Bits ‘n Bites

One of the exhilarating aspects of being part of the bakerhood that is Daring Bakers, is knowing that you become a better baker after each new challenge. There is always a trick or two to pick up, a new way of looking at a process, a new direction to stretch your skills and comfort zone. This challenge proved this once more.

Hosted by  Breadchick Mary (The Sour Dough), and Sara (I like to cook), we were dared to bake French Bread, the Julia Child way. Well, I’ve baked a lot of bread from scratch, but I have to admit my jaw dropped when I read the instructions. How could a recipe with four (4) basic ingredients take so long!? Eight ( to nine (9) hours?! Whoa! The bread I usually bake entails one proof/rise, shaping and a second shorter rise. Total time from kneading to fragrant bread out of the oven: 2.5 hours. My curiosity was piqued. We had been warned so many times in cooking school not to let the bread over-rise, that I was a bit skeptical. Nonetheless, on a quiet Sunday, I got up early and plunged in.

I’ve always made bread the old fashion way, kneading by hand. Since the option to use an electric mixer was offered with this challenge, I decided to try it that way. Improvement #1: It’s a lot more efficient to make bread this way. The mixer bowl is ideal for the first proofing. A keeper. Next up? Using the oven, with the light on, as the rising chamber. Brilliant! Even better, wrapping the bowl in a towel. That’s how I’ll be rising bread from now on.

The whole process was pretty straightforward, just time consuming. I may have gotten a bit impatient at the end. My shaped bread (three ficelles) could have risen a little longer. Still, I was really happy with the final results. I’m not sure I’ll be repeating the whole process in the future, but I’m sure the tricks learned will make my regular method even tastier. Thanks for the challenge, Breadchick Mary and Sara!

The full recipe is available here.

Barilla does it again, this time in support of Second Harvest in the US. The free downloadable pdf includes recipes from Mario Batali, David Tutera, Debra Messing, Stanley Tucci, Natalie Portman, Chris Daughtry and Marisa Tomei.

So, if Penne in a Spicy Sauce with Capers and Olives, Autumn Vegetables with Goat Cheese and Pumpkinseed Oil and Saffron Panna Cotta sound like your type of Italian delectables, head over to this site to download the book. If you’re from the USA, you can actually specify which Second Harvest you wish Barilla to send its contribution.

Offer ends February 29th has been extended to March 31st!

Harper Collins is releasing a series of books people can read online for free. The one that caught my eye was the one by Robert Irvine, star of Dinner Impossible on the Food Network. You can access the full text of Mission: Cook! My Life, My Recipes, and Making the Impossible Easy here, or by clicking on the icon below for a preview (note not all chapters are available through the icon, but they are through the preceding link.)

Browse Inside this book Get this for your site

With wet snow falling outside my window this morning (again), it was a perfect day to tackle this month’s Blog Party Challenge: Another Bite of Dessert, hosted by the Happy Sorceress. The theme was straightforward: dessert canapés.

So many choices…Last week, for the first time, I finally got access to the Food Network as part of my new digital TV system. And for the first time, I got to see the Iron Chef of America show. Well-timed, the show was titled: All-Star Holiday Dessert Battle: Cora/Deen vs. Irvine/Florence. From the Food Network website:

In another All-Star culinary showdown, the Chairman has invited Paula Deen to partner up with Iron Chef Cat Cora and compete against Food Network’s own Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine.

The hour was filled with a myriad of desserts and sweets. My fillings were hurting at the final offering to the judges. Tina Fey was comatose by the end of it all. But, I had found my inspiration for this challenge.

Paula Deen’s Chocolate Cheese Fudge was intriguing. I had baked cream cheese with chocolate, but Velveeta cheese?…I decided to tone down the richness of that fudge by using it as a base and adding cranberries as a topping.

Cheesy Fudge Cranberry Tarts

Base
Paula Deen’s Chocolate Cheese Fudge

Press one tablespoon into greased mini cupcake molds. Refrigerate.

Topping
1 cup frozen or fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
Splash of Southern Comfort (could also use Grand Marnier or Cointreau)
Fresh mint leaves, chiffonade

In a small saucepan, heat up the Southern Comfort with the chopped cranberries over medium heat. Add the sugar and water, reduce. Remove from heat and cool.

Assembly
Unmold the fudge cups, spoon some of the cranberry mixture in the cup and garnish with mint chiffonade.

The ladies also concocted a peppermint martini for the judges. This triggered my second canapé:

Peppermint Profiteroles
Base
Profiteroles: Choux paste recipe

Filling
Peppermint Pastry Cream:
2/3 cup whole milk
2 inch vanilla bean
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp peppermint extract

In a small, heavy saucepan over high heat, combine the milk and vanilla bean and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until well blended. When the milk reaches a simmer, remove it from the heat and gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the yolk mixture.

Return the mixture to the saucepan and place it over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the pastry cream thickens and boils, about 1 minute. Stir in the peppermint extract. Discard the vanilla bean and cool.

Toppings
Chocolate ganache
Candy cane, crushed

Assembly
Pipe the pastry cream into each choux. Dip each choux into warm ganache. Sprinkle with crushed candy cane.

For the cocktail, I decided to keep it simple: Brandy Toddy, from DrinkMixer website.

Brandy Toddy
2 oz brandy
1/2 tsp powdered sugar
1 tsp water
1 twist lemon peel

Dissolve powdered sugar in 1 tsp. water in an old-fashioned glass. Add brandy and one ice cube and stir. Add twist of lemon peel on top and serve.

Happy holidays all!

Just in the nick of time, I think, I got my canapés ready to submit to the Happy Sorceress for the upcoming Virtual Blog Party this Saturday. I wanted to keep things simple. So, my idea of fusion came down to the basic tuna salad stuffed into tofu puffs. To add a bit of colour and crunch I added some finely chopped orange pepper and celery. The tofu puffs I purchased at a small Chinese grocery store right around the corner from where I live. I usually use those in stir fries, but I thought they would make an interesting base, when chopped in half. I was right. I sprinkled each canapés with a mixture of parmesan and fontina cheeses and baked them until the cheese melted. The tofu came out nice and crispy. I’ll definitely be playing around with those puffs more in the future.

Here’s my recipe for the tuna salad:

1 can pale flaked tuna, drained
1/4 orange pepper, finely chopped
1/4 rib celery, finely chopped
Mayonnaise, enough to bind
Salt and pepper
4 tbsp parmesan, grated
4 tbsp fontina cheese, grated
10 tofu puffs, sliced in two

Mix all ingredients except cheeses and tofu puffs. Spoon a small portion of the tuna salad into puff halves, and sprinkle with a bit of the cheese mixture. Bake at #350F until cheese melts. Plate and crack some fresh pepper over canapés before serving.

The challenge requires us to also submit a cocktail/mocktail. My choice for this dish is a the Lemon Ginger Martini, found on the Raley’s and Bel Air Recipe Center. It includes one of my latest discoveries in liqueurs: limoncello. It goes as follows:

Lemon Ginger Martini

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 oz. superpremium vodka, such as Skyy
or Grey Goose
1 slice fresh ginger, chopped
1 oz. limoncello

DIRECTIONS
In a cocktail shaker, mash vodka and ginger. Add limoncello and shake well with ice; strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

I haven’t made the drink yet, though I have the ingredients. But I don’t have a martini glass. That will be taken care of tomorrow. Stay tuned for picture…

Cheers!

Stumbled onto this news item today in my Epicurious newsletter. You can create a custom cookbook using up to 100 recipes found on the epicurious site, or add your own recipes if you wish, or leave some blank space for later add-ins. Browse and borrow from some already created books by famous chefs. The book is hardcover and spiral-bound. You can even put your name on the cover. Cost: $us34.95. For more details, go to: epicurious.com. You will need to create a free account on Epicurious to use this feature.