Daring Bakers.....Yep, that's right, I said Daring Bakers....

Normally I'm not a big fan of gangs. I don't condone drive-by shootings or hazing or any of that sort of thing. However, every time I watched this "Gang" in action, I knew I had to get in on some of that. Any gang that thinks slinging hot sugar and beating butter and sugar into submission is my kind of gang. So, my "hazing" begins with this, my first challenge as a Daring Baker. Being a member of this gang means being able to challenge yourself once a month with a recipe chosen by a fellow Daring Baker. Everyone has to follow the same recipe as stated by the host. The nifty thing is seeing how each of us interprets the exact same recipe and how everyone ends up with something just a bit different from everyone else. It is definitely a great way to keep pushing one's skills and knowledge, something I'm very keen on. This month's challenge is being hosted by Veron of Veronica's Test Kitchen and Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen. They have chosen to challenge us with a Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart. Now, I'm not the biggest milk chocolate fan, but paired with caramel and a hazelnut crust, really, how can you go wrong? You can't! We were allowed a few changes to the recipe, the only change that I made was to use less cinnamon in the tart crust (I used half the amount stated in the recipe), otherwise I followed it to a T.

Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart from Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Baking Time: 30 minutes
Refrigeration time: 1 hour
One 9-inch(24-cm) square pan; 1 10-inch (26-cm) round baking pan

Ingredients
½ lb (250 g) chocolate shortbread pastry (see recipe below)
1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (250 g) heavy cream (30-40 percent butterfat) or crème fraiche
¼ cup (50 g) butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 ½ tablespoons (15 g) flour
1 ¼ cups (300 g) whipping cream
½ lb (250 g) milk chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 325 °F (160 °C).
2. Line the baking pan with the chocolate shortbread pastry and bake blind for 15 minutes.

My tart dough was nicely chilled for rolling:

The dough rolled out quite well for me:I did have a few areas of the tart that I had to patch up (the dough got a bit warm before I was able to transfer it): The shell is lined with parchment and filled with beans for blind baking: The baked tart shell:


3. In a saucepan, caramelize 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar using the dry method until it turns a golden caramel color. Incorporate the heavy cream or crème fraiche and then add butter. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
Dry method caramel: Put your sugar in a pan:
do not stir it, just swirl the pan as the sugar begins to melt and you will end up with this: I did nuke my heavy cream a bit before adding it to the caramel, because cold cream and caramel just don't mix well (seizing occurs). Even with the cream already heated, it did seize up a bit on me, maybe that was the butter's fault, but I just let it boil a bit as I stirred:
And I ended up with a beautiful deep amber caramel:

4. In a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs with the extra egg yolk, then incorporate the flour.
5. Pour this into the cream-caramel mixture and mix thoroughly.

6. Spread it out in the tart shell and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Caramel layer before baking:
And after baking (at this point I put the tart into the fridge to cool off for about an hour)
7. Prepare the milk chocolate mousse: beat the whipping cream until stiff. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave or in a bain-marie, and fold it gently into the whipped cream.
8. Pour the chocolate mousse over the cooled caramel mixture, smoothing it with a spatula. Chill for one hour in the refrigerator.
My mousse was a bit on the liquidy side, but it did set up nicely after about two hours in the refrigerator:
The tart sliced nicely after being chilled:
To decorate: melt ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar in a saucepan until it reaches an amber color. Pour it onto waxed paper laid out on a flat surface. Leave to cool. Break it into small fragments and stick them lightly into the top of the tart.
Chocolate Shortbread Pastry

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Refrigeration :overnight
To make 3 tarts, 9 ½ inches (24 cm) square
or 10 inches (26 cm round)

Ingredients:
1 cup (250g ) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (150 g) confectioners’ sugar
½ cup (50 g) ground hazelnuts
2 level teaspoons (5 g) ground cinnamon
2 eggs
4 ½ cups (400 g) cake flour
2 ½ teaspoons (10 g) baking powder
1 ½ tablespoons (10 g) cocoa powder

A day ahead
1. In a mixing bowl of a food processor, cream the butter.
2. Add the confectioners’ sugar, the ground hazelnuts, and the cinnamon, and mix together
3. Add the eggs, one by one, mixing constantly
4. Sift in the flour, the baking powder, and the cocoa powder, and mix well.
5. Form a ball with the dough, cover in plastic wrap, and chill overnight.
This is how my tart dough looked before I put it in the refrigerator overnight:

All in all the tart was pretty good. I think the crust could have been more chocolatey. The caramel filling was nice, but I thought it tasted a bit eggy. Otherwise, I think this was a wonderful first challenge for me and I look forward to many more fabulous Daring Baker Challenges.

If you want to check out how the other Daring Bakers fared, and believe me, you do, check out the Daring Baker Blogroll. You'll see many many talented bakers with beautiful blogs!

Happy Daring Baking!

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Happy Birthday, Blog!

Today my little baking blog is 1 year old! Break out the party hats and noisemakers and start celebrating! I can't believe it's been a year already. What have I learned in my year of blogging? I've learned that in the world of blogging exist many kind, supportive and incredibly talented individuals. I've learned that my love of photographing food things is not going to fade away. I've learned that I do indeed love encouraging people to try scratch baking in all of it's wonderful forms. I am beginning to learn to be a little less shy (I am terribly shy, I have trouble leaving comments on blogs sometimes, because I'm just that shy). I've learned many other things (a little html, etc...) that I won't bore you with. Instead, as it's my blog's birthday, why don't you check out my first awkward day of posting here(you just need to scroll down to the bottom of the page for my first two posts from August 22). After you check that out, why don't you enjoy a nice piece of cake, put on your silly hat and help my blog blow out it's birthday candle (my blog doesn't have great lungs)! I have loads of apples so today I give you:

Apple Upside Down Chiffon Cake (adapted from Baking with Julia: Sift, Knead, Flute, Flour, And Savor... written by Dorie Greenspan):

The Topping:
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
3-4 apples, peeled and cut into 8 pieces each (I'm actually not sure what kind of apple I have for these...they were given to us by G's friends who grow their own. This recipe originally calls for nectarines which would be awesome in this as well)
__________________________________________
-Preheat oven to 350f.
-Wrap the bottom of a springform pan with aluminum foil to prevent any dripping.
-Cut the butter into chunks and put them into a 10" springform pan (3"high) and place over medium low heat to melt the butter. Remove the pan from the heat and sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the butter and pat it down. Arrange the apples over the sugar in a decorative way (however you like).
-Set aside.

The Streusel:

1/4 cup hazelnuts, peels removed (the recipe calls for almonds, but I have hazelnuts onhand, so that's what I'm using)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/2 stick cold unsalted butter
1/2 cup quick cooking (not instant) oats
__________________________________________
-Toast your hazelnuts in the oven on a sheet pan for about 8 to 12 minutes, or until golden brown and fragrant. Remove from oven and cool before proceeding.
-Line the sheet pan with parchment.
-Put all of the ingredients for the streusel into the bowl of a food processor and pulse just to mix the ingredients and chop the hazelnuts and butter. Should be rough and crumbly.
-Spread the streusel out onto the pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown. It will smell heavenly. Allow to cool while you prepare the cake.

The Chiffon Cake:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt, kosher if you have it
4 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup vegetable or safflower oil (I'm using vegetable)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
2 large egg whites
______________________
-Sift together 1 cup sugar, the flour, baking powder and baking soda onto a sheet of parchment or waxed paper, add the salt.
-In a large bowl, whisk together the yolks, oil and lemon juice until blended. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the yolk mixture, whisking. Set aside.
-Beat the 6 egg whites in a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment(or do it by hand if you are feeling strong-of-wrist). Starting at low speed, beat the whites until they are foamy and form very soft peaks. Increase your speed to medium-high and slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until the whites are thick and shiny and hold peaks. Fold about 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture to lighten it (this is called "sacrificing"), then turn the yolk mixture into the egg whites and fold gently until thoroughly blended.
-Scrape half of the batter into the fruit-lined pan, smooth the top with an offset spatula, and sprinkle the streusel over the top (reserve a little bit to decorate the baked cake). Top with the remaining batter and smooth. Place the pan on a sheet pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, mine actually took a good hour and 10 minutes to bake, the top(bottom) started to get to dark, so I had to tent some aluminum foil over to keep it from getting darker). Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool at least 25 minutes before inverting onto your serving platter.
-Enjoy warm and naked (the dessert, not you...well, if you want to be warm and naked, who am I to question it?), or dress it up with some ice cream or whipped cream.

This cake is good. I mean, wow, it's got a yum factor of 11 out of 10. The hazelnut streusel combined with the moist lucious brown sugar coated apples is out of this world. My blog could not have asked for a better birthday cake!

Happy Baking!

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Sourdough Bread At Last

So this is the last day of the sourdough bread saga (for now, until I do some other flavors and such). I took the little loaves out of the refrigerator at 10:30am. It is now 2:40pm and the loaves just went into the oven at 500f with some "steam"(I have a really old pan that I sit in the bottom of my oven-it's electric-and let it heat with the oven and the baking stone, when the bread has gone in I dump some already boiling water into the hot pan in the bottom of the oven and then shut the door quickly. I check after 10 minutes and then remove the pan if necessary and turn the oven down at this point). Here's exactly what I did:

Sourdough finale:
-Pull your loaves out of the refrigerator 4 hours before you are going to bake them. Leave them bagged or wrapped in plastic wrap and let them just sit out. If it's very hot where you are this may take a bit less than 4 hours.
-About half hour before you want to bake your loaves, heat your oven with the baking stone (if you have one, if not, turn your loaves out onto a sheet pan sprinkled with cornmeal or polenta) to 500f, or as hot as it will go. If you are going to use a pan for steam, heat this in the oven at this time as well. Get some water simmering.
-Once everything is in place, gently turn your loaves out of their baskets (if you free-formed them, you can bake them right on that sheet pan) onto a peel or other surface coated with coarse ground cornmeal or polenta (this aids in sliding the bread off the surface and onto the baking stone). Slash your loaves however you like (I just did one long slash diagonally down the center), slide them into the oven, pour your hot water into your pan and shut the door to allow the oven to steam up (do this all with caution, if this scares you or you think your oven won't like it, then just maybe use a spray bottle to get a bit of steam going). Leave the door shut for 10 minutes. Turn your oven down to 425f and check the loaves again in 15 minutes, they may need to be rotated. I keep the loaves baking for a total of 45 minutes, with rotating and checking on them about every 15 minutes. When they are a lovely deep brown (I like my breads a deep golden) and they feel light for their size, remove them from the oven and cool to room temperature.I was very pleased with the crust and the crumb of this bread. The crust was chewy and crunchy and the crumb opened up nicely with irregular holes. The flavor of this was actually very light. There are only very faint sour undertones to the bread and it is delicious. I am sure with a little more time Dudley will develop a bit more flavor as he is fed and ages. Yum!
Happy baking!

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Sourdough Bread: Part 2 (Spawn of Dudley Grows Up)

(snug as a bug in a rug, cute little Dudley spawns) This bread does indeed take 3 days to make(actually it can be done in two, but the second day is a long one), but it is well worth it. Yesterday I made Dudley (the starter) into a firm starter aka Spawn of Dudley (which is just a less hydrated form of the starter). That firm starter rose at room temperature until it was doubled in size (about 4 hours) and then it went into the refrigerator overnight to slow down the yeast and develop flavor (slower fermentation aids in flavor development). That was day one. Today, the firm starter will join up with a bit more flour, water and salt and it will be one step closer to being bread. This is the recipe for Basic Sourdough Bread adapted from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. You will need:

Basic Sourdough Bread (makes two 1 1/2 pound loaves):

firm starter, removed from the refrigerator one hour before you want to mix up the dough, and cut up into 8-10 pieces, covered with plastic wrap (this will help remove the chill from the starter)
1 pound 4 1/4 ounces (4 1/2 cups) unbleached bread flour or high-gluten flour
1/2 ounce (2 tsp) salt
12 to 14 ounces water (the book calls for lukewarm, but I tend to use room temperature or even a little cooler)
_________________________
-Place the flour and salt in a large mixing bow, add the starter and enough water to bring everything together as you mix it (you can use a spoon, your hands, or a mixer with a dough hook on low speed).

-Turn the dough out onto a work surface sprinkled with flour and knead by hand for 12 -15 minutes, adjusting the water and flour as you go.
It will look like this right out of the bowl:
At about 5 minutes into kneading your dough should look about like this:
And after 15 minutes of kneading it will look like this:

You want a somewhat firm and tacky dough. You'll feel it change as you are kneading it, it will become more elastic as the gluten develops and smoother as the flour becomes more hydrated. Alternately you use the mixer with a dough hook and mix for 4 minutes on medium speed, allow the dough to rest for 8-10 minutes and then mix for another 4 minutes). Place the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled large bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment like that for 3 to 4 hours or until nearly doubled in size:
First in the bowl at 2:55pm (Pacific):The growth of the spawn at about 6:55pm:
-Gently turn the dough out of the bowl and divide it into two pieces (about 22 ounces each).
Shape the dough as you would like. I'm using oval shaped bannetons (which are proofing baskets...you can get expensive ones or you can go to goodwill and get some baskets. Either will work, you just have to line them with cloth-I'm using "flour sack towels" and then dust generously with flour) so I'm shaping my dough into stumpy batards that will fit into the bannetons.Be careful while you shape so as not to knock out too much of the gas that has formed in the dough. You want to degas as little as possible so your sourdough will have lovely fairly open crumb. Also note, that if you are using bannetons or baskets to place the bread in seam side up, make sure your seams are fairly secure. Mmmmm, I can't wait until this is baked tomorrow. You can also do free form loaves, just make sure the sheet pan you are going to have them rise on is dusted with cornmeal or semolina flour. When your loaves are comfortably nestled in their rising apparatus, mist the tops with some pan spray or oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap, or I'll be placing mine in this handy dandy huge 10 gallon zip lock bag (I'm not sure where he got them from, but G found them for me for bread and they rock).
-At this point, you can do one of two things. You can proof your loaves for 2 to 3 hours to bake the same day, or you can retard them in the refrigerator overnight for more flavor development. I prefer to retard them overnight, so into the fridge go the spawn of Dudley, and we will continue with this tomorrow! The first step tomorrow will be to remove the loaves from the refrigerator about 4 hours before you plan on baking them. Fingers crossed that the spawn of Dudley does well and makes some nice loaves...

Happy kneading!
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Spawn of Dudley! (or beginning a sourdough bread from the starter...)

So, I'm thinking Dudley is mature enough to reproduce. I'm hoping he's got enough character developed, but if not yet, well, then next batch should be better. I'll be using Peter Reinhart's book The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread to guide me along the way. So, what you want to do is, before you feed your starter, take out 4 ounces (about 2/3 cup) and set it aside. Then weigh out 8 ounces of your starter and feed it as usual. You will also need: 4 1/2 ounces of unbleached bread flour (or high gluten flour if you have it) and 1 to 2 ounces of water (1/8 to 1/4 cup).

(4 ounces of Dudley, 4 1/2 ounces bread flour, 1 to 2 ounces h2o)
This is for the "Firm Starter" which is just a fancy way of saying a less hydrated bit of starter. You want to mix these ingredients together to form a ball. You only need knead (I've been waiting to use that) this for a little bit until the flour is uniformly hydrated and there are no discernable lumps.
You will then put your spawn of -insert the name of your starter here- in a container that allows it to at least double in size (spray the container with some pan spray), cover the container and allow it to sit out for 4 hours at room temperature (or until it doubles in size..it may take longer or shorter than 4 hours).
After which you will put it in the refrigerator overnight. I'll post photos of the Spawn of Dudley in about 4 hours before he goes into the fridge.

(when we last saw Spawn of Dudley, he was looking like this:)


(and now a bit shy of four hours later, he looks like this:)
(that is his proud papa "Dudley" behind him. Dudley tends to triple in size or more now when I feed him).

Stay tuned tomorrow for part two of the Sourdough Bread!

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