Daring Bakers - Pizza Dough!!

Shhhhhhhh... my dough is sleeping.  Ok well actually it's resting... in the fridge... waiting to be made into pizza.  Proving that there will indeed be pizza on this blog within the next day.  And oh my, I have some intense plans for this dough.  This beauty sleep is welllll needed.  

So, I've been a pretty terrible blogger these past few months, and its all because of a film.  A film for which I spent 7 weeks eating nothing but bagels and cereal and sleeping no more than 4 or 5 hours a night.  

BUT I finally screened the finished thing this past Sunday, which means that I'll be bringing much deliciousness back to this blog in the coming months.  Starting here.  Starting tomorrow. With an amazing Daring Bakers' Challenge hosted by Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums.  

Update:

I have made 2 out of 4 pizzas, and they were INCREDIBLE.  Sorry for the awful pictures, though... I was in a crazy rush.

This pizza has on it a white wine cream sauce with shallots, zucchini, mozzarella, calamata olives, brie, and lots of garlic.  It was so good... completely gone in less than 10 minutes.  

And THIS pizza, for dessert, is covered in honey-sweetened mascarpone, fresh strawberries, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  Ridiculously delicious.

Looking forward to 2 more pizzas tomorrow!  =)

UPDATE #2:

I made the other 2 pizzas and took pictures of them, but my camera ran out of battery during the import to my computer, and the result of this was that they were deleted from the camera without being imported.... SO there is sadness and no more pizza pictures.  =(

But they were REALLLLLY delicious, so I shall describe them to you now.

One had a tomato sauce with balsamic vinegar, baby portobello mushrooms, ground beef, spinach, mozzarella, and more balsamic vinegar drizzled on top.  This was so ridiculously amazing, I ate 3 pieces in one sitting, and then had the rest as breakfast the next morning... cold and still amazing!  =)

And the last pizza was the most extravagant of all - tomato balsamic cream sauce, caramelized onions, mozzarella, corn, goat cheese, honey, and fresh basil.  Sooooooo good.  Every ingredient worked so perfectly with the others, and the basil was the absolute most perfect finish ever.  So yeah, wonderful wonderful it was.

AWESOME CHALLENGE!  Go Daring Bakers!  =)

Daring Bakers - Pierre Hermé's Éclairs

Mmmmm this Daring Baker's challenge was one of the most delicious and awesome ones I have had the pleasure of experiencing!  This month was hosted by Meeta and Tony Tahan, and they had us all make Pierre Hermé's incredible Chocolate Éclairs.  

I was so excited to make these because I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE éclairs but I had never made any before.  I had never even tried my hand at choux pastry.  I'm almost ashamed to say it, considering just how much I enjoy éclairs and cream puffs and anything else in that variety of sweets.  I had always meant to try to make choux pastries... but something else to bake always seemed to come up.  And these situations are exactly what Daring Baker's challenges are for, right?  Right!  So this challenge was so right for me!  Thanks, hosts!

The challenge recipe was for an eclair filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with a chocolate glaze, and we had the option of using both or either the filling or glaze recipes given.  

I mentioned that I LOVE éclairs, and what I love most about éclairs is the burst of cold, refreshing, lightly sweetened vanilla custard you get when you bite into them.  To me, éclairs are allll about that perfect custard cream filling.   So I was a bit apprehensive of a chocolate filling.  

But I decided to try it anyways, just because it was something I had never done, and I made little chocolate cream puffs that I sprinkled with powdered sugar.  They were pretty ridiculously delicious, but they weren't the refreshing perfection that I craved.  So I made some more choux, and whipped up these traditionally flavored éclairs!  

They were absolutely incredible, and so fun to make!  All the piping, and dipping, and finger-licking... oh my...  I filled some with vanilla pastry cream, and I guess I was getting a little heavy handed with that because I ran out of pastry cream.  So I filled the remaining few with whipped cream and those were incredible as well!  I think I'm just obsessed with all kinds of cream...

I will absolutely make these again, and I'm excited now to perfect my éclair making skills and make myself ridiculously fat.  =)

Don't forget to check out the blogs of all the other Daring Bakers, because they all made some beautiful and mouth watering pastries this month!  

Daring Bakers Cake turned MACARON! weeee

What to do with leftover buttercream, preserves, nuts, and ganache?  

Seriously, this cake's leftovers were screaming macarons.  

So we get cashew macarons with peach preserves, cashew praline buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache with grand marnier.  Tastes just like the gateau.  But much more fun.

=)

Daring Bakers - Filbert (read: cashew) Gateau with Praline Buttercream!

This is what happens when Allison is reunited with an oven after two months of basically living in a hotel.  I like to think it was a magical reunion.  =)

I got back from Japan Wednesday night, when alll the other Daring Bakers were posting about this wonderful cake, brought to us by July's host, Chris of Mele Cotte, and all I could do was pass out in bed and dream about it since I had been up and riding planes for the previous 30 hours.  4 countries in 1 day, baby!!!!  But no cake to show for it... yet!

So naturally the first thing I did when I woke up yesterday was plan out my baking schedule for the next week.  I decided this cake should come first because, even though I missed the posting date, it's close enough that this can count as a late post rather than a skipped month... hopefully?  And also because my grandmother's birthday was in June, and I know she loves praline and chocolate, and she happens to be visiting us in Canada this week.  

I had my doubts about this cake before starting it... I wasn't really sure how all the flavors would work together, and while I know hazelnuts and chocolate to be a killer combination, the idea of hazelnut praline with apricot and chocolate was kind of rubbing me the wrong way.  So I decided to use cashews instead, since I had never used cashews in anything before, and I guess I was just in a cashew mood.  I am generally not a fan of apricots, and my mom had about 40 peaches in a huge basket in our kitchen that she was begging me to do something with... so I made a year's worth of peach preserves and used some of that for the cake!  And ooh it was peachy.   Also, my grandmother doesn't like rum, so I just used grand marnier and vanilla throughout.  However, in the peach preserves, I added some lychee liqueur and cinnamon.  

Every Friday, my dad's band comes over and they practice their rockin' music in our garage.  Lucky for my cake, today is Friday!  So it was eaten and well appreciated after band practice, and then was packed up in yogurt containers and sent off to the band members' wives.  

Everyone loved it, even my mom who always says she doesn't like buttercream (but who eats it every time I make it!).  I was actually surprised at how awesome it was!  I think I will definitely make this cake again in the future - definitely.  Cause it was prettty ridiculously wonderful.

So thanks Chris!  I don't think I would have made this cake normally after just looking at the recipe, but I'm so glad you gave me a reason to because it turned out to be incredible!!  YAY for Daring Bakers!!  

If you're interested in making this cake, get the recipe from the host's blog here!

Daring Bakers - Opera Cake

Cake Love.

=)

What a wonderful month this was - apart from the bliss of being in Japan, this has been my favorite Daring Baker`s challenge so far!  It was hosted by our wonderful co-founders, Lis and Ivonne, as well as Fran of Apples Peaches Pumpkin Pie and Shea of Whiskful, and they chose to have us make Opera Cake!  This is a cake that is traditionally made with chocolate and coffee, but the hosts specified that we keep the cakes light in color and flavor.  Apart from that, the flavors and decorations and all that were up to us!  And oh... what that led to... a ton of amazing and very unique cakes!  

I was so excited to make this that I couldn`t decide on what flavors to use, so I kind of just gave in to my indecisiveness and made two.  And what a delicious indecision it was...

I made the first cake with a pistachio jaconde, a vanilla and lemon buttercream, a strawberry lemon syrup, a strawberry glaze, fresh strawberries in the layers, and chopped pistachios on top.   

The syrup for the buttercream looked so cool when it was boiling that I had to take a picture...

I had been wanting to try pistachios and strawberries together for a long time, and thought this was a perfect opportunity because of the nut based cake and... strawberry season!  Also, I wanted to use a fruit glaze instead of white chocolate because my mom is one of those white chocolate haters, and I was actually at home and baking for my parents when I made this.  

But of course, I love white chocolate, and of course, there was another flavor combination that I have been wanting to try forever that works so perfectly with this cake.  Yes, it's green tea and white chocolate...  I think a ton of other people have done this, too... as well they should, because it is seriously amazing.  And what can I say, I made this the day before I left for Japan, so it was probably the Japan excitement that made me do it.  (mmm Japan excitement is a glorious thing!)

I did an almond and green tea jaconde, a white chocolate and green tea buttercream, a vanilla and jasmine syrup, and the white chocolate mousse and glaze. I actually finished this cake 2 minutes before bolting out of the door to catch my flight to Japan, so I was only able to taste one bite of it, but it was an amazing bite! The green tea went perfectly with the white chocolate, and the jasmine gave the whole thing a wonderful flowery essence underneath the big flavors.

mmmm green tea buttercream.... amazing.  

I said that this was my favorite Daring Baker's challenge to date, and that's because I feel like I have accomplished so much with it!  I made both cakes without any problems, they tasted amazing, and I think they are pretty much the most aesthetically pleasing things to ever come out of my kitchen (I'm always so bad at making stuff pretty...).   

Plus, I had never even heard of an opera cake before this challenge, so it opened my eyes to a piece of pastry I had never before known, and I always love it when that happens!  It's happening every day I'm here in Japan, by the way. =)

So thank you, wonderful hosts, for another fantastic Daring Baker's challenge!  I loved it, and I look forward to seeing everyone's cakes!

If you want to try your hand at opera cake, see here for the recipe!

Daring Bakers - Cheesecake Pops

Yay! It's Daring Bakers time again! This month's challenge was hosted by Elle of Feeding my Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. And they chose cheesecake pops!

I was ecstatic when I saw the selection at the beginning of the month, because I absolutely love cheesecake! So creamy and cheesy and mmmm.... yeah. I'm also kind of obsessive about cheesecake quality, and am on a neverending quest for the perfect cheesecake recipe, so I always jump at the opportunity to try a new one! And this was more than just a new cheesecake recipe, it was an entirely new method of preparation and serving! See how cute each pop was on it's own little stick?

Awww. So happy. We were allowed to dip the pops in any kind of chocolate we wanted, and then decorate with anything we could think to stick on it! Needless to say, mine look rather plain compared to some of the pops those other Daring Bakers made. But they still make me really happy. I chose to dip them in white chocolate, because I was feeling like I wanted something that would add mild sweetness without too sharp or overpowering a flavor. After all, the cheesecake is the most important part in my book! And also because white chocolate was all I had in my freezer at the time... hehe. And since it was all I had, I decided the least I could do was make it colorful... so I made purple and blue cheesecake balls.

They had so much personality, though. See, this one is the "Allison ran out of sticks and dipped me with her fingers and then ate me so that no one would know" ball:

And this one is the "I'm so swirly and it makes me cool, even though it's really because the chocolate cooled too fast on me" texture-happy ball:

Haha I had way too much fun with these...

In the end, they all tasted amazing. I carried them around with me everywhere I went the day I made them, and received more than one marriage proposal in response. And seriously, I can't ask any more than that from any dessert recipe... =)

So thank you, Deborah and Elle, for a seriously fun challenge! The Daring Bakers are fabulous!

Daring Bakers - Dorie's Perfect Party Cake

March brought me my second challenge as a Daring Baker... in the form of CAKE!

Ahahaha I heart cake. And we were allowed to make a ton of modifications with regards to flavor and such - fun times. The original recipe was a lemon flavored cake with lemon flavored buttercream and raspberry jam. Many of the Daring Bakers chose to make the recipe as it was written, and all of their cakes looked delicious, so I'm sure I'll try it that way sometime in the future.

But when I made the cake, I had a ton of blueberries lying around and no raspberry jam! I actually consume a pretty inhuman amount of raspberry jam daily, so naturally my jar was nearing empty on cake baking day... So, out came the blueberries. And because there were blueberries, I really just couldn't resist adding cinnamon.

Well, it doesn't look much like any of the refined, beautiful party cakes that the other Daring Bakers made... First, I didn't exactly have a 'party' to bake for, so I halved the recipe. Hence, 2 layers instead of 4. Also, I kind of ran out of buttercream (next time I'll make a double recipe) halfway through. But, when you have as much blueberry amazingness as I did, who needs frosting on top of a cake? Not me. I just poured and poured and poured with the blueberries. Yum.

Apart from not having enough buttercream, I was pretty impressed with this recipe - the cake was nice and fluffy and was good at soaking up blueberry juice (hehe), and the buttercream was divine (lemony and cinnamon-y oh my!). This turned out to be a nice breakfast cake, actually... yeah, I had some for breakfast 3 mornings in a row. So, next time I have an actual party to bake for, I'm excited to try the unadulterated recipe and see how it turns out! It was a wonderful challenge from a wonderful hostess, Morven! Check out her blog for the recipe!

Daring Bakers - French Bread!

I am now officially a Daring Baker!  Go me!  And I am so happy to be one right now because this month's challenge was truly wonderful.  It was hosted by Mary (Breadchick!) of The Sour Dough and Sara of I Like to Cook, and they had us bake (daringly!) Julia Child's French Bread!

When I saw that this was to be my first challenge, I admit that I was freaking intimidated.  I had never made any kind of bread or baked anything with yeast before!  Oh my...  what to do?  But I was determined to conquer the bread, and I decided to get in on the chat that Breadchick was hosting where I could make my bread with the company and support of a few other Daring Bakers.  This proved to be a good idea when at around 7:30 in the morning I was frantically typing something like, "Oh no!!  I just realized my yeast is instant!!  Aaaahhhhh!!!"  to which the wonderful Breadchick responded with a big "Don't worry," which is exactly what I needed to hear in my panicky and half-asleep state.  

So I got my yeast working, my bread rising, and enjoyed my yeasty smelling apartment while chatting with the other bakers.  It was way fun, and a happy way to spend the day!  

Luckily, I had no other problems until it came time to unmold my batards after their third rise.  As you can tell from the picture above, one of my batards completely deflated in the unmolding stage.  But I learned from this and was more gentle when handling the other two.  I made three, but only two are pictured because my roommate and I ate a whole batard before I could take the pictures!  Ahhh we were too hungry.

Even though my bread wasn't perfect (and one batard was pretty flat), my roommate and I enjoyed it immensely.  Yeah... we pretty much ate it all in one night... 

And this is how we ate it, because it has always been my favorite way to eat French Bread.  We sliced the bread into thin slices, buttered them lightly, and toasted them in a pan.

Then I made some hot chocolate (with the chocolate you saw in the first picture that was posing with the bread), and we dipped the toasted bread in the chocolate.  We ate this for dinner on Sunday night, but it really makes an awesome breakfast, if you can wait until morning!

I am so glad that this was my first Daring Bakers challenge, because I think it really forced me to experience what the group is all about.  While there are many things I have never tried to bake before, bread has always been kind of the big thing that I just didn't do.  I don't really know why, but I've just never felt compelled to bake bread before.  This probably would have continued for a pretty long time had it not been for this challenge.  

So, Mary and Sara, thank you so much for this challenge; I can honestly say that I have grown as a baker because of it, and that's awesome!  Oh and even more thanks to Mary for hosting the chat on Sunday; it was so helpful and I had fun chat-baking!  =)

If you want to make this bread, check out the recipe here.  It's long, but definitely worth it!

Also, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see what all those other bakers made!