April 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge: Maple Mousse served in an edible container

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!

First of all, things keep going as I mentioned last February, wich means that my job is still like hell T_T At least it looks like this situation is coming to an end (because so does the project). Thus I'm leaving the chatting till then and I'm making this post in a hurry -_-U

I admit that I didn't embrace this challege as much as I should, partly because the maple syrup is very expensive in here and partly because I'm quite tired when I get home to be in the mood for making mousse.
I made the edible containers with chocolate, following the instructions of this web. They were kind of a mess because some of the balloons were so glued to the chocolate that I almost broke the vessels.

Here come the recipe of the Maple Mousse:

Ingredients:

240ml pure maple syrup
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon unflavoured gelatine
360ml whipping cream

Method:

1. Bring maple syrup to a boil and then remove from heat.
   
2. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and pour a little bit of the maple syrup in while whisking (this is to temper your egg yolks so they don’t curdle).
3. Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed.
4. Measure 1/4 cup of whipping cream in a bowl and sprinkle it with the gelatine. Let it rest for 5 minutes. Place the bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, and stir to ensure the gelatine has completely dissolved.
5. Whisk the gelatine/whipping cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.
6. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white.
7. Whip the remaining cream. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the maple syrup mixture. Fold in the remaining cream and refrigerate for at least an hour.
8. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.

February 2011 Daring Baker's Challenge: Panna Cotta with Orange Gelée and Nestle Florentine Cookies

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, this month I managed somehow to complete the challenge just in time. It's not like I'm gonna start complaining about my job now (yes, it is XD), but these past weeks have been hell for me and the pleople I'm working with in my current project. There are just too many last-minute-super-urgent-changes to be able to cope with and finish in time.

While preparing for this month's challenge I had to face some problems regarding the ingredients needed for the florentine's cookies: as far as I'm aware you can't find in any regular (spanish) supermarket neither dark (or light) corn syrup or quick oats. And I didn't had time to go browsing specialized stores in search for some ingredients that I'm not likely to use again in a loooong time. So I substituted the dark corn syrup with honey and the quick oats with all-bran cereals :-)

As for the fruit gelée, I chosed an orange gelée because I had some at home and I think that the orange flavour is a great counterpart to the honey-ish flavour of the panna cotta.

Here come the recipes I used:

Ingredients for the Orange Gelée:

1 big orange
60g granulated sugar
45ml water
1 and 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin

Method for the Orange Gelée:

1. Sprinkle gelatin over water.
2. Peel the orange and cut it in small pieces. Place the orange and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer until sugar has dissolved.
3. Now mix the gelatin into the orange mixture and stir until gelatin has dissolved.
4. Remove from heat and allow to cool (close to room temp). Put it in the bottom of a glass (or reserve for layering it into or above the Panna Cotta).

Ingredients for the Panna Cotta (I made half of the recipe):

120ml whole milk
1/2 tablespoon unflavored powdered gelatin
A pinch of salt
360ml whipping cream
40ml honey
1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Method for the Panna Cotta:

1. Pour the milk into a pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the pot is cold by placing it in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
2. Place the pot over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot, but not boiling, about five minutes (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
3. Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into a glass.
5. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Ingredients for the Florentine Cookies (this is my adaptation):

100g unsalted butter
160g all-bran cereals
150g granulated sugar
95g all purpose flour
60ml honey
60ml whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
A pinch of salt

Method for the Florentine Cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Prepare the baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.
2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat..
3. To the melted butter add the all-bran, sugar, flour, honey, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.
4. Drop a tablespoon full, 75mm apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are set. Cool completely on the baking sheets.

I'm happy with the Panna Cotta even though it didn't set completely, but still it had some consistency, which is not that bad taking into account that this was my first attempt! ^^

The florentine cookies were a nice surprise despite all the things that could have go wrong! Looks like my substitutions didn't mess anything up. On the contrary, they're delicious! Really crunchy and with a nice honey scent that matches with the Panna Cotta ^o^

November 2010 Daring Baker's 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.

This month I went all crazy and, instead of going for one challenge, I made TWO challenges: tiramisu and crostata.
As I joined the DB on April this year I missed the tiramisu challenge, so I wanted to give it a try and thus, I browsed the Internet to see if it was possible to combine both the crostata and the tiramisu. As you can see, I was succesful ^^
I found the recipe for the tiramisú filling here, and for the pasta frolla I used the 1st version provided by Simona.

The recipes:

Ingredients for the pasta frolla:

100g superfine sugar
235g unbleached all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
115g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method for the pasta frolla:

1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.
3. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it.
4. Add the vanilla extract to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
6. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.
7. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
8. Roll out a batch of the pasta frolla and cover the base of the tart pan.
9. Cut a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil large enough to cover the bottom of the crust and extend out a bit over the edges of the pan.
10. You can use pie weights or dry beans to blind bake. Place whatever weight you’re using directly on the parchment paper or aluminum foil in an even layer.
11. Place the crostata shell in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
12. Remove the weights and parchment paper and continue baking the crostata shell until the border is light golden, about 5 minutes (watch carefully to avoid over-baking, which results in a hard shell). In the absence of weight, the crust may rise in the middle: if that occurs, gently push it back down with the back of a spoon.
13. Remove from the oven and let the crostata shell cool completely before proceeding. If you use a tart pan with removable bottom, release the base from the fluted tart ring, then slide the cooled crostata shell on a serving plate for filling.

Ingredients for the mascarpone cream for the tiramisú:

250g mascarpone cheese
25g icing sugar
1 tablespoon coffee
2 egg yolks
60g caster sugar
2 tablespoons coffee liquor
75g whipped cream

Method for the mascarpone cream for the tiramisú:

1. Mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar with a spoon after adding the tablespoon of coffee.
2. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar and the coffee liquor.
3. Add the egg yolks to the mascarpone and mix until well combined.
4. Add the whipped cream and mix well.

Method for the assembling:

1. Spread some nutella over the bottom of the crostata shell.

2. Set in this way some coffee soaked savoiardi.

3. Now pour the mascarpone mixture over the savoiardi.

4. Spread the mascarpone mixture until it covers all the inside of the crostata. Decorate with some dusted cocoa powder.

The crostata looks ugly but I swear that it is delicious! It's like eating tiramisú with butter cookies!!!

October 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge: 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.

First of all I must say that I LOVE doughnuts. They're really delicious by themselves and with a chocolate glazing they're just heavenly! So, you can imagine my delight when I saw which was this month's challenge ^^

As it was my first time making them I decided to keep it simple and dip the doughnuts in a simple sugar glaze, to imitate the ones sold in every bakery.

The recipes:

Ingredients for doughnuts:

360 ml whole milk
70g butter
14g active dry yeast
80 ml warm water
1.5 tsp salt
55g white sugar
650g all purpose flour + extra for dusting surface
2 large eggs, beaten
Olive oil (depends on the size of the vessel you are frying in).

Method for the doughnuts:

1. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the butter.
2. Place the butter in a bowl and pour warmed milk over (make sure that the butter is melted). Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes (it should get foamy). After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl and add the milk and butter mixture, first making sure the milk and butter mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
4. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, and the flour. The dough will be to sticky to knead by hand without adding a lot of extra flour and it will be very messy so just roughly combine the dough ingredients using a plastic scraper or wooden spoon. No need to knead too much; a longer resting/rising time is equivalent to kneading that is if you only roughly knead for one minute or so and let the dough rise for a longer time this is equivalent to kneading for a longer time (many thanks to Audax for the kneading instructions).
5. "Pour" (the dough won't be firm at this point, but don't panic, it's normal) to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 and 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

6. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 9 mm thick (make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
7. Cut out dough using a 65 mm doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass (I used a water glass) and using a 22 mm ring for the center whole (I used one of my piping tips). Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
8. Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 185°C.
9. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
10. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.
    

Ingredients for the simple sugar glaze:

450 ml whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
440g confectioner's sugar

Method for the simple sugar glaze:

1. Combine the milk and vanilla over a medium saucepan and heat over low heat until warm.
2. Sift the sugar into the mixture. Whisk slowly until well combined
3. Remove the the glaze from the heat and set over a bowl of warm water (I left it over the heat, set at the minimum).
4. Dip the doughnuts into the glaze and let it drain.

The doughnut were great...the first day. Unfortunately the next day they were dry and not so good. The bright side is that there were only FOUR DOUGHNUTS LEFT! So most of the doughnut were eaten at their best ^^ I suppose that this means that people did like them, doesn't it?

August 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge: Baked Alaska

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”.

This challenge has been quite tiring for me because I don't own an ice cream maker, which means that I had to take the ice cream out of the freezer every half an hour and stir it vigorously with a spatula. And it took me 3 hours to complete the vanilla ice cream!

I did the ice cream on monday and, on tuesday, I put it in the tea cups and baked the brown butter pound cake. Later on, before dinner, I assembled the pound cake + ice cream and left it in the freezer until wednesday, when I made the meringue and baked the completely assembled Baked Alaska. That makes 3 days to complete the challenge!

The easiest part was to make the meringue (of course! XD), but I had never made a meringue cover before and wasn't really fond of using the piping bag, so instead of that I chose to put the meringue on top of the ice cream and then try to make some spikes with the help of the spatula.

It's not that bad to be the first time, isn't it?

The recipes:

Ingredients for the vanilla ice cream:

250 ml whole milk
A pinch of salt
500 ml heavy cream
165g sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
5 large egg yolks

Method for the vanilla ice cream:

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan until the liquid steams, then let cool to room temperature.
2. Set up an ice bath by placing a 2 litre bowl inside a large bowl partially filled with water and ice. Put a strainer on top of the smaller bowl and pour in the cream.
3. In another bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks together.
4. Reheat the milk in the medium saucepan until warmed, and then gradually pour 1/4 cup warmed milk into the yolks, constantly whisking to keep the eggs from scrambling.
5. Once the yolks are warmed, scrape the yolk and milk mixture back into the saucepan of warmed milk and cook over low heat. Stir constantly and scrape the bottom with a spatula until the mixture thickens into a custard which thinly coats the back of the spatula.
6. Strain the custard into the heavy cream and stir the mixture until cooled. Add the vanilla extract and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.
7. Put a deep baking dish, or bowl made of plastic, stainless steel or something durable in the freezer, and pour your custard mixture into it.
8. After 45 minutes, open the door and check it. As it starts to freeze near the edges, remove it from the freezer and stir it vigorously with a spatula or whisk to break up any frozen sections. Return to freezer.
9. Continue to check the mixture every 30 minutes, stirring vigorously as it's freezing. Keep checking periodically and stirring while it freezes until the ice cream is frozen. It will likely take 2-3 hours to be ready.

Ingredients for the Brown Butter Pound Cake (I made half of the recipe, thus I'm posting the ammounts I used):

125g unsalted butter
100g sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
55g packed light brown sugar
35g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method for the Brown Butter Pound Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 23cm x 23cm square pan.
2. Place the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.
3. In another bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar with 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 pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and tap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 15 minutes.
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.

Ingredients for the Meringue:

2 large egg white
110g granulated sugar
1/4 tsp cream tartar
1/4 tsp salt

Method for the Meringue:

1. Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
2. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

Assembling instructions:

1. Line 2 10cm diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid. 

2. Line 2 10cm diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid. 
3. Level the top of the brown butter pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler. Cut out 2 10cm diameter circles from the cake. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.
4. Unwrap the ice cream "cups" and invert on top of a cake round. Trim any extra cake if necessary.

5. Smooth the meringue over the ice cream and cake with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.
6. Bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 260°C pre-heated oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

The Baked Alaska is really a stressing cake when it comes the part of "baking" the ice cream, but its worth the worries because it tastes wonderful! ^^

June 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge: Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

Sorry for posting this challenge a day later, but my usual lazyness prevents me from writing and programming the post ahead of the posting date, thus and because I had an unexpectedly busy sunday, I've ended up doing it in a hurry today. Indeed, everything in this month's challenge has been made in a hurry -_-U

I made the Mascarpone Cream last friday after coming from a visit to my grandma's home and before dinner (in Spain dinner is eaten at around 9 o'clock in the evening), while the chocolate pavlovas were in the oven. So, that means: I came house from work at lunchtime (3 o'clock, and no, that's not very late; lunch is eaten here between 2-3:30 in the afternoon, and don't expect to be served in any restaurant before 1:30 ^^), ate lunch and went to grandma's (4:30 in the afternoon), came back home (around 7:00) and got ready to make the mentioned above before 9:00 to be able to help with dinner. Buffff! So tiring!
Unfortunately, I overbaked the pavlovas and they went to the bin T_T The recipe states that they need 2-3 hours baking, but after 45 minutes they were already wasted! I had to redo the pavlovas the next morning, but this time I baked them for 25 minutes, which proved to be enough for me.
On saturday morning I made the chocolate and mascarpone mousse too, to have everything ready before lunch because I wanted to serve it for dessert.

I made one third of the recipes because I thought that the ammounts were going to be too much for my parents and me, therefore, I'm posting the ammounts I used.

The recipe:

Ingredients for the Crème Anglaise (a component of the Mascarpone Cream):

80 ml whole milk
80 ml heavy cream
25g sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks

Method for the vanilla Crème Anglaise:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture turns pale yellow.
2. Combine the milk, cream and vanilla in a saucepan over medium high heat, bringing the mixture to a boil. Take off the heat.
3. Pour about half of the hot liquid into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to keep from making scrambled eggs.
4. Pour the yolk mixture into the pan with the remaining cream mixture and put the heat back on medium. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
5. Remove the mixture from the heat and strain it through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled, about 2 hours or overnight (as the ammount of cream I made was only one thirth of the original I only had it in the fridge for half an hour before using it).

Ingredients for the Mascarpone Cream:

1 recipe crème anglaise
40g mascarpone
40 ml heavy cream

Method for the Mascarpone Cream:

1. Slowly whisk the mascarpone in the crème anglaise and let the mixture cool.
2. Put the heavy cream in a bowl and beat with electric mixer until very soft peaks are formed.
3. Fold the cream into the mascarpone mixture.

Ingredients for the Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

1 large egg white
35g white granulated sugar
10g confectioner’s (icing) sugar
10g cocoa powder

Method for the Chocolate Meringue:

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 95ºC. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.
2. Put the egg white in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form (the egg white should be firm but moist).
3. Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg white and fold the dry ingredients into the white (this looks like it will not happen, but keep folding gently and it will eventually come together).
4. Shape the meringues on the parchment paper and level them a bit with the back of a spoon.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until the meringues become dry and crisp on the outside but still moist inside.

Ingredients for the Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):

120 ml heavy cream
85g 72% chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt's)
130g mascarpone

Method for the Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse:

1. Put 40 ml of the heavy cream in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.
2. Place the mascarpone and the remaining cream in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose and then whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK).
3. Mix about 1/4 of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten.
4. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated.
5. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse.

Method for assembling:
Pipe the mousse onto the pavlovas and drizzle with the mascarpone cream over the top (or under, or aside, or however you prefer). Dust with confectioner’s sugar and fresh fruit if desired.

Well, after all I can say that it was worth the effort, even though the results were not the best possible because I, as said previously, made them in a hurry.

May 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge: Piece Montée

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.

Although the profiteroles are a very popular dessert here (they're filled with whipped cream and eaten with chocolate sauce), I've never dreamed about making them because they seemed too difficult for my current baking level -_-u Therefore I'm happy that the croquembouche was chosen as this month's challenge.
I was pretty nervous during the whole process (making the crème patissiere, the pate a choux and mounting the finished profiteroles) and surprinsingly I managed somehow to do everything right at first attemp!!! ^^

I chosed the chocolate glacé for 2 reasons: first of all because I'm used to eat the profiteroles with chocolate and secondly because I'm not very fond of the taste of the melted sugar caramel. And because I LOVE CHOCOLATE I thought that it was a good idea to bath the profiteroles in it instead of simply pour some chocolate sauce over them. I also melted a little white chocolate to decorate the Piece Montée.

The recipe:

Ingredients for the vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch):

225 ml whole milk
2 Tbsp cornstarch
100g sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
30g unsalted butter
1 Tsp vanilla

Method for the vanilla Crème Patissiere:

1. Dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup of milk.
2. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan and when it's boiling remove from heat.
3. Beat the whole egg and then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
4. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
5. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking until the cream thickens and starts to boil.
6. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
7. Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Ingredients for the Pate a Choux (yield about 28):

175ml water
85g unsalted butter
1/4 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
125g all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

I used more flour than the stated in the recipe (about 180g) because my mixture was too liquid.

Method for the Pate a Choux:

1. Pre-heat oven to 220ºC. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.
3. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
4. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
5. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
6. Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.
7. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking. At this point add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
8. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip. Pipe choux about 1 inch-apart in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high and about 1 inch wide.
9. 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.
10. Bake the choux at 220ºC until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.Lower the temperature to 180ºC and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.

Actually, the original recipe calls for an egg wash before baking the choux, but I omited this step because I was going to cover them completely with chocolate.

Method for assembling the croquembouche:

1. 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.
2. Melt 200g chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning.
3. Dip each choux in the chocolate (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up.
4. Melt some white chocolate and, using a fork, draw lines over your Piece Montée.

The profiteroles were delicious, though it was kinda messy to pull them appart to eat them ^_^U They were soooooo good that even my boyfriend (who doesn't like dark chocolate) said that he liked them (hurrah!!!).

April 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge: Traditional British Pudding

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

And thus the very first thing I did was to check in the nearest supermarket whether they had any suet. You see, suet is widely used in the south-east spanish's kitchens, but here, in the north, we rarely used it. But I was lucky, as they had 2 sticks of it, 300g each.
Next I had to decide if I was going to make a savory or a sweet pudding. Well, my father can't eat too much sweets and my mother prefers savory dishes, so it was an easy choice. Therefore, I decided on the savory pudding, filled with carrots, potatoes and beef. To make it nicer I added some onion and white wine sauce to the filling.
Then I went to search for an alternative to the steamer (I don't own one and I don't intend to), which was resolved quickly by using the pressure cooker with a steamer stand. And I made 2 handles for the pudding bowl with some string.

When the day I had set to make the pudding came, my main worry was to undercook the pudding, so I decided to leave it for 2 and half hours steaming (I made enough for 2 medium-sized puddings), as the host had said that is very difficult to overcook it. Also, at the last moment I decided to add a dash of pimentón (I think that in the english-speaking countries it's called spanish paprika, but I'm not sure) to the crust instead of pepper, that's why the uncooked crust has a yellowish color.

The recipe:

Ingredients for the crust:        

250g self-raising flour (I combined all-purpose flour with baking powder)
175g shredded suet
A pinch of salt
2 dashes of pimentón
Water (I don't know the exact amount that I used)

Ingredients for the filling:        

2 small carrots
1 large potato
200g beef, chopped

I'm sorry but I can't post the ingredients nor the method for making the sauce because I don't use fixed amounts, it a family recipe so we simply add the ingredients and cook it as we please, so it changes from one time to another.

Method:

1. Mix the flour and suet together.
2. Season the flour and suet mixture with salt and pimentón.
3. Add the water, a tablespoonful at a time, as you mix the ingredients together. Make up the pastry to firm an elastic dough that leaves the bowl clean. Don't over handle the pastry or it will be too hard.
4. Reserve a quarter for the lid and roll out the rest and line a well-greased bowl.
5. Add the filling and roll the final piece of pastry out into a circle big enough to cover the top of the basin, dampen the edges and put in position on the pudding, pinching the edges together to seal.
6. Seal well and cover with a double sheet of foil (pleated in the centre to allow room for expansion while cooking). Secure with string, and place it in a steamer over boiling water.
7. Steam for up to 5 hours (mine was steamed for 2 and half hours); you may need to add more boiling water halfway through or possibly more often. It's hard to over steam a pudding so you can leave it bubbling away until you are ready.
8. Take the pudding out of the steamer and serve it while still warm.

The pudding was exactly what you could expect from the British kitchen; it's trully one of the best exponents of the English food. The results that you get with such a simple but savory ingredients are really incredible. And I must say that I believe that the steaming process plays an important part in obtaining it's final cualities.