Hello, Baker!

Edit: Ugh! I set this to automatically post while I was in Europe and it didn’t. Wordpress must hate me.

It’s the end of the month and what does that mean for baker blog world!? The Daring Bakers challenge is due of course and for once I remembered to get it done on time! Since I lost track of time and missed the last two challenges I MADE SURE I had this one done early! Oh and it doesn’t stop there! Not only did I finish this challenge within the first week of July, but I also made it THREE times! I would have made these bad boys a fourth if I hadn’t run out of gelatin because the recipe is just that amazing. My family went through these so fast that they would be completely gone by day two. It was insane.

The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Oh and I have decided that I’m going to try and start this new thing. You see, my favorite types of food blogs are the ones that try to capture as many steps as possible. I’m a very visual person so I love being able to see how everything is supposed to look as you go along. As fantastic as a final picture looks, I really love being able to tell if my mix looks correct and to see what kind of techniques others use so I want to try and do this as well. Beware, this blog is about to get rather picture heavy!

Begin by blending all of the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, then add the butter.

At a low speed, mix until it has a sandy look!

Add the eggs and mix until well combined!

Mold the dough into a disk-like shape (it really doesn’t matter), wrap in clingform, and chill for 1 hour up to 3 days.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease or line a cookie sheet. Lightly flour your surface and roll out the dough to around a 1/8th inch thickness.

Find a cookie cutter that’s about 1 to 1-21/2 inches and cut away! I actually found that I liked the cookies more when I used a 1 inch cookie cutter. They felt really big when I used a larger one, but whatever works for you!

Place you’re lovely little dough pieces on your prepared sheet and bake for ten minutes (or until golden brown).

Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature. On my second and third batch I spread a layer of peanut butter on each cookie. It made them taste even better!

Anyway, begin to prepare your marshmallow! I’d like to note that I found THIS video very helpful when making marshmallows if it’s your first time.

Now, in a saucepan combine water, corn syrup, and sugar. Allow to boil to the soft ball stage or until it’s around 235 degrees.

Dissolve gelatin in cold water. Remove your syrup from the heat and mix in the gelatin.

Whip the egg whites into soft peaks form! This should take a couple minutes.

Pour the syrup mixture into the egg whites and add vanilla extract.

Continue whipping until stiff and when it gets that fantastic shine. It’ll be slightly runny, but not too runny. It should be able to hold some sort of shape without turning back into a blob. Transfer to a piping bag.

Pipe a kiss on top of each cookie.

If you want a more uniform look there was another method suggested by Audax Artifex, which I tried on my second batch.

You can fill a tray with flour, icing sugar, or even cornstarch and loosely stamp your marshmallow shape into it. Then fill the holes with marshmallow and allow to sit for up to 2 hours or until stiff enough to move.

I found this method helpful to get a perfect dome shape, but I sort of sucked at getting the bottom flat so my second batch was still kind of funky. On my third try I used an open star piping tip and piped the marshmallows in a swirl.

Create your chocolate glaze. Line a cookie sheet with parchment and begin to dip your marshmallow cookies into the glaze one at a time. Use a fork to scoop them out and to allow any excess chocolate to fall off. The marshmallow shouldn’t melt. I did find that when I accidentally burned the chocolate the marshmallows melted almost instantly, but when done correctly they were fine.

Let set until the coating is firm (about 1-2 hours). I put mine in the fridge overnight because I happened to finish mine at around midnight each time. It was also insanely humid where I live so there was no way the chocolate would ever fully set at room temperature.

All done and boy were they delicious! I swear to you, that layer of peanut butter did wonders. Somehow marshmallow, cinnamon cookie, peanut butter, and chocolate all go so well together. I would never have known! I really want to try other combinations now!

Here’s the inside of the first batch without that fantastic peanut butter layer. I also made the mistake of making my cookies too thick. Woops! Still very delicious though.

In all, this challenge was fantastic. It’s not too hard, but surprisingly incredibly delicious and addictive. Your family won’t be able to keep their hands off these little cookies! Oh and don’t forget about the Milan cookies too! I never got a chance to make them, but from everyone elses pictures they looked amaazzzinnggg. Mmm. God I love cookies.

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies

• 3 cups (375 grams/13.23 oz) all purpose flour
• 1/2 cups (112.5 grams/3.97 oz) granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 12 Tablespoons (170 grams/6 oz) unsalted butter
• 3 eggs, whisked together
• Homemade marshmallows (recipe follows)
• Chocolate glaze (recipe follows)

1. In a mixer with the paddle attachment, blend the dry ingredients.
2. On low speed, add the butter and mix until sandy.
3. Add the eggs and mix until combine.
4. Form the dough into a disk, wrap with clingfilm or parchment and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 3 days.
5. When ready to bake, grease a cookie sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicon mat.
6. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, on a lightly floured surface. Use a 1 to 1 1/2 inches cookie cutter to cut out small rounds of dough.
8. Transfer to the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool to room temperature.
9. Pipe a “kiss” of marshmallow onto each cookie. Let set at room temperature for 2 hours.
10. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or silicon mat.
11. One at a time, gently drop the marshmallow-topped cookies into the hot chocolate glaze.
12. Lift out with a fork and let excess chocolate drip back into the bowl.
13. Place on the prepared pan and let set at room temperature until the coating is firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

Note: If you don’t want to make your own marshmallows, you can cut a large marshmallow in half and place on the cookie base. Heat in a preheated 350-degree oven to slump the marshmallow slightly, it will expand and brown a little. Let cool, then proceed with the chocolate dipping.

Homemade Marshmallow

• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 3/4 cup (168.76 grams/5.95oz) sugar
• 1 tablespoon powdered gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 egg whites , room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, corn syrup, and sugar, bring to a boil until “soft-ball” stage, or 235 degrees on a candy thermometer.
2. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let dissolve.
3. Remove the syrup from the heat, add the gelatin, and mix.
4. Whip the whites until soft peaks form and pour the syrup into the whites.
5. Add the vanilla and continue whipping until stiff.
6. Transfer to a pastry bag.

Chocolate Glaze

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 2 ounces cocoa butter or vegetable oil

1. Melt the 2 ingredients together in the top of a double boiler or a bowl set over barely simmering water.

Milan Cookies

• • 12 tablespoons (170grams/ 6 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups (312.5 grams/ 11.02 oz) powdered sugar
• 7/8 cup egg whites (from about 6 eggs)
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons lemon extract
• 1 1/2 cups (187.5grams/ 6.61 oz) all purpose flour
• Cookie filling, recipe follows

Cookie filling:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 orange, zested

1. In a mixer with paddle attachment cream the butter and the sugar.
2. Add the egg whites gradually and then mix in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
3. Add the flour and mix until just well mixed.
4. With a small (1/4-inch) plain tip, pipe 1-inch sections of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet pan, spacing them 2 inches apart as they spread.
5. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool on the pan.
6. While waiting for the cookies to cool, in a small saucepan over medium flame, scald cream.
7. Pour hot cream over chocolate in a bowl, whisk to melt chocolate, add zest and blend well.
8. Set aside to cool (the mixture will thicken as it cools).
9. Spread a thin amount of the filling onto the flat side of a cookie while the filling is still soft and press the flat side of a second cookie on top.
10. Repeat with the remainder of the cookies.

Popularity: 100% [?]

It’s the end of the month and time for a Daring Baker’s post again! In the spirit of Valentine’s Day we were instructed to make a flourless chocolate cake and accompany it with an ice cream of our choice. Having missed the last two challenges cause I’m a total lame-o, I was mega excited about doing this challenge. In fact, I actually didn’t procrastinate like I usually do and made it ahead of time! High five, Rebecca!

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. They 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.

This cake is extremelyyy chocolatey, which is perfect for all you chocolate lovers out there. I used a huge block of dark chocolate so the ice cream was definitely needed to tone down the extreme richness of this cake. Seriously, it’s so rich that it’s hard to eat it plain, but I’m sure there are some chocolate loving people out there that would have no problem with it. I also covered my cake in brown sugar whip cream to assist in toning down the chocolateyness.

Some of the things that they told us to keep in mind while making this cake is that you should use your favorite chocolate. This cake will taste EXACTLY like the chocolate you use. This cake also has a high cocoa percentage, which increases the bitterness of a cake. If you want a sweeter cake, then use milk chocolate. Also, some people were able to make this cake with white chocolate, but it isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish because white chocolate is not the same as real chocolate. If you do produce a cake with white chocolate it won’t be the prettiest thing in the world, but I’m sure it’ll taste great.

Note on recipe – the recipe consists of 3 simple
ingredients and how you interpret them is part of the challenge. The
simplicity of this recipe gives credit to the ingredients much in the
same way of French baguette.
-This recipe comes together very quickly with a hand mixer.
-This is a very decadent cake that will sink a little as it cools but will still hold its shape.
-Very dense and fudgy cake that tastes divine.
-The top forms a light crust kind of like a brownie

Chocolate Valentino

(Recipe from Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy)
I used a 6 inch pan and got two cakes out of this recipe.

• 16 oz/1 pound/454 grams of chocolate, roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) + 2 tablespoons 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. 10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

As seen in my previous post, Brown Sugar Toffee Ice Cream with a Dulce de Leche Swirl is my current ice cream obsession so it was obvious that I’d choose to make that to go along with this cake. I decided to follow the theme of my ice cream and made brown sugar whip cream to cover the cake. I felt like a frosting would have been too much so a light whip cream was perfect. I also sprinkled toffee bits along the top and covered the sides of one of the cakes completely in toffee bits. I also added dark chocolate curls for decoration and tried to make white chocolate curls, but they turned more into flakes so I just scattered them on top too. 

This cake was good, but again not quite my tastes. I’m not a major chocolate lover and I also only like my cakes chilled, but that sort of hardened the cake too much. I think I might have also baked it too long (considering it’s hard to tell when it’s done) because my cake came out pretty dry. It was still good for a new treat to enjoy, but I think my cakes actually got thrown out in the end because no one wanted to eat them. Oh well!

Popularity: 64% [?]

Valentines Day has come and gone and I was more than happy to spend it at home with my family. Who needs a significant other to enjoy Valentines Day anyways? Of course holidays, to me, are excuses to bake and I took that opportunity to finally start my Ben and Jerry’s themed cupcakes. You see, a few months ago I went through the list of ice cream on the Ben and Jerry’s website and made up cupcakes for all of the ones that sounded good to me. With Valentines Day approaching I looked back over that list and saw one that had Valentines like colors. Neapolitan Dynamite! How perfect!

Neapolitan Dynamite ice cream consists of Cherry Garcia (cherry ice cream with cherries and fudge flakes) and Chocolate Fudge Brownie (chocolate ice cream with fudge brownies) ice creams, side by side.  I decided to replicate this by making a cupcake that was half cherry and half chocolate, filled with cherry chocolate ganache, and topped with some sort of cherry frosting. In the final moments I actually forgot to mix the cherry preserves into the chocolate ganache, but it was fine anyway.

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Every good baker knows that you have to experiment with many different recipes, be willing to tweak ingredients here and there, and be open minded to new ideas when it comes to finding “the one”. That basic cake that you can proudly call the best, the one that we all dream to someday discover, fall in love with, and live happily ever after. For me, those dreams have yet to come true and I ultimately blame it on the fact that I rarely ever focus on vanilla or chocolate cake.

I’ve had many baking experiments in my life and it wasn’t until recently that I realized I haven’t actually made a real attempt to find my go to vanilla or chocolate cake recipe. I’ve definitely had over a dozen experiments with peanut butter cookies (still with no real breakthrough), but never any with cake and I find that surprising. I’m always too eager to jump into a recipe that requires something more unique, more out of the ordinary, and more complex than plain vanilla or chocolate. Maybe it’s simply because I always want to amaze people with something they aren’t used to or maybe I just enjoy a less common flavor, but either way I surely need to find my “one” and David Lebovitz’s recipe for devil’s food cake is a step in that direction.

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I am such a nerd it’s almost unbelievable. Despite being a really healthy eater I tend to crave ice cream on a regular basis. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about the delicious freezing cold sugary custard like goodness that is ice cream. If it was realistic, I’d gladly live off ice cream for the rest of my life.

So anyway, I was back at home and discovered that we had no ice cream. Oh no! What was I going to do!? I didn’t even have ingredients to make my own! Of course, being a chemical engineering major, my first thought was to make ice cream in a bag. Duh! It’s like the one and only science experiment you should even know how to do! Who needs to know chromatography, crystallization, or any of that other silly chemistry stuff! It’s all useless if you can’t eat it! The best part about making ice cream in a bag is that it only requires everyday items like milk, sugar, and salt. The one downfall it does have is that it melts really fast, but who cares if you’re going to eat it right away.

Ice cream in a bag is great because it’s a fun blast from the past for adults, but also something neat for kids to do at home. Kids will love this so much that they won’t even realize they’re doing science and they get a delicious cold reward at the end! Waht’s even better is that you can make easy variations with such a simple recipe like this. For example, instead of milk I used eggnog because I wanted something other than boring old vanilla. You can also add chocolate syrup for chocolate ice cream or maybe even peppermint or strawberry extract for a more interesting flavor. But hey, if you like plain old vanilla, then definitely go for it!

What you will need:

• 1/2 cup milk (I used eggnog for this one)
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 1 ziploc sandwich bag
• 1 gallon size freezer bag
• Lots and lots of ice
• 1/4 cup rock salt (I didn’t really measure this)

Place the first three ingredients in the ziploc sandwich bag and then make sure you seal it tight! You don’t want any spills! Put enough ice in the gallon size bag to fill it up about halfway, then add the salt.

Place the sandwich bag in the gallon size bag and make sure the gallon size bag is sealed tight. After that shake, shake, shake the bag like crazy until the mixture thickens (about 5 to 10 minutes). I found it helpful to wear oven mitts while doing this because the bag can get VERY cold.

Finally, remove the sandwich bag from the gallon size bag and wipe it off a bit (you don’t want to end up eating the salt)! Now you can either eat straight out of the bag or you could do what I did and cut off the tip and pipe the ice cream into a dish. After that you’re all done. Now eat it fast or it’ll melt!

Popularity: 24% [?]