winosandfoodies

Daring Bakers Do Dough

I have  a much greater appreciation of Julia Child's work  after reading the book My Life In France .  The research that went into her books is astounding. And I thought she'd just fired off a book in her spare time.  I doubt she had any spare time. Each recipe was tested over and over until perfect. Which is why I find her recipes always work. 

Breadchick at The Sour Dough  and Sara at I Like To Cook  have chosen the Julia Child method for  French Bread from her book From Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Volume Two by Julia Child and Simone Beck.

I decided on the one big loaf. My sous chef was home for the weekend so he helped with the kneading.  I also needed a photo for this event which  I'm hoping you will all join.

Unfortunately I was little impatient and didn't give the final rise the treatment it deserved. Which is why I have a small dense loaf. It didn't detract from the taste in any way. The bread had almost a hint of sour dough with just the right amount of chewiness and crispness in the crust. We had it for lunch today with some excellent Australian washed rind cheese from Tasmania.

Thanks Mary and Sara for hosting the February Daring Bakers (check out the other entries). Thanks also to the Daring Bakers creators Ivonne  and Lis .

Daring Bakers - Lemon Meringue Pie

You won't fine one here but you will find them on the Daring Bakers blogroll.

Our "stuff" still hasn't arrived so I don't have a working kitchen.  We're expecting it at the end of this week. Yay.

I'm A Bad Bad Daring Baker

I know this looks nothing like a Buche de Noel .  And quite frankly today I don't care.  I don't know why I thought I could complete this month's challenge.  I'm packing to move, I'm lunching out every day, dinner out every night this week.  Tomorrow I have breakfast, lunch and dinner out. Today I scheduled a free day to make my Buche de Noel and also to give my body a rest from the wine. 

The sponge was in the oven,  I started on the coffee cream...oops ...not enough butter...run next door to the neighbour to borrow butter.... offer to share dessert with them tonight....ooops....there goes my plan for a wine free day.......butter cream curdles...I know..... I didn't heat the eggs whites high enough as the recipe said... put it in the fridge to harden up a bit......cup of tea and a sit down...... cream now hard but still curdled....throw in some flour that should fix it....it does and surprise surprise you can't taste the flour....oh sh*t not enough eggs for meringue mushrooms.... I can use those very expensive griottines...perhaps they will look like toadstools....no they don't....reread the instructions...you MUST decorate with  either  meringue mushrooms or marzipan mushrooms..... oh damn, just take a photo and make it blurry.....at least every one can see you tried....anyway when this comes out I'll be lying on an island in the sun and I won't care.

Thank you Ivonne  and Lis , hosts for this month and also the founders of the Daring Bakers  - check out their Yule logs .  Please don't send me to stand in the corner for not completing the challenge. I promise to do better next month.......if my possessions have arrived at my new home in Australia.

UPDATE:  The neighbours enjoyed it, Bryan loved it, a bit rich for me, too sweet for Michael and he thinks the butter taste is too strong.  It paired nicely with a Yering Station Late Harvest Pinot Gris. Looks like Bryan will be eating the leftovers for lunch today while I'm out.

Daring Bakers Get Doughy

Sadly I missed  last months Daring Baker  event hosted by Mary of  Alpineberry .  Those Bostini Cream Pies did look good.  This month Tanna at My Kitchen in Half Cups is hosting and has chosen Tender Potato Bread.

Nigel over at the NZ blog Curios Kai  has documented his making of a traditional Maori Potato Bread known  as  Rewena Bread .  Potato is used as the leavening agent.

I've been trying to find the time to make my bread since we got back from Australia on 12th November. An invite from Arfi to go whitebaiting  on the Waikato River and instructions to bring something for a shared lunch gave me the excuse.

I started the process about 5PM Tuesday night by boiling the potatoes. By 10 PM I had two loaves of focaccia sitting on the bench. This was my first time using potato in bread dough. All went well with the dough and the baking. I used 16 ounces of potato and did not need to add all of the flour. The dough was soft as I expected. Personally I prefer my regular plain old flour dough. But it was fun to try this dough. Thanks for the challenge Tanna.

Here are a few photos of the white baiting trip.  That's Arfi  in the pink top.  You can tell she's a blogger - she's wearing a  camera. Click on any photo to enlarge.

We had lots of fun and the white bait fritters were delicious.

Do My Buns Look Big In Cinnamon

Another Daring Bakers challenge , which I baked and drafted my post before going on holiday, - Cinnamon Buns or Sticky Buns. Cinnamon Buns looked the easiest and because I was very busy with preparations before leaving for 2 months in Australia I went with Cinnamon. Although I'm sure the Sticky Buns were very nice. I bet they were just that little bit more fattening than the Cinnamon...and I was going to a sunny spot with a beautiful beach  .  I'm already a little concerned about fitting into, what I grew up in Australia calling bathers, here in New Zealand they call them togs.

I had no problems, everything went smoothly, the dough sat quietly on the bench growing bigger while I did other things.  I shaped it and set it on the tray for its second rise while I went for a walk.  The oven was turned on when I arrived home and in they went. Twenty five minutes later they were ready.  I set up the camera while I waited for them cool down sufficiently before drizzling them with the icing.  A few quick photos while the tea was brewing and we sat down to eat one.  I say one, because I made them quite large. Next time I'd make them a tad smaller.

Visit the Daring Bakers  to see how the other Daring Bakers handled this assignment. September's challenge was chosen by Marce at Pip In The City.  Thank you Marce, and thanks to Lis  and Ivonne , the founders of The Daring Bakers.  The recipe is from  Peter Reinharts The Bread Bakers Apprentice.

Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart

I am now a Daring Baker and I have the scars to prove it.  My first challenge was this Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart chosen by  Veronica and Patricia .  The first thing was to make the pastry case. Which I did in my removable base tart pan. All was going smoothly until I removed the pan from the oven. Somewhere between oven and bench my hand ended up in the wrong place and I saw the middle of the pastry case rise up in the air. I could cope with picking up the beans used in the blind baking but there was no way I wanted pastry crumbs all over the kitchen floor. In my attempt to catch the pastry, which I did successfully, the outer ring ended up halfway down my arm between wrist and elbow, leaving a long double lined burn on  my inner arm.

The pastry case was rescued with a couple of cracks in the crust. I knew if I used it for the caramel layer I would end up with most of the caramel on the bottom of my oven. Luckily there was plenty of pastry and certainly enough for a second pastry case, this time in a ceramic dish.

Reading the others comments on the special Daring Bakers website, who had been there ahead of me on the caramel making front, I was a bit nervous about the dry caramel method.  Using a heavy based  saucepan on a heat mat placed over the gas flame I melted the sugar very slowly. I looked away for a moment and it went a little darker than planned.  Not a bad thing though as I liked the end result of the caramel layer.

Then wearing my rubber washing up gloves and a long wooden spoon I added the cream which I had heated first. It didn't spit or hiss but quietly blended itself into the caramel. There were a few lumps but they dissolves as I stirred.

The chocolate mousse layer looks a little dark because although the packet said milk chocolate it was more dark than milk.

Finally the toffee layer on the top. This time I watched it carefully as the sugar melted slowly  and bubbled to hard caramel perfection.

Personally I didn't like the  tart. Far too sweet for me, too many flavours clashing in the pastry, and I didn't like the texture of  the chocolate mousse. The men in the house couldn't get enough of it, the nieghbours enjoyed it and I've been craving savoury ever since I ate my slice.  I did enjoy the left over toffee though.

The Daring Bakers is the brainchild of Ivonne  and Lisa . Thank you  Ivonne for inviting me to join this lovely bunch of baking bloggers. And a big thank you to Veronica and Patricia  for hosting the August challenge.