Peach Tart ...er...Pudding

The June Daring Baker's challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart...er...pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Despite several minor roadblocks - the scale didn't work, so I had to estimate dry ingredients; the shortcrust pastry, which I should have made in the food processor, wasn't as thoroughly blended as it could have been; I had to use tools in the garage to get the jar of peach conserves open - this tart/pudding turned out just fine.

It has three parts: a shortcrust, a jam filling and a frangipane topping. We were allowed to use purchased jam, which is good because I don't make my own preserves. I wish I'd had some of my mother's Oregon grape jam, but my supply was gone, so I used Frog Hollow organic peach conserves instead. The conserves had some organic sugar but were basically just peaches - not too sweet. The frangipane is made with ground almonds, eggs, a little flour, butter and powdered sugar and turns out kind of curdy.



The entire dessert was rich and buttery but not too sweet - good for me, because I'm not a big fan of really sweet desserts. With a few home-grown, freshly picked strawberries for garnish along with sliced almonds, this tart was a fun and different dessert.

Diddle Diddle Dumpling

What fun! This month's Daring Cook challenge was Chinese dumplings. I make dumplings (potstickers) periodically, but I decided this was my chance to try a version that sounded so good but took a little too much time for a routine dinner.

I made Shanghai soup dumplings. These have the soup inside the dumpling, along with the regular filling. I made chicken broth by simmering chicken backs and necks in water, along with seasonings (green onions, ginger, garlic, soy). When the chicken was falling off the bone (2-3 hours), I strained the soup, returned it to the heat and boiled it until it reduced to about 3 cups. I added seasonings and gelatin, and, using a gravy separator to remove the fat, poured the mixture into a 9x13 glass baking dish, covered it and refrigerated it overnight. The next day I cut the chicken gelatin or aspic into small cubes and blended it with my ground pork/shrimp filling.

Since the challenging part of this challenge was making the dumpling wrappers, I followed the instructions for using the food processor - flour and warm water. Concrete! Not sure what I did wrong. So I switched to the Chinese mother method and hand-mixed the flour and warm water. Much better result. I let the dough sit for quite a while and then began the lengthy and somewhat arduous process of rolling out the little wrappers, filling them and pleating them.

Since the aspic would be melting when the dumplings were steamed, I pleated them into little purses rather than the traditional shape. I found it a little challenging to make sure all the seams were sealed tightly - didn't want to lose any of the broth to leaking. I had way more filling than dough but decided to use commercial wrappers for the leftover filling. NOTE: All pictures are dumplings made with the homemade dough!



I steamed the dumplings for about 10 minutes. Those that didn't leak (some dough stuck to other dumplings and tore) were great - a little burst of chicken-y hotness mingled with the pork/shrimp filling. And even without the soup, the potstickers were pretty tasty.



I also made some other little nibbles: naked shrimp/chive dumplings and ginger chicken and my friend Sarah provided a lovely platter of tomatoes, mango and avocado slices, sprinkled with seasonings. We had sriracha, red pepper flake sauce and mango citrus sauce for dipping. I liked the mango with the dumplings - a nice tangy contrast.


I had enough to freeze some uncooked dumplings for a dinner in the future. I would do this again, although having at least two days to pull it together is probably the best plan. I think I might also chill the soup before it becomes aspic to more thoroughly remove the fat. I got most of it with the gravy separator, but had to gently scrape some off the top of the aspic before I cut it up.

I doubt I will seek a new career as a dumpling maker, but this was a pretty good outcome for this challenge.

PS - After making and not loving the ricotta gnocchi last month, I had a chance to eat them in a real restaurant. We were in Portland, OR for a long weekend and stopped in at a venerable place that has been around for years and gotten excellent ratings. There they were: ricotta gnocchi, served with duck. I ordered, I ate and frankly, they were no more impressive than mine and still not something I was enthusiastic about. Maybe I'm just not a gnocchi person.

Strudeling

Strudel - Cherry Almond and Salmon Boursin Mushroom


The May Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

I made two strudels. When the dough proved so easy to work with (my biggest concern), I was really encouraged to make both a sweet and a savory strudel.

The first was a sour cherry-almond version. I should have played with the filling a bit more. It was a little too juicy and not quite sweet enough. Oh well, the oven needed cleaning anyway! I still liked the combination of the almonds with the cherries and simply added a bit more sugar to each serving, which really helped.






The second strudel was a salmon-Boursin-mushroom pastry. I used wild Alaska sockeye salmon (cooked), mixed it with Boursin cheese and a little cream until it was a mousse consistency. I sauteed the mushrooms in butter and olive oil, added salt and pepper and some sherry and then chopped the mushrooms. I blended them into the mousse, checked the seasoning and away we went! It turned out just as I wanted and was a good first course for a birthday dinner.




The dough was so easy to work with. I had no problem stretching it to the correct size and it was really transparent. I followed the suggestions of some other Daring Bakers and let it rest overnight before rolling it out. I also let it rest after rolling, before I began stretching it.

I'd do this again with enough incentive!

Never Gnocchi Again!

First Ever Daring Cooks Challenge - Ricotta Gnocchi

I had a wonderful vacation in Italy in 1999 (so long ago!) which included a week in Tuscany, attending a cooking school. We cooked in the morning, ate the results in the beautiful garden for lunch, did field trips to fascinating places in the afternoon and were provided with splendid dinners in the evening. All the wine you could drink (not much, in my case), Italian food which was fresh and creative - what more could one ask for?

The food we were taught to prepare was, for the most part, mouth-watering and worth the effort we put in. One exception: gnocchi. A lot of effort for a result that was not anywhere near as wonderful as the other meals we made. My friend, Carol, and I agreed: no more gnocchi. Just too much trouble for too little reward. If only I had heeded this decision!

The Zuni Cafe in San Francisco is well-known for the incredible food it serves to people. I have not been there, but have accepted that it is widely respected. I even have the Zuni Cafe cookbook, from which the April Daring Cook challenge was taken. The cookbook describes the ricotta gnocchi as ethereal, or was it ephemeral? Constantly requested, many toothsome variations, depending on season. Just be sure to use fresh ricotta, not that pedestrian supermarket stuff.

Okay, so that meant making my own ricotta because fresh is not readily available. Simple - some whole milk, some cream and some vinegar and then wait. It took some time, but was not difficult and the product seemed pretty good to me - delicate, not a lot of flavor, but creamy. I followed the Zuni recipe for the gnocchi, which is pretty simple. When the dough? batter? whatever failed the cooking test (ie, it dissolved in the hot water), I looked at the proposed remedy - add 1/4 tsp vinegar - and decided there was no way that would work. I resorted to Marcella Hazan's recipe for spinach and ricotta gnocchi, which uses flour, and added a couple handfuls of flour. That seemed to help. The gnocchi at least retained some shape when I formed them, even though they were still pretty sticky. This is the picture of the uncooked gnocchi.


Not things of beauty, but at least a semi-appropriate shape. I refrigerated them for hours, hoping they would become firmer, and then cooked them as instructed in simmering water.


When I tasted them, I was ready to throw them out. Nothing - weird texture, no flavor, totally unappealing. My husband, who must have been very hungry, said they weren't that bad. I added LOTS of proscuitto, parmesan, and peas and we gave it a try. He had seconds, but I think that's because the proscuitto and parmesan were good. I tossed the leftovers and I will make the same resolution: Never gnocchi again!

April Cheesecake

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.


This was a work in progress from the beginning. I have made many, many cheesecakes; however, my standard recipe is very dense with three pounds of cream cheese plus ricotta and sour cream. This recipe is a much lighter cheesecake, with a more liquid batter: only 24 ounces of cream cheese and a cup of cream, plus the usual eggs, sugar, and flavorings.

My original plan was to layer bittersweet chocolate, caramel and raspberry sauces between layers of cheesecake. It soon became apparent that the sauces were much too heavy to rest on top of the cheesecake and would just sink to the bottom. I abandoned that plan and decided to try marbling the flavors into the cheesecake to have a nice swirly inside. No dice. The sauces just worked their way down, partially blending with the cheesecake and partially on the bottom, resting on the crust. The crust was a blend of butter, chocolate wafers and some milk chocolate toffee bits.

The cheesecake turned out well. No cracks, no waterlogged crust (although there was some small amount of condensation between the heavy duty foil and the springform pan). The flavor was also good. The chocolate, caramel and raspberry blended together nicely.

I decorated the cheesecake with some of each of the sauces and some fresh raspberries.

I would still like to try to layer the flavors but I think I will have to use my old standby recipe rather than this more delicate version.

Next up: Daring Cooks ricotta gnocchi - look for a post in mid-May.

Catching Up

Before I created my own blog, my Daring Baker Challenges were posted on the Daring Baker site. These are the first several challenges I completed.



French Yule Log, above, was several days worth of effort, since each section required layering or freezing or whatever. Some parts of it were challenging and I certainly learned a lot from creating this dessert. However, it was very rich and I probably won't do it again.



In January, we were to make tuiles, a very thin, fragile cookie which is normally molded into cornets or cigar-shapes - or whatever else your imagination can come up with. While most people made dessert tuiles, I chose to do the savory option. This is what I came up with.


The cookies were very fragile and it took several efforts to find a method of molding them into this shape. I think of all the cookies I baked, only these two were presentable. I filled them with red and green apples sauteed in butter and a little Calvados and topped with sour cream and a blueberry. I thought they were really good and now that I know how to do the tuiles, I could see myself doing this again (on a day when I had lots of patience).

In February, we made a flourless chocolate cake, topped with homemade ice cream. The cake was definitely not sweet - I used bittersweet chocolate, a little Grand Marnier and there was no added sugar! However, that was remedied with the ice cream we made - a vanilla custard ice cream with lots of vanilla bean flavor, topped with satsuma wedges poached in butter, caramel and Grand Marnier.



The March challenge was something different - not dessert. We were to make lasagne based on a Splendid Table recipe. Homemade pasta, homemade ragu and bechamel - no gloppy ricotta or mozzarella or tons of veggies. I made a butternut squash pasta, which was a lovely golden color. The ragu was a combination of pork and beef and cooked for hours. It tasted fine, but I think I should have added some red pepper flakes for a somewhat zestier flavor. The bechamel was a standard bechamel. The lasagne was good and I shared with my mother, who enjoyed it and was probably glad it wasn't spicy hot.


This month's (April) challenge will be posted tomorrow.

The Beginning of the Blog

I love to write but sending emails to friends and the occasional letter to the editor seemed sufficient. No need for a blog. Now, however, as a registered member of Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks, I need a home to describe my baking and cooking adventures - hence, the blog.

The first Daring Baker post will be later this month - April 27 - and, if I can figure out all the technicalities, will include gorgeous photos by Bob (my patient husband) as well as a description of the baking process. In the interim, I might be moved to write about other topics - we'll see.