Crostata

The November 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Simona of bricola. 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 was one of the easier and tastier DB Challenges I've done so far. The pasta frolla was not difficult at all and I chose to fill it with a vanilla creme patisserie that I had made before. The result was a beautiful golden crostata which tasted pretty much like a traditional custard pie. The biggest difference (which my Dad pointed out) was that a custard pie is usually a little soggy and sometimes has standing water on top of it. The crostata was firm and spongey with all of the eggy, vanilly goodness and none of the excess moisture.

It was definitely worthy to grace my Thanksgiving dessert table.

To find the recipes and see what other Daring Baker's did with their crostatas go to http://www.thedaringkitchen.com/.

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.

I made Buttermilk Sour Cream Cake Doughnuts and Bomboloni (a filled yeast doughnut). The cake doughnuts were super easy to make and were delicious warm. The next day they were a little tough but the kids still liked them.

The Bomboloni were a total bust. I simply couldn't get them done on the inside without burning them to a crisp on the outside. They puffed up beautifully and had a lovely airy texture perfect for filling but the outsides were as black as coal. Very unappetizing. So, I gave up and threw them all in the trash.

Better luck next time.

September Daring Baker's Challenge

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

This challenge didn't do much for me. I don't find decorating sugar cookies to be all that exciting. It's actually a little tedious. I also didn't find the recipe to be anything unique or difficult so that wasn't very inspirational either. In short...I didn't do this challenge...or re-do as I should say.

I just found a sugar cookie and icing recipes that I love and I used them to make these cookies for the kids' birthdays in July. I'm going to count that as my contribution to the Daring Baker's for this month. They can sue me if they don't like it.

If you want to see what kind of crazily creative designs the other (more responsible) members of the group did you can go here.

The First Day of School 2010*

Well, Kinley has started pre-school. I can't believe my baby is 4 years old already. Next year she'll be in school full-time. It just doesn't seem possible.

My boys never went to preschool because I was home with them full time and there just really wasn't any need to send them. But now I'm working part-time and looking for a full-time job so Kinley was going to have to be in some sort of daycare anyway, so we went ahead and sent her to preschool at our church.

She is so excited!! She loves it!! On the first day she barely stopped to wave good-bye to me before she scampered in. It is so fun to watch her enjoy it so much.

Meanwhile Ryker is in his final year of Elementary School (5th grade) and Cainan is in 2nd. They are both having good years so far. I'm really thankful for the great schools we have here in Bond County.

*Disclaimer: These pictures were actually taken on the 7th day of school. I was busy the first 6. :)

MMMMMMM....Brown Butter

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”.

I've been following Elissa's blog for a year or so now and she is one of the most impressive teenagers you'll ever meet. Her writing, her work ethic, her photography and her baking are all way beyond her years. She just headed across the country for college so I'm sure the posts will be even more touching and entertaining...not to mention full of delicious recipes.

I chose to make the Ice Cream Petit Fours because I've made Baked Alaska before and I wanted to try something new. I was very happy with the way they turned out and I especially loved the Brown Butter Pound Cake. I chose to fill my petit fours with coffee flavored ice cream. Yum! Yum!

This was a very simple challenge but I really like it because it introduced me to a new flavor: brown butter. Of course I've browned butter before...usually accidently, but I didn't realize how much flavor it can add to a recipe. It really gave the pound cake a nutty, caramelly flavor that was really, really delicious.

If you'd like to try making Ice Cream Petit Fours with Brown Butter Pound cake you can find the recipe on the Daring Baker's website.

Holy Swiss Roll Batman!

Thanks to my friend Steph for the title of this post. Of course it refers to the Daring Baker's July Challenge, Swiss Roll Ice Cream Cake. The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

I've never tried to roll any kind of cake before so this was all new to me. I made a chocolate cake, rolled a vanilla whipped cream filling in to the middle of it, sliced it, lined a bowl with the slices, then filled the bowl with layers of vanilla ice cream, fudge sauce and chocolate ice cream.

Voila! A bomb! (Term for a round, frozen ice cream and cake layered dessert.)

Please excuse the pitiful photography. It really was a delicious dessert but I didn't have time to set up beautiful shots of it....because ice cream melts, very quickly in 100 degree heat!

If you'd like to try making one of these babies on your own (which I highly recommend) you can find the recipes and directions here. Happy Baking!

Four Years and Counting

Four years ago today Kinley was born...after 17 minutes of labor, without a doctor present, in a hospital with no air conditioning...and we couldn't have been happier. Since then it's been one smile after another as we watch our sweet baby girl learn and grow. It's hard to believe that she is already four years old and getting ready to go to preschool.

This year we had two birthday parties again, and she shared both of those with her brother (and one with her cousin). For her portion of the party I decided to do a Hello Kitty theme. Little did I know that while Hello Kitty is popular in clothing design and stationary sets it is not popular in the cake and cookie world. I couldn't find a HK cookie cutter anywhere...not even to order online. We don't eat much cake around here so I usually try to avoid birthday cakes and do some other kind of treat instead. I finally saw an idea online for how to piece together a HK cake and decided to do that.
It was simple to make two round cakes (two layers each), cutting one in half to make two semi-circles and cutting the other on in to strips, one to go between the semi-circles to form an oval and the other two to be cut into triangles for the ears. I covered the whole thing with a crumb coat of thin buttercream icing.

I then decided to try making marshmallow fondant for the first time ever. It was super easy and looked great. I just mixed one large jar of marshmallow creme with 2 pounds of powdered sugar...and then kneaded it until it was dry enough to roll out and cover the cake. I colored portions of it for the eyes, nose, bow and whiskers and added those at the end. It turned out cuter than I even imagined.

There was no way I wanted to have two half eaten cakes laying around my house so I was determined to make cookies for the second party. I finally cut out a picture of HK from an activity book and traced around it over and over again on the cookie dough. It worked well and I decorated the cookies with the same icing I used for Cainan's Star Wars cookies.

Overall we had two great parties with yummy treats and lots of presents. Happy Birthday Kinley!

Seven Years and Counting

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby boy! Seven years ago today I was trying to politely keep my eyes open (with little success) as people came to visit you. I was slightly exhausted from the events of the prior evening.

I went in for a routine appointment and (as with all 3 of my kids) he told me to stay and be induced because I was ready and he didn't have much going on. Well, all that changed about 6 pm when he got stuck in a difficult and high risk caesarean and called to tell the nurses to stop my labor until he could get there. So they shut off all the drugs (except the epidural, thank goodness) and we sat there for 5 hours until Dr. Houck could finish up the surgery, go home and eat supper and come back for the 20 minutes it took to deliver you.

Needless to say by the time it was all over with and I was snuggled down in my bed for the night it was close to 3 am. So those 8 am visitors had to deal with a very sleepy mommy. Somehow I don't think they cared.

So happy birthday to my boy who still wants to snuggle in bed with me and sit on my lap during prayer time. To the Star Wars fan and SpongeBob watcher. To the baseball player and shoe straightener. To the instigator and the helper. We love you!

Now...the party!!

By now you should all know that we rarely do the traditional birthday cake. This year I decided to to cookies. Mainly because I found some that were so cute I just couldn't resist making them.

While cruising around on my favorite cookie decorators blog I found these adorable cookie cutters. I had to have them. So I zipped over to Williams Sonoma and ordered them on the spot. They are the best cookie cutters ever! They cut out the cookie, emboss it with the lines for decorating and push it out of the mold all in one simple push of the button. Not to mention the fact that they are perfect for my family of Star Wars enthusiasts.

For the Darth Vader cookies I made Bridget's chocolate cookies and used this recipe for the black decorator icing. For the Storm Troopers I used Bridget's favorite sugar cookie recipe, the decorator icing again and my own icing recipe to cover the bulk of the cookie.

My Favorite Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg white

1/8 tsp. cream of tartar

Mix it all up. It will be runny. Just dip the cookie in, let the excess drip off and lay flat to dry. It will dry hard. It needs to dry completely before adding the decorator icing on top or you may get some bleeding of the colors (like I did on the storm troopers).

Of course there were lots of presents, some Slip-n-Slide action, a couple of baseball games and time with family to enjoy too. Overall it was another great year celebrated with two fun birthday parties.

Happy Birthday Cainan, we love you!

Daring Baker's June Challenge

The June 2010 Daring Bakers' challene 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.

The challenge consisted of making chocolate meringues, chocolate mascarpone mousse and a mascarpone/creme anglais cream for drizzling over the top. The final result was VERY tasty but not very visually appealing.

It almost looks like a cheeseburger without the top bun.....or something worse. This is one of those desserts you have to judge with your taste buds and not your eyes. I was supposed to use a piping bag and pipe out perfect meringues and mousse but I chose to just dollop it on....hence the 'pile of poo' look.

However, despite it's somewhat revolting appearance these chocolate pavlovas are super rich and delicious. I could barely eat a whole one. I used very dark, bitter chocolate but the marscarpone cream on top helps to tame the chocolate with a sweet, very vanilla-y flavor.

The recipe was easy and fun and if I ever make it again I think I will follow the directions and use my piping bag. You can go here for the directions on how to make your very own Chocolate Pavlovas with Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse.

Good Luck?

Well, Jon Acuff has done it again. He cracked me up this time with his blog about Chrisitans that say "Good Luck" and then feel guilty about it. Here is what Jon said:

“Good luck with the 10K this weekend!” Well, I mean, I don’t personally believe in luck, but you might. I believe that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. But how am I supposed to say that to you, my colleague from work, in the break room?

“I hope God works all things for the good of those who love him this weekend at your 10K race!” That’s a mouthful, but seriously, I probably shouldn’t be saying “good luck.” Some Christians don’t even say “Pot Lucks.” They call them “Pot Blessings” which kind of sounds like the headline from an issue of the marijuana magazine “High Times” but I’m only digging myself into a deeper hole of awkwardness at this point.

Would it be weird if I told you “Have a blessed 10K?” Does that make me sound like I’m the kind of person that would throw holy water on you during the race or hand you communion wine at one of those drink stands along the course instead of Gatorade? And do I have to over pronounce the “ed” at the end of that word like some people do? Do I say “blessed” like I would say “messed” or do I need to pronounce it “bless-ed.” I always feel like some random guy named Ed is getting hooked up when people do that.

This is getting so complicated. From here on out, I’m dropping luck, I’m dropping
bless-ed and am just going to say “Yay running!” and throw both hands into the air with spirit fingers. Wait, are spirit fingers related to the Holy Spirit or are those bad too? Ohhh, slippery slope, slippery slope indeed. I’ll go with jazz hands then, definitely jazz hands.

While funny in itself some of his commenters were equally hilarious. One guy suggested "Godspeed" as an appropriate encouragement for a race and several others agreed with him. I happen to like the suggestions that this guy made:

a simple "have a good race tomorrow!" might work well too.

other options could be:"ill pray that the lactic acid production is supernaturally
suspended... speaking of suspension, did youknow that jesus was suspended on
a cross for your sins.."

or."i'll pray that your loins are girded and that you are endowed with the
endurance of Elijah... who outran a team of horses... by the way have you read
that story in the Bible?? you know God's love letter to humanity?.... ... "

or. "May you run your race like it is to be won.. and not disqualified along
the way. You know, like Paul (Jesus's super duper post-mordem-assention marketer of ancient days)...."

so many options... all of which i'm sure would be recieved with thanks and no
discomfort.

As entertaining as that is, it does make me think. I had dozens of people (church people) wish me good luck before my half-marathon. I say "good luck" to people and never give it a second thought. I don't believe in luck so I guess for me it's just an expression, but I guess the same argument could be made for taking God's name in vain.

I don't believe in luck but I also don't necessarily believe in praying for every little hangnail extraction and close parking space. It's not that I don't think God cares I just think that I can be a happy, positive witness for Christ whether I have to walk 100 yards to the mall entrance or 10 so what difference does it make.

What do you think? Should Christians ever utter the word 'luck'? Have you ever eaten a "Pot Blessing"? Do Christians get too hung up on semantics and miss opportunities for authentic relationships?