Dropout

I've decided to be a Daring Bakers drop out. Oh gasp! While I enjoyed the challenges I tackled, I just do not have time to devote nowadays, and it seems like we always have an alternate thing we would rather do with our time in the kitchen (we is Bunny and me). So there you go. It was fun, but we'll just do our own thing.

This weekend is Paul's birthday, and since he doesn't want cake, we have our own challenge. I asked him what he'd like, expecting him to say creme brullee, but he said strawberries and whipped cream. As Bunny said, "How do you put a candle in that?"

Indeed! I have been thinking, and I believe I have a workable idea, but will save that for when we make it, as I am sure we'll post the photos to go with it this weekend or Monday at the latest!

Daring Bakers, November 2008: Caramel Cake with Caramel Frosting

This month we're back into CandyLand with Shuna Fish Lyndon's recipe,
which may be found at
http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/2006/12/24/caramel-cake-the-recipe/ The "Hosts" for the month are Dolores (http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/) with co-hosts Alex (Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/), Jenny of Foray into Food (http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/), with Natalie of Gluten-a-Go-Go (http://glutenagogo.blogspot.com/) to assist us in alternative baking matters.

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This was my first time making caramel from scratch! I knew of it, that heat, sugar and water in the right amounts for the correct time would result in caramel... but Bunny was very skeptical. Here it doesn't look like much.


But, just one or two minutes more, and it was almost too dark! I had hoped my intrepid photographer would get the 'volcanic' moment when I added a cup of water to the caramel to 'stop' it from cooking. But the spattering scared her off and this was as good as we got.


Then Bunny got her turn stirring and stirring. She's excellent at stirring. :)


She does become bored of it quickly, though. Notice the pained expression! Ha!


So she got to sift the flour and baking powder together as we prepared to make the cake. I like this photo, how it looks all 'active', but I also wish I'd cleaned the lens. ;)


The batter was very fluffy -- deceptively so. The cake itself was dense and moist, though if I'd had to guess I'd have said it'd be like a foam cake by the batter.


All done, ready to be eaten at the Pie Party the night before Thanksgiving. Only I would bring cake to a pie party. Oh well, I never did do much the 'normal way' now did I?

Daring Bakers, Oct 2008: The Sabotaged One

Long story short: this month's challenge was tossed pizza. It could be topped any old way one pleased. We had pizza here last weekend, and it was a lot of fun, setting up a whole toppings bar and allowing Bun and her friend to choose whatsoever their heart desired and the crust was really pretty good! Carter even made on really effed up looking 'za that he refused to eat--I chalked it up as a craft on his part and let him have some plain cheese I made 'just in case'. You can imagine it all in your head, right? The day before, making dough, and allowing it to rest for a day, then day two, rising and working, and deciding I suck at tossing dough, but rock at working it in the air on my knuckles? Close your eyes and imagine...

Long story a little better explained. No photos. Bad son.

"Lookit Mama! I taking pictures! I strong."
He erasing camera's memory.
If I'd had my camera in my hand, you could see how very, very proud of himself he was. He always says he's strong when he's up to no good.

Thankfully it was only one day's worth of photos, and maybe some park stuff. We'll live to make pizza another day here. I had thought maybe I'd make a second batch to take photos again, but with inlaws arriving and my son's birthday looming, I think the only pizza we'll be having anytime soon will be made by someone else and come in a box. *sigh*

For a listing of people who have far better documentation of their efforts, check out

The Daring Bakers' Blogroll

Daring Bakers Challenge 09-08

Phew! Got it done today. This month was Lavash Crackers and Toppings.
I have never made crackers before so this sounded like it would be fun and challenging.


My trusty sous chef, Bunny, was on hand to help out in any way I would let her. :) Here she stirs the dry ingredients together.


Needs a little more water, and then...


Knead, knead, knead! Once I felt it was not very sticky anymore, I let Bunny take over and learn the push-pull-turn rhythm. By the way, I have to say, I think, for a 6 yr old, she did well taking instruction, and ALSO taking these photos. :)



Time to rise.


90 mins later...

RISEN! Hallelujah. Sorry, bad joke...


Rolled and cut, and sprinkled with sesame seeds in one batch, and with pumpkin pie spice and sugar crystals in the other batch.

I rolled the sesame batch SUPER thin, to see if I could not get a really crisp cracker.

You can see through it in places, it's so thin.

UNFORTUNATELY... the oven must be running hot. Because after 10 mins (and the baking time states, 15-20 mins)... I got some REALLY brown to the point you could call it burnt crackers. Boo. I made a simple hummus, which was good, but, well, you can see:

Not what I had hoped for.

The sweet batch came out much better, though. And they're good, too.

And, they're also very crisp.


In fact, I would say they're a very good substitute for biter biscuits, and not nearly as messy.
Bottom Line: I would not bother to make these again. It was a fun diversion, and nice to do with Bunny, but all in all, crackers are cheap, and there are a lot of nice crackers to be had out there.

To see a listing of all the many, many, MANY people out there who participated in this month's challenge, see The Daring Bakers' Blogroll.

P.S. For a recipe I really was THRILLED with, see my post on the blog I share with my sister. That one I will make many a time again--pasta carbonara. Mmmmmmmmm.

Eclairs -- Daring Bakers, 08-08

The August Daring Bakers Challenge was Eclairs... Mmmmm. Like the donut's regal aunt.

The recipe chosen for us to do this month (my first!) is from Chocolate Desserts By Pierre Hermé. A lot of elements to put together on a Sunday morning when your baby is teething and in a back carrier much of the time, but my faithful sous chef Bunny was there to help make sure no ingredient was forgotten, no eclair undipped, and no spoon unlicked.


The dough came together wonderfully! It was very dry here today, so it actually took an extra yolk for it to seem the right consistency, but thankfully I'd made choux before and knew what to look for. I tried to get a nice photo of my hand cracking an egg into this, but I am a sucky left handed photographer. :)


Fresh from the oven. So light they felt weightless.


Sous chef Bunny stirs the chocolate sauce.


And dips the eclairs. Oh la la! You shoulda seen her shirt after she was done, BTW. Not a good call to let her wear white this morning. Not that I thought about it until I was telling her to change and let me have it to douse with a gallon or three of Spray & Wash.


Gooey on my hands... Mmmmmmmmm. These are good! This one was from the second batch in the oven. I got bored of straight eclairs and made some "s" shapes as well as some cream puffs. So sue me.


One last peek. Blurry again, because of my passenger on my back.



At least I tell myself it was him. I took this later, and you can see that he's very active lately. But it's also a little blurry where it should be sharp. Sooooo, I think my lens is greasy.

Anyway, that's my first DB challenge. Whee!
Other participants listed at The Daring Bakers BlogRoll