Wow A year already!

Wow, so I have been MIA. for sometime now! Anyway I hope to get back into the swing of things soon.

Okay, Sorry I have been away for some time but I am trying to get my bakery off the ground and as a result was unable to do my Daring Bakers Challenges until this month.
So here goes, we did Croquembouche which was super easy except for the caramel which always gives me trouble.

Ingredients:
For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla

Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.

Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.

Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.

Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring ¼ cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.

For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.



Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.

Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.



Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny.
As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.
It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:
Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.





Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top. Unfortunately for me my batter was a bit soft but it came out in the end.

Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).



Baking:
Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.

Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool.



Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.

Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.

Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.

Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.

Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place – see video #4 below).

When you have finished the design of your piece montée, you may drizzle with remaining glaze or use ribbons, sugar cookie cut-outs, almonds, flowers, etc. to decorate. Have fun and enjoy! Bon appétit!

Additional Information: Here are some videos you may want to take a look at before you get started on your piece montée.

1) Martha Stewart Assembles a Croquembouche:
http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/marthas-famous-croquembouche

2) Assembling croquembouche using the interior of a cylinder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-UgMxe0Y4
3) Asembling Free-standing Croquembouche with Chocolate Glaze:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrIanD5pi9E&feature=related

4) Assembling a Croquembouche with Toothpicks and Cone:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIGaidsM-NI&feature=related

See this google images search of Croquembouche for inspiration:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=croquembouche&btnG=Sea...

Here’s a link to a dairy-free pate a choux and crème patisserie recipe:
http://dairyfreecooking.about.com/od/dessertsbeverages/r/creampuffs.htm


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Homemade Marshmallows One

The smell and sight of marshmallows sends me crazy. It is probably the only sweet out there that I can honestly say that I cannot resist. I LOVE marshmallows. There is something about the way they look and feel and smell that just says "Katrina COME PICK ME UP!! LIKE RIGHT NOW!!" and I always do what the bag says. I will not leave those tube looking balls of sugar and gelatin alone.
Whoa, now that I have that off my chest, I can now start my blog. I decided it was time to make them myself. Now, there are two types, the one with egg whites and the one without. This recipe is without, I decided to start easy for the first batch.

And please forgive me with the pictures, I am still trying to figure out how to work picasa3. Once I do, I will post the better pics!

 

 

 

Items Needed
Casserole dish or pan
Sieve
Candy thermometer
Stand mixer with whisk Attachment
Rubber Spatula
Confectioners sugar
Cornstarch
Saucepan
Parchment or Wax paper

Ingredients
2 pack gelatin
6 tbsp water

1 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Prepare pan ( I used a 11" x 7" x 1.5" casserole dish). Grease pan with cooking spray or oil or shortening, really doesn't matter. Place parchment onto greased pan.
Dust liberally with confectioners sugar.
Place gelatin in mixer bowl. Add water and leave.
Place sugar, light corn syrup and water in a saucepan and cook over high heat until it reaches 240 F.
Pour hot sugar syrup into gelatin mixture and add 1/4 tsp salt.
Mix for 6 - 12 minutes or until mixture has doubled in size and is very thick.
Add vanilla extract and mix then pour into pan dusted with confectioners sugar.
Let sit overnight.
Cut into desired shape and dust with equal parts cornstarch and confectioners sugar.

Also this recipe was taken from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRjgJ_gUZHY&feature=related.

The video name is How To Make: Home-Made Marshmallows by dfagerstorm dated December 18 2007 on youtube.com

Enjoy!

Nanaimo Bars - A Tribute To Canada

January Daring Bakers Challenge

Okay so this is my second post, which is bad since my first was in November but anyway, my Daring Bakers Challenge wasn't bad, it was quite easy actually. Had alot of fun doing this and it feels good to start out the year with a fun challenge.

So to the Daring Bakers, i really created this blog to post my challenges but you never know how it may come along in the future.

Now for the pics of my challenge.


Okay so i waited too late to do the challenge and it was late in the evening, so my lighting was not that great.




Not bad for someone that knows absolutely nothing about photography. Here is the recipe. Unfortunately I did not realize that I had to photograph each step, so I will definitely do that for next challenge.

For Gluten-Free Graham Wafers
1 cup (138 g) (4.9 ounces) sweet rice flour (also known as glutinous rice flour)
3/4 cup (100 g) (3.5 ounces) Tapioca Starch/Flour
1/2 cup (65 g) (2.3 ounces) Sorghum Flour
1 cup (200 g) (7.1 ounces) Dark Brown Sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon (5 g) Baking soda
3/4 teaspoon (4 g) Kosher Salt
7 tablespoons (100 g) (3 ½ ounces) Unsalted Butter (Cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen)
1/3 cup (80 mL) Honey, Mild-flavoured such as clover.
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Whole Milk
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Pure Vanilla Extract

For Nanaimo Bars — Bottom Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup (50 g) (1.8 ounces) Granulated Sugar
5 tablespoons (75 mL) Unsweetened Cocoa
1 Large Egg, Beaten
1 1/4 cups (300 mL) (160 g) (5.6 ounces) Gluten Free Graham Wafer Crumbs (See previous recipe)
1/2 cup (55 g) (1.9 ounces) Almonds (Any type, Finely chopped)
1 cup (130 g) (4.5 ounces) Coconut (Shredded, sweetened or unsweetened)

For Nanaimo Bars — Middle Layer
1/2 cup (115 g) (4 ounces) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons (40 mL) Heavy Cream
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Vanilla Custard Powder (Such as Bird’s. Vanilla pudding mix may be substituted.)
2 cups (254 g) (8.9 ounces) Icing Sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Nanaimo Bars — Top Layer
4 ounces (115 g) Semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons (28 g) (1 ounce) Unsalted Butter
Directions:
1. For bottom Layer: Melt unsalted butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8 by 8 inch pan.
2. For Middle Layer: Cream butter, cream, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light in colour. Spread over bottom layer.
3. For Top Layer: Melt chocolate and unsalted butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer and chill.

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Additional Information:

These bars freeze very well, so don’t be afraid to pop some into the freezer.

The graham wafers may be kept in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Mine lasted about that long.

If making the graham crackers with wheat, replace the gluten-free flours (tapioca starch, sweet rice flour, and sorghum flour) with 2 ½ cups plus 2 tbsp of all-purpose wheat flour, or wheat pastry flour. Watch the wheat-based graham wafers very closely in the oven, as they bake faster than the gluten-free ones, sometimes only 12 minutes.

For the Nanaimo Bars, if making with wheat, replace the gluten-free graham wafer crumbs with equal parts wheat graham wafer crumbs!

Video on making Nanaimo bars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5aqa6R1jIM&feature=fvsr

City of Nanaimo: http://www.nanaimo.ca/EN/index.html

First Blog

Well this is my first time blogging. I have to get a feeling of it and then go from there.