Daring Bakers: Sans Rival

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

I chose to make my Sans Rival cake with almonds instead of cashews because I had almonds on hand and also I don't like cashews as much. I used almond meal for the ground nuts in the batter, which made it simpler to make. To flavor the buttercream with almond flavor I used Disaronno instead of almond extract because I didn't have any. 

I thought this recipe was fun to make, but I wasn't sure I was going to like the cake. After it sat for a night in the fridge the layers softened and it was a lot easier to cut than I expected. Even though the cake was really sweet from all the frosting it had an interesting texture and good flavor. If I ever made it again I would try to make the buttercream less sweet and perhaps make the dacquoise layers thicker.

Almond Sans Rival Cake with Disaronno Buttercream

Daring Baker's Challenge: Povitica

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

I'm disappointed that my Povitica did not come out as beautiful as I would of liked =( The loaf pan I used for the traditional walnut filling was  too big and therefore the design wasn't right plus you can't see the contrast between the dough and the filling. At least it tastes good.

I made a half batch, which yielded 2 loafs. One I filled with the traditional walnut filling and the second I filled with a frangipane-esque type filling. It was based on regular frangipane paste plus I added some cocoa (in hopes to get the contrast) and some milk to thin it out. The second loaf I baked in a smaller pan and thankfully it came out a lot better!

I've enjoyed the Daring Baker's challenges I've done so far. It has been fun learning about new recipes, especially ones like Povitica, which I would never have known existed. Maybe I'll try making Povitica again because some of the other Daring Baker's had such great results.

Povitica with Chocolate "Frangipane" Filling

Weekend Cooking Part 2: Clam Chowder

Last weekend, I also made clam chowder. I was hoping to put it in bread bowls, but the Safeway near me doesn't have a bakery and is therefore very lacking in the fresh bread department. Instead, I served it with a sourdough baguette and it was almost as delicious.

My clam chowder was loosely based on this recipe, but I used 3 cans of minced clams plus a small bottle of clam juice. Instead of milk and cream I mixed in half & half for the creaminess.

Yummy Bowl of Clam Chowder!

Weekend Cooking Part 1: Tacos

Over the weekend, I made steak tacos and clam chowder for Ryan and myself. Both recipes came out well, and I would make them again. 

First, the tacos were based on a recipe from Tyler Florence. I used his recipe for mojo as a base and tweaked it a little bit to my preferences and what I had on hand. I wish I had skirt steak instead of flank, but I was happy with the final product. Next time, I will add more chipotles because, while the marinade had good flavor I want it to have a little more of a kick.

Ryan's Plate of Tacos with Side of Mexican Rice

Mojo Steak Tacos

adapted from Tyler Florence

Ingredients:

1 - 1 1/2 lb skirt or flank steak

Marinade:

5 garlic cloves

1 chipotle in adobo plus some adobo sauce

1 large handful fresh cilantro leaves

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 limes, juiced

1 orange, juiced

2 tbs red wine vinegar

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

For Tacos:

Corn or flour tortillas

Guacamole

Tomatoes

Salsa

Shredded lettuce

Sour cream

Cheese

Directions:

1. Put all the ingredients for the marinade into a food processor and pulse together until it forms a paste.
2. Place the steak into a resealable bag and pour in the marinade. Marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to 8 hours.
3. Take the steak out of the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes before cooking.
4. Cook on a grill or cast iron pan to desired doneness.
5. Serve on tortillas with any toppings you like. I think that guacamole, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream make the perfect taco!

I Love Croissants!

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

My second Daring Bakers challenge...CROISSANTS! It's definitely a challenge to make croissants for the first time. We don't have a lot of counter space I had to clear away the appliances so I had enough room to roll out my croissants.

I love croissants, and I was happy mine turned out pretty tasty! Not big and fluffy, like bakery croissants, but they tasted right and were the right texture. I made a few plain croissants, some almond filled, and a couple chocolate. I love, love, love almond croissants so those were my favorites.

Here's a picture of how they turned out:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

In celebration of a friend's birthday, I made Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. Learning that he had a love for the classic combination of chocolate and peanut butter, I thought this recipe would be perfect. These thin, peanut buttery cookies are splattered with bits of chopped chocolate, creating a new twist on the chocolate chip cookie.

This recipe in particular seems to be used in various adaptations because I also saw the same recipe on another website swapping nutella for the peanut butter (now a cookie that is high up on the my list to bake). When I was making this recipe I upped the amount of chocolate by quite a bit and ended up using two types of chocolate because that was what I had on hand. I roughly chopped both a 63% cacao bar chocolate and semisweet chocolate chips and mixed them together.

Even though I don't love peanut butter cookies in general, especially the traditional fork smashed variety, these came out pretty tasty. While some came out a little more done/crispy than I would like, the ones that were crisp and chewy at the same time were yummy. It's important not to bake them too long because they will continue to crisp up while they cool. Also, the recipe says it yields 24 cookies, but I used about a tablespoon per cookie and I ended up with 55 good-sized cookies!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup creamy peanut butter

10 oz chocolate, roughly chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper.
2. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and both sugars together until fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Add vanilla and peanut butter and beat until just incorporated.
4. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Remove bowl from mixer, and use a spatula to fold in chocolate. 
6. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, at least 2 inches apart. With your fingers gently press each cookie down so it's flat.
7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time, until cookies are slightly brown. Do not overbake.
8. Remove pan from oven and cool cookies on baking sheet for 2 minutes then transfer individual cookies to a wire rack to cool.
9. The cookies are best the day of, but can be stored, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days. They will get slightly crunchier, but perfect for dunking in a glass of milk.

Adapted from Food Gal

My First Daring Bakers' Challenge

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

This was my first Daring Bakers' challenge and I was excited. I would have rather baked something, but making chocolates was fun, too. For my two candies I did two different types of truffles. Both were dipped truffles, one is a Hazelnut Coffee Truffle (Frangelico liqueur and instant espresso on the inside, and rolled in crushed chocolate covered coffee beans) and the other is an Amaretto Truffle (Amaretto liqueur and rolled in toasted, chopped almonds). 

The main challenge of the challenge was tempering chocolate. This ended up being difficult for me because I didn't have an appropriate thermometer. I'm sure my tempering technique wasn't perfect, but after dipping the truffles in the tempered chocolate I rolled them in the toppings so any imperfections were hidden =) Here's how they turned out:

I like the Amaretto Truffles the most because I really like the Amaretto and almond flavor. Also, with the Hazelnut Coffee Truffles I used instant espresso, which I think made the chocolate bitter (and I wasn't using a very sweet chocolate to begin with).

Overall, I liked doing this challenge and I'm looking forward to having something new to try every month.

Baked Not Fried

Trying to find healthier alternatives to fried food can be a difficult feat. Some things are just meant to be fried. While baked alternatives may not ever be able to emulate the deliciousness of their fried counterparts, I've been trying out some recipes in hopes of finding some suitable substitutes.

In the past, I've tried baking buffalo wings, fries/sweet potato fries, zucchini, many attempts in vain, but some more successful. The most recent and most successful attempt was buffalo wings. Using Alton Brown's method of steaming the wings before baking produced a tasty result that was *this* close to fried buffalo wings.

Tonight for dinner, I attempted making a baked version of chicken taquitos. Taquitos are a celebrated fried snack food, making them an ideal target for the "baked not fried" challenge. The results weren’t exactly amazing, but at least they tasted good. The corn tortillas split open while baking, something that happened when I tried baked taquitos before. I think it has to do with the tortillas drying out in the oven because there is no oil (just non-stick spray) to keep them moist.

For the chicken, I baked off a chicken breast then mixed in the adobo sauce from canned chipotles, leftover yogurt dip (greek yogurt, chipotles, garlic, lime), mozzarella cheese, and spices including cumin, coriander, garlic and smoked paprika. I wrapped them up in corn tortillas that I got from a Mexican grocery store in Oakland. After spraying them with non-stick spray I baked them at 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.

I added a side of homemade refried pinto beans. To make these I just sauteed half a jalapeno, one shallot and one clove of garlic in a little bit of olive oil in a small pot. I drained half the liquid from a can of pinto beans and then using a fork smashed and mashed them up in a bowl. I added the beans to the pot along with a little salt and pepper plus a bit of cumin. The beans cooked for 10-15 minutes on low until some of the moisture had evaporated. Before serving I added some cheese to the pot and put the lid on so it would melt. Even though I was trying to cook healthier I ended up with a meal lacking in vegetables besides onion and jalapeno so I added some tomato on top of the beans.

Here's a picture of the result.

Overall, it was a tasty and satisfying alternative to the fried snack, but I want to play around with ways to make the taquitos so they don't split open during baking.

4th of July Oreos

Homemade Red and Blue Oreos

For the 4th of July I wanted to make something patriotic and decided on red and blue Oreos (I actually planned on having white ones, too, but after some miscounting I ended up with just blue and red). I don't actually like real Oreos except in Cookies 'n Cream ice cream so I was wary of how these would turn out. Overall, I think I prefer store bought Oreos because my homemade ones didn't come out as crisp as store bought. They were chewy, but not soft...just kind of a weird texture.

Here's the link to the recipe I used. I added food coloring to the filling to make them red and blue.

Duo Challenge Day Coffee Cake

Blueberry Crumble Coffee Cake

This past weekend, I made this coffee cake for a potluck picnic and bbq. I knew I wanted to make something with fruit because it's summer. Originally, I was thinking about grilling pineapple, but finally settled on a blueberry coffee cake because the last coffee cake I made came out so yummy. This blueberry version came out delicious as well...moist and chock full of blueberries. There was almost a 1-1 ratio of blueberries to batter.

Here is my adaptation of the recipe. I used 1.5 the recipe so I could make a 9x13 cake.

Blueberry Crumble Coffee Cake

adapted from Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients:
Streusel
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tbs granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
 pinch table salt
6 tbs unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened

Cake
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tss baking powder
15 tbs unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs , room temperature
6 cups fresh blueberries, washed

Directions:

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, cinnamon, and salt until well combined. Add butter and mix with hands (squeeze pieces of butter so they break apart) until mixture resembles wet sand and no large butter pieces remain. Set aside.
2. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with 2-inch sides with nonstick cooking spray, line bottom with parchment, and spray again with nonstick cooking spray. 
3. Whisk flour and baking powder in small bowl to combine; set aside. 
4. In standing mixer fitted with a paddle, cream butter, sugar, salt, and lemon zest at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes; using a rubber spatula, scrape down bowl. 
5. With mixer running at medium speed, add eggs one at a time; beat until combined, scraping the bowl as necessary. Beat in vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds. 
6. With mixer running on low speed, gradually add flour mixture; beat until flour is combined, but don't over mix. Using a spatula, gently fold in blueberries until evenly distributed.
7. Transfer batter to prepared pan; with rubber spatula spread batter evenly to pan edges and smooth surface. Sprinkle streusel over the batter by squeezing handfuls to form a clump and then breaking the clump and distributing evenly.
8. Bake until deep golden brown and toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes. Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes. Cut into squares and serve. 

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

For Ryan's birthday I made him chocolate molten lava cake...ooey, gooey and chocolate-y. I had bought a special pan for making molten cakes, but I didn't use the recipe that came with the pan. This turned out to be a mistake, because the method for the recipe I used just did not work with the pan. I ended up following the recipe and putting the batter into a ramekin, which definitely worked a lot better. Next time, I will use the recipe that goes with the pan and see how that comes out and so the pan doesn't go to waste!

I bought a giant box of Scharfenberger chocolate bars so look forward to many more chocolate recipes...hopefully soon!

P.S. Excuse the grainy picture it's from my iPhone...not that my other pictures are all that great though.

Chocolate-Cinnamon Swirl Coffee Cake

After making a coffee cake awhile ago, I realized how easy it is to put one together. This time I used cocoa powder and cinnamon in the swirl, but I felt like the chocolate flavor didn't come through even though I increased the amount of cocoa. Still, the coffee came out moist and with a delicious crumble on top. This is an easy way to impress someone for breakfast or even dessert with a cup of coffee.

Coconut Macaroons

After making macarons, I decided that I should also try making macaROONS. I had never eaten a macaroon before either, so I wasn't sure what to expect. They came out moist and coconut-y and pretty delicious. Since I made them awhile ago I can't remember where the recipe came from, but from what I can remember recipes either little/no flour or had more of a flour base. These ones were mostly shredded coconut, sugar, egg whites and almond extract.

Need to Bake!

It's been forever since I've baked something. I haven't really had any occasion to bake recently, but now I need inspiration. Any suggestions?

<3

MY Birthday Jelly Roll Cake

Happy Birthday to Me

For my birthday Ryan and I made a Strawberry Jelly Roll Cake. It was a light airy sponge cake with a strawberry whipped cream filling. It was really yummy and a nice light cake overall.

The recipe is from Joy of Baking (again!). We used strawberries instead of raspberries. The strawberries came in a 16 oz package so we just added the puree to the whipped cream until it tasted right. 

Brown Sugar Spiced Penguin Cookies

Penguin Family

I'm really behind on posting recipes. These cookies were from our annual cookie exchange and secret santa get together. When I saw the penguin cookies I had to make them. I didn't want to make gingerbread cookies though so I searched for an alternative recipe. I ended up choosing Brown Sugar Spiced cookies.

The directions for the icing and steps to decorate the cookies like penguins can be found here.

Here is the recipe I used for the cookies. I increased some of the spices but I think nutmeg and allspice have pretty strong flavors so I didn't increase them quite as much and that is the reason for the weird measurements.

Brown Sugar Spiced Cookies

adapted from bake at 350

 Ingredients:

2 3/4 c all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

little less than 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

little less than 1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 c granulated sugar 

1/2 c light brown sugar, packed

2 sticks butter, softened

1 egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and spices, set aside.
3. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extract and mix until combined.
4. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom. The dough will be quite thick so form it into a ball with your hands.
5. Roll on a floured surface to 1/4 inch thick and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes depending on the size of your cutter (I baked the bigger penguin for 12 min, and about 10 min for the smaller cookies). 
6. Let sit a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a cooling rack.
7. Decorate as desired.

Birthday Heath Bar Brownie Bites

Basket of Brownie Bites

For Jeff's birthday I made him Heath Bar Brownie Bites. It was pretty much a basic brownie recipe with the addition of Heath bars (although I would have preferred Skor bars, but my store didn't have them!) and baked in mini muffin tins. I chopped the Heath bars up but some of the pieces were too small which resulted in not so pretty brownie tops. The brownies with some bigger pieces sticking out looked better and probably tasted better, too.

The recipe can be found here.

Birthday Strawberry Jam Bars

Gooey Jam Bars

To celebrate Kevin's birthday I made him Strawberry Jam Bars because I remembered him liking raspberry ones I made a long time ago. I followed the recipe pretty closely but I think I used the whole jar of jam (the recipe calls for one cup of jam, but my jar of jam was a little bit more than that).

I think this recipe is quick and easy and a crowd pleaser...who doesn't love jam? You can change up the jam to whatever you have on hand or whatever you like best. Also, they have a good amount of rolled oats in them so they trick you into thinking they are healthy (with a stick of butter plus all that jam they really aren't that healthy...).

Once again the recipe comes from Joy of Baking!

Nutella Cookies Take Two

Nutella Cookies

Awhile ago I made Nutella sandwich cookies and since they were such a great hit I thought I'd make just the cookie part again. I used a different recipe this time and although the recipes were very similar I liked the previous recipe more. Maybe it was because the cookies were sandwiched together with ganache last time =)

The cookies still came out pretty tasty because you can't really go wrong with Nutella and chocolate.

Here's the recipe.

Thanksgiving Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving Pecan Pie

I'm really behind on posting recipes! This recipe is from Thanksgiving and it's a traditional pecan pie. I accidentally rolled the crust too thin so the bottom crust was a little too thin. I liked the filling from the pecan tassies better than the pie filling and it was easier to make. I'm wondering if the tassie filling would work in a whole pie. The changes I made to the recipe were that I chopped up the pecans before putting them into the crust and I omitted the rum from the filling.

The recipe is from Joy of Baking.