need to beat the mixture a little longer to achieve the same results. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until just blended after each addition. Add the vanilla and blend well. Scrape down the bowl.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Turn the mixer to the lowest speed and add the flour mixture all at ounce. Blend just until there are no more patches of flour. Scrape down the bowl.

4. Add the semisweet and milk chocolate chunks and nuts (if using), and blend on low just until combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir gently a few times with the spatula to make sure there are no more patches of unincorporated flour or butter lurking near the bottom of the bowl.

5. Using the small ice cream scoop or spoon, portion tablespoon-size mounds onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time, rotating the sheet halfway through, for 10-14 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown at the edges and still a bit pale in the center. If you want crisp cookies instead of chewy ones, bake for a couple extra minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and let them cool completely before serving.

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!

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The Daring Bakers give us a Chocolate Valentino for Valentine's

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.

Thank you Wendy and Dharm for such a perfect recipe for February and Valentine's Day. I love any excuse to eat chocolate and make my own ice cream. Lucky me that I was able to do both :) The vanilla bean ice cream was such a nice compliment to the flourless chocolate cake.

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.

Dharm's Ice Cream Recipe Classic Vanilla Ice Cream

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)

300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.

4 large egg yolks

75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}

5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}

300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat){you can easily increase your cream's fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted - cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthwise. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse. Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.

2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy.

3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time.

4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.

5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker).

Stay tuned for my next baking adventure!

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