Daring baker is back!

I was determined to continue with the Daring Bakers, they offer me a wonderful opportunity to try recipes I wouldnt normally, and to vary my techniques. When I saw this months challenge, I was determined to fit it into my insane schedule!

I kept things simple, using a chocolate batter as my decoration for the sponge, and using a stencil helped me to keep things easy but to get a polished looking cake. The chocolate batter was spread through a stencil onto a silpat on a half sheet pan.

As you can see, I ended up with two layers of sponge. I shouldnt have scrimped on the sponge, I should have baked a thicker layer, that way I would have filled the mould(or in my case, springform pan!). This also created problems later when I unmoulded, the outside layer of cake kept trying to peel off.

I had a base layer of cake, then I made a layer of whipped chocolate ganache (this was actually left over truffle mixture, which I added 1 part to 1 part of boiling cream, chilled then whipped. I added a further layer of sponge, then topped with more of the truffle mixture diluted with 1/4 part cream to 1 part truffle. It made a delicious cake, everyone was bowled over by the stylish pattern and the flavors. I'll definitely be playing with this idea in the future!!

If you do try this recipe, bear in mind that I used the same amount of jaconde batter, but divided the decoration batter by 5, and still had extra!!

I also get to show off my new super modern cake stand that my dear husband bought for me this christmas, bless him.

Please visit http://www.thedaringkitchen.com/ to see everyone's wonderful cakes, and for the recipe!

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Daring bakers flying spaghetti monster pavlova!

Wow, I guess my dessert makes a statement. By way of explanation, I plated this super early in the morning, maybe my brain wasnt totally into the game yet!

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge 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 pavlova consisted of a chocolate meringue, a marscapone pastry cream, and a marscapone ganache.

I absolutely adore pavlova so I was super excited. My first thought when I saw some pictures was that it looked like dog poo, I was a little un-nerved but I thought 'I can do this'! I think if I had added some seasonal fruit, it would have really improved this dish, I ate the leftovers with figs, and it was wonderful!

Time got the better of me, what with all the stuff going on in my life, so I decided that I would make the components, but it was very last minute.

I was pretty disappointed with this dessert. I was disappointed in the recipe, for instance the pastry cream, which was really supposed to be a drizzle, was supposed to be made with 6 egg yolks, which was just ridiculous, and the whole recipe seemed to be about 3 cups of marscapone, which is pretty out there. I reduced the pavlova recipe by 2/3, the pastry cream to 1/3 and the marscapone ganache to 1/2.

The flavor was also a little disappointing. I overcooked the pavlovas, since I made them as tiny little mini meringues, and the marscapone cream was pretty underwhelming.

After this review, I'm not sure that you would want to give it a try, but do go and check out all the other inventive ways this dish was created on www.thedaringkitchen.com

I really appreciate the opportunity to grow and learn with the daring bakers, this was just one challenge that was underwhelming. I look forward to a new challenge next month!!

Daring Bakers tackle a Croquembouche

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

For the recipes, head on over to the daring kitchen and give it a try!


I really enjoyed this daring bakers challenge. I was so happy that it was something I could accomplish in just under a couple of hours too! I baked off the profiteroles, and whipped up some pastry cream in the evening, then made caramel and constructed the croquembouche the next day.


It felt like a very fancy dessert, the techniques are classic but simple and I'll definitely be trying to perfect my technique by making this again soon!

I did find that the dough was way too runny, you can see my profiteroles just spreading on the baking sheet, I think my eggs must have been bigger than the ones used in the original recipe. I also think that milk is a nice addition instead of water, these were extremely eggy pastries! After reading some of the comments it seems I was not alone. I'll be using another recipe in the future.


The pastry cream came together nice and quick, my only change was omitting the sugar and adding a can of dulce de leche for a delicious spin on classic pastry cream.


The really tricky part was the assembly. I dipped each pastry into the molten caramel to construct and ended up with a few little burns on my finger. Any attempt to use tools resulted in a big mess. I think maybe constructing layer by layer would result in a safer construction, and also a little less caramel, these were difficult to eat with a thick layer of caramel on them!

Thanks so much for the challenge, I will definitely be revisiting this one!

If anyone has any advice for playing with spun sugar, I'd love to hear about it!

Daring Bakers-Sticky Toffee Pudding worth waiting for!

I was so determined to get this recipe in under the wire! Pudding is what we brits are famous for, I just couldnt possibly let this one pass me by! I thought about pudding and I just couldnt get my favourite out of my mind, sticky toffee pudding! I recall eating it at my friend's wedding last October and it nearly brought tears to my eyes, I was so full but I had to really work hard to stop myself from licking up every little bit of the caramelized brown sugar sauce!

It seems that most of the recipes I've come across are for a baked pudding although I think the original roots of the pudding may be as a steamed suet pudding. I didnt have any suet on hand and I dont eat meat, so I substituted coconut oil, which I felt had similar properties.

I added a little lemon to the recipe, lemon zest in the cake and juice in the sauce, I loved the little zing in there.

I really loved this cake, I think butter would work just as well as coconut oil, and the individual pots steam pretty quickly, I cooked them for 30 mins but I think 20 mins would have been just perfect, since it was on the dry side. Of course the fantastic sauce made up for any dryness!

Here is a recipe from channel 4 in the uk if you want to try a baked recipe.

It was fun getting to use my 'Dairy Book of Home Cookery-new edition for the 90's'!!

Sticky toffee steamed pudding (makes 4 large servings or 6 small ramekins)

4oz dates, chopped and soaked with 1/2 cup hot water and 1/2 tsp baking powder

4oz flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 oz panko breadcrumbs

zest 1 lemon

3oz sugar

3 oz coconut oil (can be replaced with butter or suet)

1 egg

2 oz milk

Mix the dry ingredients, whisk the egg, combine all the ingredients then spoon into 6 greased ramekins. Steam for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Toffee Sauce

100g butter

100ml cream

1 cup brown sugar

juice of 1 small lemon

Heat the sauce until the sugar is fully dissolved and simmer for a couple of minutes. Add the lemon and stir to combine. Serve warm.

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

Daring Bakers Orange Tian

Things have been just so ridiculously hectic for me that I really didnt think I could finish the challenge this month, but I really didnt want to get kicked out of the Daring Bakers, so I read through the recipe, realized I had all the ingredients and it was pretty quick to put together.

I really enjoyed this little dessert, lovely flavors, and it was something I've not come across before. One thing that is a bit tricky is getting a base that is easy to break into, I had a bit of trouble getting my spoon into it! I'd maybe make the cookie a little thinner in the future.

The orange caramel was a very interesting flavor which I think I'll be using for my cakes in the future.

I didnt use gelatin in the whipped cream, and I happened to have a jar of kumquat marmalade that I recently made, so I just needed to make a few cookies, whip up some cream, make a little caramel, supreme some oranges and bob's your uncle!

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

Please visit the daring kitchen for the recipe and more daring baking!

Daring bakers-Gluten Free Nanaimo Bars

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

This month the daring bakers went gluten free, which is a great thing as I've not experimented much with the various flours that are around for gluten free baking.


I didnt manage to get all the different flours involved this time, I got a baking mix which had a similar combination of flours(bob's red mill gluten free baking mix). Since I dont normally use them in my regular baking it seemed like a bit of a waste. The mix worked very well, I replaced the separate flours and the baking powder with it.

The mixture was very odd in consistency, and pretty runny, so I decided to add 1/2 cup oat bran. I was very happy with this addition, and I really liked the flavor in the bars. It should be noted that some celiacs dont eat oats, and it is important to look for a gluten free product.



These delicious graham crackers were mixed with a combination of cooca, butter, almonds and coconut for a decadent base, a custard/buttercream layer was added, followed by delicious chocolate. These were cut into small squares and devoured by my bookclub. I was in a hurry, so they were a little messy, not the perfect squares that other daring bakers created. An overnight rest in the fridge is really crucial.



I dont know that I'll try this recipe again, its a little rich, but it was an interesting window into the world of gluten free baking, and into a delicious little canadian treat!

Visit the daring kitchen for a recipe and links to other daring bakers, or even try getting involved in the daring bakers yourself!

Daring bakers build a gingerbread house!

This month I actually had time to have a go at the challenge twice! I foolishly offered to make a gingerbread house for one of my colleagues, so I decided I definitely needed a trial run to make sure I was up to the challenge!

I tried using anna's recipe and it worked very well, I think the first time I rolled it out it was a little thick, so there were cracks in the gingerbread as it cooled. I also needed to bake twice, the first time it was a little bit soft, so I put it back in the oven until it was harder and more sturdy.

On the second attempt, I decided to follow martha stewarts recipe, and unfortunately I measured the roof wrong, so I had to make some extra pieces to make it large enough. I think it came out pretty well for my first attempts at gingerbread houses, although I'm not sure this is really something I'll be becoming an expert at! We'll see how I feel next year when I'm ready to tackle it again!

It does make a lovely christmas decoration though, since ours are a bit sparse, it was nice to have something festive in the house. I found it really great that any mistakes can be covered up with copious amounts of candy and icing!

One thing I did find useful was to re-cut the gingerbread when its still warm out of the oven, I found it did spread a little.


I added a couple of sugar-cone trees which were piped with royal icing with a leaf tip.

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

Daring bakers-cannoli

I have to admit that I just couldnt face trying to get the cannoli moulds, or trying to deep fry in a vat of oil, so I tried making these in muffin pans in the oven. They came out a little on the rock hard side, but it was a fun thanksgiving snack. The dough was quite difficult to work with, it didnt really like to be rolled out thin, and it tore easily, but I managed to roll it out into little shells.

I paired them with a little whipped marscapone cream. I whipped some cream to a soft peak, then whisked together marscapone with a little cream, marsala and sugar. Some shaved chocolate on top made for a tasty garnish, plus some delicious persimmons. Marscapone cream was also a delicious accompaniment to our dessert of apple pie!

To read more about the recipe and the daring bakers, please visit the daring kitchen!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Daring bakers and macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

Like most of the daring bakers, I've been meaning to tackle macarons. I've tried them once, they didnt go so well, so I was happy to experiment again.

This could be the holy grail of pastry, I've been trying to work out why, and I think it could be the variation in ingredients, and the importance of the consistency of the batter. The almond meal could be more finely ground or less, and the egg whites could be more or less aged and can vary in size. Of course the technique is also very tricky, whipping the egg whites to a soft peak, not too hard, then carefully folding the nut meal and powdered sugar in.

I'm going to blame this on the fact that my macarons were a little runny. I think I needed more nut flour. Also, I didnt use my common sense and I piped them too close together. The macarons also stuck to the silpat, so it was difficult to release them. I've heard you can put water underneath the silpat to help to release the cookies.

As you can see, my macarons are woefully thin too, although they did seem to develop the 'feet'. One day I'll spend a week perfecting them, but I just dont seem to have the time to commit to it.

A happy accident happened, I realised I didnt have enough almond meal, so I ground up some hazelnuts to mix in, and then filled the macarons with nutella. Delicious!!!

Please check on amy's blog for the recipe!

Daring bakers and vol au vents

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge has been chosen by Steph of a whisk and a spoon. Steph chose Vols-au-Vent, which we are pretty sure in French means, “After one bite we could die and go to heaven!”

Well, this was a fun challenge, I've made puff pastry from scratch twice so far, once in home economics when I was about 12, and once in class at college recently. It really is excellent when you make it yourself.

I was really excited to make vol-au-vents too, I've had them at many parties and occasions, unfortunately they seem to have fallen out of favor recently, being just way too dated, but I really loved those little fluffy bites and was really looking forward to making them from scratch.

The building of the pastry worked very well, but unfortunately when I rolled it out, I didnt persist, getting a nice thin pastry, so they were a little stodgy. I was also kind of worried about weighing them down with a silpat to make them rise evenly, so they were a little loopy when they baked! My husband says they look like geoducks. Ick!


I decided upon two fillings, I remember really loving mushroom vol au vents, so I sauteed some mushrooms and garlic, added a sprinkle of red pepper and black pepper, a touch of 'better than bouillon' mushroom, a sprinkle of flour and then reduced the sauce down. Mmm. Bit ugly looking but very tasty.

For dessert I whipped up some heavy cream with honey, and filled the vol au vents, then added slices of figs and walnuts.

I was very happy to see all the layers in the pastry, although they were really heavy to eat since they were so thick. Oh well, I'll just have to keep practicing!!

Daring Bakers tackle Dobos Torte!

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular DobosTorte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: ExquisiteDesserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Since I'd already made this in cake class just a few months back I was going to sit this challenge out, it wasnt my favourite cake. But I suddenly felt inspired, I had some extra chocolate buttercream in the fridge, and it seemed like a good opportunity to play with my food and give it a try.

Dobos torte is a multi layered cake, composed of a sponge, chocolate buttercream, and a top sponge layer which is covered in caramel. I enjoyed the caramel part, but I find the sponge chewy and not so appetizing. I prefer buttery and crumbly, or oozy and gooey.

It quickly became apparent that making little cakes is harder than it looks! The sponge was easy enough, I halved the recipe, then spread onto a parchment on a baking sheet. It was very quick to stamp out circles with a cookie cutter. It was harder to cleanly spread buttercream onto the little discs, and I didnt have the patience to cleanly smooth it to make for a perfect presentation, so I placed almond slices on the sides of the cake. I then saved some circles, pouring caramel over them and placing them on top of my little cakes.

Please head on over to the daring kitchen for the recipe, or to join in the challenges, and to see how the other daring bakers got on.

Daring bakers tackle Chocolate covered marshmallows

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

What a fun challenge. This month has been totally insane crazy, so I very much appreciated a less technical challenge, but I did try something new with making marshmallows from scratch.

We started with a little cookie, I used my new vietnamese cinnamon in them from KA flour, which gave them quite a kick, very different to the regular cinnamon in the store, cant wait to give it a try in something chocolatey. I divided the recipe by 3 since I didnt have a specific destination for them.

Marshmallows were made by whipping up egg whites and adding a hot syrup that was mixed with gelatin. I found that they didnt set up as much as I expected, so I really worried I'd made a mistake, but in the finished product they were little pillows of soft goodness. They piped very nicely onto the cookies

The cookies were left to set for a couple of hours, then I melted some chocolate with a little coconut oil and then dipped them in.

The verdict on the finished product. Meh. Marshmallows are really not my thing, the cookies were a little soft and cakey. Although they dissapeared very quickly at work, my discerning friend told me they were like chewing on a soggy wagon wheel (a confection he remembers fondly from the UK). Ouch. Always brutally honest, I appreciate his opinion, but sometimes the critique hurts a little, even if its not my own recipe!!

After a few days in the fridge these improved a lot as the cookie had a little more crunch to it.

Thanks for the opportunity to try new things as always, daring bakers, and thanks, Nicole for the perfect bite sized treat! Also thanks to my lovely husband for the photos.

Daring Bakers Bakewell Tart.

The June Daring Bakers' 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.

I was really happy this month that one of my favourite pastries from home was picked as the daring bakers challenge! I love almonds and I love pastry, so this was a total winner!

I was also happy that it was a nice quick challenge since I was a little under the weather when I made them.

This seemed like a perfect candidate for my little mini quiche pan. I cut the pastry down by half, and the frangipane to a third and it made 12 little mini bakewells and 3 larger ones in tart cases.

Thanks very much for the recipe!

Please stop by the daring kitchen to join us or to check out pictures of the challenge, or stop by and get the recipe from Jasmine or Anne Marie!

Sitting out

I feel all left out this month, I just didnt have the time and energy for the daring bakers strudel. Here's some stuff I was doing instead.

Boston Terrier cupcakes -chocolate mocha mudcake with chocolate kahlua ganache

Chocolate mud cakes with peanut butter/caramel filling and peanut butter frosting, a test for a retirement party. These were so good I'm glad I had one and gave them away immediately!!

Please see the daring cooks website for some of the strudel that everyone made.

Daring bakers! Kumquat Cheesecake

Wow, wow wow! I love cheesecake, and thanks to my lovely friends at bookclub and the wonderful daring bakers, I had a chance to make this.


I decided to go with a citrus theme, and made a kumquat cheesecake. This was absolutely divine! I added some minced candied kumquats to the cheesecake batter, then decorated with cutout candied kumquats and then drizzled the juice on the cake. Very sticky, but very tasty.


We agreed that the citrus cut through the incredible richness and I was glad I hadnt gone the chocolate and/or nut route as that would have been too much for me.


I was hoping for leftovers, but the ladies have started taking the leftovers to their husbands, who look forward to bookclub as they will be getting leftovers. What an enormous complement!



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


Please check jenny's site for the recipe, which I followed exactly, apart from adding 1/2 cup candied kumquats to the batter. I also added candied kumquats and syrup as decoration.


I baked the cheesecake in a springform pan, but I used saran wrap (clingfilm) to wrap before wrapping in foil, which is a good thing, since the foil did leak, but the saran wrap didnt(the foil must cover the saran wrap).


Take care not to overbeat the cheesecake, this will make it rise, then fall. Turn off the oven when it is just a little jiggly in the middle, and it will be just perfect after its second hour in the oven resting.

Daring Bakers Lasagne!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge I was as surprised as many of the other daring bakers to see this challenge, its very different from our other challenges, and I really lagged behind on getting it done. I was so glad that i did though, it was really fun getting the pasta machine out, and my husband absolutely loved it, so that was really rewarding. I was so scared that the pasta machine would break with the spinach, but it was fine.

Please see beans and caviar for the whole recipe, I'll share my changes to make it veggie!

I decided on a half recipe, that way we would have a big dinner with leftovers, but not enough to have lasagne coming out of our ears!

I made a veggie ragu, I went the easy option and subbed some fake meat and mushrooms, this made it a lot more appetizing to my husband!

I didnt change anything other than the ragu, here is my veggie take on it:

Country Style Ragu’ Ragu alla ContadinaPreparation

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (15 mL)

1/2 medium onion, minced

1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced

1 small carrot,

4 oz crimini mushrooms, chopped

7 oz beefless strips, chopped

dry red wine

1 tsp better than bouillon, dissoved in 3/4 cup water

1 cup milk

1/2 tin diced plum tomatoes, drained

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 tbsp arrowroot mixed with water

Sautee mushrooms, celery and carrots until soft, add mushrooms, stir then add wine, followed by all other ingredients. Simmer for 10 mins.

The sauce was a little thin so I took some and blended it with a hand blender and added some arrowroot to thicken, simmering for a further 2 mins.

Daring Bakers News!

So the Daring Bakers upgraded to a whole new website, which looks absolutely awesome! I was also honored to be included in one of the new features, cookbook reviews.

See here for my review of the field guide to cookies.

Other features include a whole new challenge, the 'daring cooks' and lots of other fun forums and things. Very much looking forward to the new site!!

Daring bakers! Daring flourless chocolate valentino

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.


This is especially exciting as I'm a massive fan of Dharm. I love reading about his delicious cooking and his absolutely delightful family, in a faraway place. I cant wait to hear his daring baker story, its always interesting!

I went to the farmers market and got special european style local butter, and some lovely eggs, some of them with pretty blue shells. I got some callebut chocolate too. All was well, but unfortunately I overcooked my little cakes so they were a little dry.


I dont have an ice cream maker, so I thought it would be nice to freeze a little of my white chocolate strawberry whipped ganache into heart shaped moulds as an accompaniment. I thought it went very well and it lightened the dry, dark cake. Mmmm.


Thanks for a wonderful challenge! See you next time!


Chocolate Valentino

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped

½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter

5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often. I did this in the microwave, I always seem to have more luck with it.

2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C

9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.

Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.

10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Daring bakers, foray into fortunes

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

It is one that must be familiar to most pastry chefs. I learned about how fun tuille are in my introduction to baking and pastry class. The chef showed us how to make little twizzles, spoons, stars and fortune cookies.

I thought it would be fun to try the fortune cookies again. I baked circles of the batter with dots and swizzles of cocoa batter and then folded them over a little note and wrapped them up.



I think this batter was a little more greasy than the tuille batter I'd used in the past, it got the notes really greasy, which wasnt terribly appetizing, but it was fun to see the way the designs were distorted.

I'd love to have got busy with lots of fun and creative designs, but time didnt allow, please visit the other daring bakers for much more ideas and recipes!

Daring bakers-Buche de Noel!

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

The buche de noel is new to me, it contains lots of little surprises nestled inside a delicious chocolate mousse, then encased in a chocolate ganache icing.

I got to work on each component, making a creme brulee, rice krispy layer, almond daquoise, and then a chocolate mousse. I was happy to try using agar for the first time, and I'm pleased to say it seemed to work very well. I'll be using that again, and I'm very happy to have a gelatin alternative.

The log set up very nicely, I think it worked well freezing it then keeping it in the fridge for about 6 hours before serving. I think I would even put it in the fridge the night before serving, so that the creme brulee layer isnt frozen.

I made all the components pretty much as the recipe dictated and it was incredibly rich. I think it might have been nice to lighten up some of it, maybe a white or milk chocolate ganache icing or insert as the dark chocolate was very overwhelming.

I served it at work and everyone was very impressed and it was fun to see all the components all neatly organised! I'm very happy I tried this dessert, it was just the sort of tricky challenge I needed after all my fondant and cakes recently.

This is the buche before the icing:

Element #1 Dacquoise Biscuit (Almond Cake)

Preparation time: 10 mn + 15 mn for baking

Equipment: 2 mixing bowls, hand or stand mixer with whisk attachment, spatula, baking pan such as a 10”x15” jelly-roll pan, parchment paper . Try to bake the Dacquoise the same day you assemble the log to keep it as moist as possible.

Ingredients: 2.8 oz (3/4cup + 1Tbsp / 80g) almond meal 1.75 oz (1/2 cup / 50g) confectioner’s sugar 2Tbsp (15g) all-purpose flour 3.5oz (100g / ~100ml) about 3 medium egg whites 1.75 oz (4 Tbsp / 50g) granulated sugar

1. Finely mix the almond meal and the confectioner's sugar.


2. Sift the flour into the mix.
   
3. Beat the eggs whites, gradually adding the granulated sugar until stiff.
   
4. Pour the almond meal mixture into the egg whites and blend delicately with a spatula.


5. Grease a piece of parchment paper and line your baking pan with it.


6. Spread the batter on a piece of parchment paper to an area slightly larger than your desired shape (circle, long strip etc...) and to a height of 1/3 inches (8mm).
   
7. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for approximately 15 minutes (depends on your oven), until golden.


8. Let cool and cut to the desired shape.

Element #2 Dark Chocolate Mousse

Preparation time: 20mn

Equipment: stand or hand mixer with whisk attachment, thermometer, double boiler or equivalent, spatula

Ingredients:
1 tbsp agar flakes
3/4 cup water
1.5 oz (3 Tbsp / 40g) granulated sugar
1 ½ tsp (10g) glucose or thick corn syrup
0.5 oz (15g) water 50g egg yolks (about 3 medium)
6.2 oz (175g) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1.5 cups (350g) heavy cream (35% fat content)

1. Boil the water with the agar until the flakes are all dissolved.
2. Make a Pate a Bombe: Beat the egg yolks until very light in colour (approximately 5 minutes until almost white).

2a. Cook the sugar, glucose syrup and water on medium heat for approximately 3 minutes (if you have a candy thermometer, the mixture should reach 244°F (118°C). If you do not have a candy thermometer, test the sugar temperature by dipping the tip of a knife into the syrup then into a bowl of ice water, if it forms a soft ball in the water then you have reached the correct temperature.

2b. Add the sugar syrup to the beaten yolks carefully by pouring it into the mixture in a thin stream while continuing to beat the yolks. You can do this by hand but it’s easier to do this with an electric mixer.

2c. Continue beating until cool (approximately 5 minutes). The batter should become thick and foamy.

3. Melt the chocolate with the cream (microwave works best for me)
4. Whip the remaining cream
5. Pour the melted chocolate over the agar solution, mixing well. Stir in ½ cup (100g) of WHIPPED cream to temper. Add the Pate a Bombe. 6. Add in the rest of the whipped cream (220g) mixing gently with a spatula.

Keep in fridge until ready to use.

Element #3 Dark Chocolate Ganache Insert

Preparation time: 10mn

Equipment: pan, whisk. If you have plunging mixer (a vertical hand mixer used to make soups and other liquids), it comes in handy.

Note: Because the ganache hardens as it cools, you should make it right before you intend to use it to facilitate piping it onto the log during assembly. Please be careful when caramelizing the sugar and then adding the cream. It may splatter and boil.

Ingredients:

1.75 oz (4 Tbsp / 50g) granulated sugar

4.5oz (2/3 cup – 1 Tbsp/ 135g) heavy cream (35% fat content)

5 oz (135g) dark chocolate, finely chopped

3Tbsp + 1/2tsp (45g) unsalted butter softened

1. Make a caramel: Using the dry method, melt the sugar by spreading it in an even layer in a small saucepan with high sides. Heat over medium-high heat, watching it carefully as the sugar begins to melt. Never stir the mixture. As the sugar starts to melt, swirl the pan occasionally to allow the sugar to melt evenly. Cook to dark amber color (for most of you that means darker than last month’s challenge).
2. While the sugar is melting, heat the cream until boiling. Pour cream into the caramel and stir thoroughly. Be very careful as it may splatter and boil.
3. Pour the hot caramel-milk mixture over the dark chocolate. Wait 30 seconds and stir until smooth.
4. Add the softened butter and whip hard and fast (if you have a plunging mixer use it). The chocolate should be smooth and shiny.
   
   Element #4 Praline Feuillete (Crisp) Insert
   
   Chocolate Crisp Insert

3.5 oz (100g) milk chocolate

1 2/3 Tbsp (25g) unsalted butter

1oz marzipan

1 oz caramel syrup

1 oz. (25g) lace crepes or rice krispies or corn flakes or Special K

1. Mix the caramel with the marzipan and butter in a saucepan and heat until bubbling. Cool slightly, then add the chocolate and stir until melted.
2. Add the rice crispies Mix quickly to thoroughly coat with the chocolate.
3. Spread on parchment paper to a size slightly larger than your desired shape. Refrigerate until hard.
   
   Element #5 Vanilla Crème Brulée Insert

Preparation time: 15mn + 1h infusing + 1h baking

Equipment: Small saucepan, mixing bowl, baking mold, wax paper

Note: The vanilla crème brulée can be flavored differently by simply replacing the vanilla with something else e.g. cardamom, lavender, etc...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (115g) heavy cream (35% fat content)

½ cup (115g) whole milk

4 medium-sized (72g) egg yolks

0.75 oz (2 Tbsp / 25g) granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Combine milk, cream and vanillar.
2. Whisk together the sugar and egg yolks (but do not beat until white).
3. Pour the vanilla-infused milk over the sugar/yolk mixture. Mix well.
4. Spray your mould with oil (I used a loaf pan). Pour the cream into the mold, place in a water bath and bake at 210°F (100°C) for about 1 hour or until firm on the edges and slightly wobbly in the center.
5. Let cool and put in the freezer for at least 1 hour to firm up and facilitate the final assembly.
   
   Element #6 Dark Chocolate Icing

Preparation time: 10 mins

Equipment: Small bowl, small saucepan

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream
6oz dark chocolate, chopped

1. Heat the cream until just starting to boil.
2. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.
   Assembly:

1) Line mould (loaf pan) with cling film

2B) Pipe one third of the Mousse component into the mold.

3B) Take the Creme Brulee Insert out of the freezer at the last minute and set on top of the mousse. Press down gently to slightly ensconce it in the mousse.

4B) Pipe second third of the Mousse component around and on top of the Creme Brulee Insert.

5B) Cut the Praline/Crisp Insert to a size slightly smaller than your mold so that it can be surrounded by mousse. Lay it on top of the mousse you just piped into the mold.

6B) Pipe the last third of the Mousse component on top of the Praline Insert.

7B) Freeze for a few hours to set. Take out of the freezer.

8B) Pipe the Ganache Insert onto the frozen mousse leaving a slight edge so that ganache doesn’t seep out when you set the Dacquoise on top.

9B) Close with the Dacquoise.

Freeze overnight, then cover with icing, then freeze. I took it and placed in the fridge for about 6 hours before serving.