Yule Log

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

I make Julia Child's traditional Bûche de Noël for Christmas every year, but this year I took a break to make this alternative "cream dessert" yule log. It's a terrifying assembly of six parts: dacquoise, ganache, praline, mousse, creme brulee, and icing. The individual parts weren't all that difficult to make, but I learned several important things:

1. parchment paper is not overrated
2. let things cool before you take them out of the pan
3. make sure you have milk before you start cooking

Despite these little mishaps, the end result was delicious and artfully strata-like (pardon the slightly fuzzy photo):


And since no yule log for me is complete without meringue mushrooms, I took the leftover egg whites and whipped up a batch of simple meringues--1 cup sugar to 4 egg whites. You just pipe mounds for the caps and rods for the stems, hollow out the tops a little and use some extra chocolate icing to stick them together. Perfect!


I made only one little modification to the recipe: hazelnut instead of almond dacquoise. You can find the recipe along with many variations here.

Caramel Cake

For November's Daring Bakers, I was back in my home territory of Cake. And as I have a particular fondness of caramelized sugar, I was thrilled at the prospect of making three different caramel things.


For the caramel cake and frosting, you make a caramel syrup, which you then add to what would otherwise be an ordinary butter cake and frosting. Well, the frosting uses brown butter, which is one of my favorite flavors, so perhaps not so ordinary. The result of all of this was an exquisitely colored and flavored cake with a fine crumb and a delicate texture, with a crisp, caramelized crust. The frosting tasted so rich and robust from the brown butter, and had a uniquely sticky texture from the addition of the caramel.

I also got to inaugurate my wonderful cake stand, birthday present from Allie!

The second, optional part of the challenge was to make vanilla bean caramels. But, without a candy thermometer, relying on the cold water tests, I ended up rather with vanilla bean toffee. It's delicious, but I had to break it up with a hammer. Oh well.

This fabulous recipe came to us from Shuna Fish Lydon and can be found here. Her DB blog can be found at http://eggbeater.typepad.com. The caramels came from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich.

This challenge was hosted by Dolores with help from Alex, Jenny, and Natalie.

DB Take Two

It’s time for another Daring Bakers challenge! For October, our challenge was to make pizza. Specifically, we had to toss the dough to stretch it out. I make pizza quite often, but I’ve never been one hundred percent happy with my dough, so I was excited to try a new recipe. The recipe we were given is interesting in that it is yeasted, but you don’t let the dough rise—just rest overnight in the fridge. It was super simple to make, didn’t take too much kneading, and seemed like it would be good with partially whole wheat flour, too. When I went to make the first pizza, I found the dough almost too stretchy. I was worried when tossing it that it would just break apart. But it actually worked pretty well, as you can see.

I decided to make a different sort of pizza, too—rosemary potato. First, I roasted ¼ inch slices of red potato with olive oil, garlic, and rosemary, until they were tender. Then I spread the pizza with a simple garlic cream sauce, topped it with the roasted potatoes and garlic, sprinkled it with mozzarella, parmesan, and a bit more rosemary. The result was fantastic. Allie often worries about such pizzas as not being flavorful enough, but this one, she assured me, was nothing like that.

The crust, too, was great. It wasn’t too thin in the middle, and it was perfectly crisp but not tough on the bottom and chewy on top. Though the Daring bakers encouraged us to use only three to four toppings including sauce and cheese, I didn’t feel that the crust was overwhelmed at all. Rather, the whole pizza seemed perfectly balanced.

I love to cook, as you all know, and I’m good at it, but there are times, and making this pizza was one of them, when I feel talented. It’s a little bit bizarre. I don’t mean to be falsely modest, or anything, but it really isn’t all the time when I feel like this is, I don’t know, a gift?

Anyway, self-praise aside, the second pizza I made was equally good. Well, I didn’t actually have any of it, since I made it for a late dinner for my roommates when I had already eaten, but they assured me that it was “basically the most delicious pizza ever.” A couple of days ago, I poured a can of whole tomatoes into a pan with a bunch of garlic and rosemary and roasted it in the oven for an hour or so. So I took that sauce and put it on the pizza along with mozzarella, parmesan, green peppers, red onion, and garlic (usually my favorite pizza combination).

I’m not sure if I’ve quite reached the amazing level of Rudy’s, in Bellingham, where we recently gorged ourselves on fantastic pizza and cheap beer (though unfortunately they’ve switched from Mr. Pibb to Dr. Pepper), but I’m getting really close. Next time, I’ll use this recipe with a little less than half whole wheat flour, and see if I can retain the perfect texture and stretchiness with the addition of some actual nutrients.

BASIC PIZZA DOUGH
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled

1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup Olive oil
1 3/4 Cups Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.

2. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or fewer if you want to make larger pizzas). Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to three days.

3. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

4. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C). if you don’t have a baking stone, just preheat the oven.

5. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

6. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter - for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.

7. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

Septemeber Daring Bakers

It is with much joy that I post for you my first ever Daring Bakers challenge. The Daring Bakers are a groovy online collection of bakers who all make the same recipe once per month. The challenge is issued at the beginning of the month, and a deadline is set so everyone can post and reveal the challenge on the same date. That date would be today.

This month's challenge was the first ever gluten-free challenge: lavash. Well, I didn't actually make the gluten-free version, as we were given a choice. Lavash is basically a slightly leavened flatbread, a little like a pita but less puffy. I had no troubles with the recipe, it was very straightforward and yielded delicious crackers--crispy around the edges but a bit soft and chewy, perfect for serving with hummus (see the second part of this entry).

The finished crackers:

The recipe as I made it:

* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp instant yeast
* 1 Tb sugar
* 1 Tb vegetable oil
* 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
* Sesame seeds

1. Dissolve the yeast with the sugar and salt in 2Tb of the water. In a mixing bowl, stir together the flours, make a well, and add the yeast mixture and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball. You may not need the full 1/2 cup of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

2. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter. Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed. Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4. Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour. Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches. You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax. At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down. Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes. When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes. Grease a baking sheet and transfer the dough to it. If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf. Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of sesame seeds over the dough.

5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top.

6. When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Snap off shards and serve.

The second part of the challenge was to make a topping for the crackers, something vegan and gluten-free. Now, one of my many flaws is that I don't really like condiments. Salad dressing, mayonnaise, most salsas and dips, many chutneys and relishes. I've been getting much better lately, but still, my go-to dip, which I will always enjoy, is hummus.

I wanted to do something a little different, a little more adventuresome, since this is supposed to be a challenge after all. So I decided to make SPROUTED hummus. For many of you, the word "sprouted" probably brings to mind some dank food co-op that smells of brewer's yeast and an excess of B.O. And while I certainly understand from whence that idea has arisen, I urge you all to rethink. Sprouts, to me, are a way to make totally insipid dried grains and pulses into delicious, nutty, fresh-tasting morsels.

I've never sprouted chickpeas before, so I just did what I do when I sprout anything else--soak them overnight, then drain them and leave them in a strainer covered by a damp paper towel. Make sure you redampen the towel a few times per day, and in a few days, they should have little srpouts. And lo and behold, they actual began to taste a bit like the most amazing food on earth (if you've never driven out to a garbanzo field in June and eaten green garbs off the vines, start planning your trip now).

The beans did something a little funny. They got soft, and then, they started getting hard again. I ended up peeling off the soft skins and was left with medium-hard beans and spouts. They ground up well, though, and with my normal additions (lemon, salt, oil, garlic) turned into a slightly "greener" tasting hummus.



As the final touch, I spread the hummus on a plate as is (I believe) traditional, topped it with za'atar and a sprinkling of sumac (a dried red berry that's kind of sour tasting). It matched the lavash perfectly. Success!

The finished products:


Angie's Sprouted Hummus

1/2 cup chickpeas
5 cloves garlic
1 tsp olive oil
juice from 1/2 a lemon
salt

Sprout and peel the chickpeas. Grind in a blender or food processor along with the olive oil, lemon, and garlic. Salt to taste. Serve drizzled with oil and sprinkled with za'atar and sumac.

Za'atar
Grind with a mortar and pestle equal quantities of thyme, oregano, sesame seeds, and kosher salt. The final mixture should be evenly combined but not ground to a paste.