Daring Bakers Challenge - Caramel Cake

Recipe: Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting courtesy of Shuna Fish Lydon (http://eggbeater.typepad.com/), as published on Bay Area Bites (http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/).

Hosted By: Dolores (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/) and co-hostedAlex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/), Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/) and Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go (http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/).

This challenge sounded great to me. Not to difficult and something I wouldn’t normally try. I started about 3:30 PM on a Sunday afternoon and I finished the caramel syrup, cake (cupcakes), frosting and the optional caramels by 7 PM. Not too bad in my opinion.

The caramel syrup directions were a little lacking in my opinion, I am more exact than just a particular color, and I am not sure that I ever got this right. It smelled like molasses to me. I started working on the cake and the frosting next. I am not a huge fan of clarified/browned butter; the smell is just not appetizing to me so I wasn’t too thrilled with how my kitchen started to smell as I browned the butter. The cake went together quickly as I expected and I was able to make 18 cupcakes from this recipe. I probably should have gone with 14 for a more generous serving but I am not too concerned with the size. The cupcakes took about 26 minutes to bake.

Next I started the caramels, these took way longer than I expected, from before 5 until 7. I used corn syrup in place of the golden syrup because I wasn’t able to find the golden syrup. I have seen recipes for caramels using this so I wasn’t to concerned. I had a difficult time determining the difference between energetically and violently. Nevertheless, they sure looked yummy. Waiting for them to cool was definitely difficult. While the caramels were cooking, I finished the frosting. I wouldn’t say I am a huge fan but I think it’s due to my predisposed dislike of browned butter. The cupcakes frosted quickly and were ok. I put them in the freezer for future need.

Pictures tomorrow since I can't find the cord for my camera. I can read them at work tomorrow.

Daring Bakers Challenge - Pizza Dough

Ah, pizza dough a seemingly easy project, I've gotten pretty good at making challah so I didn't figure this would be an issue. Was I wrong, for a challenge I decided to use the stand mixer and dough hook attachment. This was seriously, the stickiest dough I have ever worked with, I added quite a bit of extra flour but it didn't get much better. I was interested in the cold rise as I have heard of using it with almost any bread dough to spread out the time dedicated to it. I have no idea what I did wrong (although in every bread recipie I make, I always use at least one extra cup of flour. Maye I should have gone with my instinct and added more flour.

After putting the dough together in a matter of about 20 minutes, I stuck two pieces in the fridge to try the following day. I didn't see much rising going on but it looked okay to me when I pulled it out to bring it to room temperature. The dough was still extremely sticky, I couldn't work with it at all. I think for the next go around I would use a lot more flour. I hadn't used my stone in a while so it was nice to bring that out and give it a whirl, it worked well and I might use the method again although not in the summer, 45 minutes at 500 degrees made my condo pretty warm.

Pizza went in with some difficulty, even the generous amount of cornmeal didn't help the stickiness and the transfer was not pretty, still the pizza cooked up and tasted ok, I can't say that there was much flavor in the dough. We shall see how the dough that's in the freezer works. If that works well, I might work on perfecting this recipe as it was pretty quick and tasty.

No pictures this month, I can't seem to find my camera right now. Looking forward to next month.

Sewlicious

I have been on a crafy kick this weekend, starting with Friday night I have been sewing a lot. It started when I decided to learn how to quilt earlier this year. I have some avid quilter friends at work and they spent some time teaching me the basics. I joined a Block of the Month "club" with them back in February and we just finished our seventh block. Now I am able to work the block each month on my own. Unfortunately, I make a mistake with it every month but I am learning from each mistake. Hopefully, next year will be better.

That was my Friday night as BOM (Block Of the Month) is on the second Saturday and you have to bring your completed block with you, I had to get down to business and finish the block. Mistake made, I moved on and finished the block.

Saturday, I got up and drove to the other side of the city to meet up with the quilters and to learn about the next block. We also get the spiel of what's new at the store, $42 later I have some more projects to work on. Not that I don't have plenty available at home. I spent 2.5 hours working on one of the projects which the instructions say will take 17 minutes, 30 minutes max the first time. I don't think my second, third or fourth projects will go down in 30 minutes.... I am learning though.

Today, it was another project I have been needing to start on for a while. The quilters at the office are making 22 stockings for a nursing home the Christmas season. I am responsible for four of them and I hadn't started. Today, I finally started and it wasn't as bad as I though it would be. Three more tops and then the finishing part can begin. So long as I finish by November I am all set.

Fun times, fun times.

Daring Bakers Challenge - Chocolate Eclairs

I missed the July challenge due to the removal of my wisdom teeth, I lost an entire weekend to that and with the holiday and traveling July flew past me. Then August came and I checked the challenge. Yummy, chocolate and bread two great things together. I began the quest on Sunday, August 10, 2008, approximate outside temperature 86 degrees, much cooler than it has been lately. Time 5 PM, phone call from my Mom and start time got delayed for an hour.

Step 1: Choux PastryI am a huge fan of cooking shows and have seen this made on tv and have thought, wow that doesn’t seem too hard. I learned that it actually isn’t that hard. One concern I had after the stove part of the pastry making was the amount of butter left in the pan. See picture, I wasn’t expecting that.
Adding the eggs was definitely not attractive at all, thankfully as promised in the recipe that 3rd egg did make it all come together. The Choux came together quickly. I put it in my pastry bag and quickly filled two cookies sheets, not the best planning on my part. I quickly rinsed off my Silpat and finished the remaining 9 (of 24 total Eclairs). Interesting note, the shells on the Silpat came out larger than the ones on the cookie sheets. These also were on the bottom of the oven for the first 12 minutes of baking, not sure if it was the Silpat, the water, or the temperature that made that happen.

Step 3: Chocolate Glaze This came together quickly again. I finished stirring in the Chocolate Sauce at 7:42 PM. Not bad for and hour and thirty-two minutes. I took a quick break to start my writing and started the last step at 8:00 PM.


Step 4: Chocolate Pastry Cream This step took the longest, and hour from start to finish. I was getting tired of standing on my tiled kitchen floor by this point. The pastry cream came together but whisking by hand got hot and was tiring. I did scramble some eggs during the tempering process but not much maybe a teaspoon when I strained it (purely eyeballing it). Considering I had the ac set at 76 degrees, it sure didn’t feel cool in the kitchen.



9:50 PM first éclair has been eaten, not by me but by the roomie. Dishes are in the dishwasher and I am 80% cleaned up.

I was honestly too tired and sick of the éclairs by this point, I haven’t tried them yet. Maybe at work, the plan is for me to take some and the roomie to take some. I have the pastry cream in baggies so the end can be snipped off and the éclairs filled at work, easy-peasy.

August 31 - I never did try the eclairs but they went over pretty well at work. Next time I will spread it out over a few days.

Wisdom Departing.... T Minus 13 Hours

Tomorrow I am taking the day off from work for the extreme excitement of having my wisdom teeth removed. Yay for iv sedation! By this time tomorrow, I should be heavily under the influence of vicodin. 3 days of sleeping in and no driving so I'm saving on gas this weekend as well. I have some movies and books from the library for entertainment. I have pre-made jello, pudding and mashed potatoes from Kroger and some yogurt as well to get me through the weekend. Think good thoughts for me tomorrow as I will be without wisdom......

All Call

I volunteer a lot. Weekly at church and then several other events throughout the year. This weekend is one of the events that I regularly volunteer with, The American Cancer Society's Relay For Life and I am asking you to help me get to my family's goal of $3,500. We need to raise less than $450 to get to the GOLD team level. Fundraising so far has consisted of asking for donations, a raffle, and selling summer flowers. Now it's your turn to help. Would you please make a donation to the event?

Relay For Life is an event honoring the warriors who have survived the battle with cancer and also an event remembering those we have lost. I participate for the following warriors: Molly, Sharon A., Liz, Bev, and Aunt Nancy. I also participate for the fallen warriors: Grandpa, Don, and Sharon G.. These are people I know and love or knew and loved. How many names can you add? Won't you take a moment to honor and remmeber them be donating to Relay For Life?

Welcome to my sidebar....

I've added a few of my daily checks. Sadly, not all of the blogs I read are updated daily. Oh, that they were.

It's a rainy Sunday night here and for that I am thankful. Another 13 feet and we will be all set in our main water supply. It was another pleasant weekend, I Relayed For Life on Friday night (it was a bit cold) and got my hair cut yesterday. Sunday was spent at church and relaxing on the couch. Next weekend will be spent in the hometown, I get to see my almost 4 year old niece perform in a dance recital and hang out with my 90 year old grandma. Hopefully, I won't freeze.