Daring Bakers on a "diet"

A pot of coffee and a daring baker challenge. My ideal day off

Yeasted delicacies are showing up on blogs everywhere, which can only mean the daring bakers are at it again with Tanna hosting this month's challenge. After October's bostini cream pie, which came in at a whopping 93 grams of fat and almost 1200 calories PER SERVING (thanks again Julius, I can't say that I really wanted to know about that. Sometimes, ignorance really is bliss), myself and several other db's had our fingers crossed for something savory, and perhaps something we could eat a serving of without having to go buy new jeans. Tanna valiantly answered the call with Tender Potato Bread. Those who are carb conscience are rolling their eyes right now because I just said "potato" and "bread." Sorry...it's not my stupid diet. I for one, was ecstatic. Tanna was giving us creative freedom with this. She provided the recipe for the dough, advised that we make a loaf with half of it, and the rest should be used as a canvas to "unleash our inner daring baker." We were allowed to do whatever we wanted with it, so long as it wasn't sweet. Another rule: the dough had to be kneaded by hand. No mixers allowed.

As the db's started making this challenge and posting their results on our private blog, the overwhelming majority warned that this was a really sticky dough.
I consider myself to be pretty comfortable with bread making. I am by no means an expert, but running the wholesale bakery forced me to become familiar with it. Cinnamon rolls and hot cross buns were two of my biggest sellers, and I was also asked to make the ciabatta for the dinner theatre that I shared the kitchen with. Ciabatta is one of the stickiest, most difficult to work with breads out there, which is why it is always in that flat rectangular blob shape. I told myself that If I can handle ciabatta, I can handle this. Here's the thing though: I made the ciabatta in an enormous 60 quart mixer, and both the rising and forming was done on a big wooden bench. I'll admit it- the idea of kneading the sticky potato bread on my tiny formica counter top had me nervous. If anything the clean up that would be required was not something I was looking forward to. But, that is the whole idea of these challenges. Step outside your comfort zone. To me, artisan style bread making is not a big deal. Doing it at home without my mixer? SCARY.





Luckily, Tanna's recipe was really straight forward- and yes, the dough was sticky at first. But once you start kneading, it becomes the most fun thing to play with EVER. Sorry if I am grossing anyone out here, but the texture of the dough can only be described as old lady arm flab. It reminded me of going to visit my great aunt Charlotte and giving her a hug. The dough picks up just enough flour to hold together, but remains very soft and "blubbery."
I have kneaded dough by hand before, but it was not quite as slack as this one. Stiffer dough means your arms tire out quickly. I could have kneaded this dough all day. I forgot how much more satisfying it is to actually feel it come together.

One third of my finished dough became a rustic free form loaf, which I baked right on my pizza stone. The crust was crisp and the inside was tender and fluffy. It was delicious the next day as garlic toast for soup.

The rest became something that I usually make with plain buttermilk dough: cheddar ham rolls with sage. The dough is rolled out into a rectangle as if you were making cinnamon rolls. Sprinkle with shredded cheddar and chopped sage. Lay out slices of good quality deli ham, then sprinkle with more cheese and sage. Roll it up and slice off medallions. Bake them just like you would a cinnamon roll. We had them for dinner with a salad. How often does a daring baker challenge become two perfectly well rounded dinners? Um, NEVER. Thank you Tanna. This was a great choice after last months heart attack cream pie. If you would like the recipe for Tender Potato Brad, Tanna has it posted on her blog. To see all of the other amazing creations that resulted from this dough, head over to our blogroll. I know that is where I'll be for the next 3 weeks, as there are (last I checked, I'm sure there's more by now) now about 300 daring bakers across the globe!! Thats alotta dough!

East Meets West: The Daring Bakers are at it again...

And this time, I'm playing too!


Bostini Cream Pie

It's official! One of the many reasons why I started this little food blog was to get in on the action with the Daring Bakers. This is a rapidly growing community of baking enthusiasts who meet up via the blogospere to partake in a monthly baking challenge. Created in November of 2006 by Ivonne of Cream Puffs In Venice, and Lis of La Mia Cucina, these guys and gals have tackled everything from Strawberry Mirror Cake (involving components such as Bavarian cream, sponge cake, and gelatin) to the doozy of them all: Gateau St. Honore. Also known as "The Patron Saint of Bakers", this dessert in his honor involves puff dough, pate a choux, pastry cream, and caramel sugar work to boot. All of which are some of the most difficult skills to master. Especially from the home kitchen. I've watched in awe from the sidelines, amazed that the majority these talented people don't do this for a living. Last month, after drooling over the milk chocolate caramel tart they conquered, I knew I wanted to play.

I waited all month in anticipation of what our October challenge would be. The ants can now leave my pants. This month's event, hosted by Mary at Alpineberry, is a Boston classic, updated by the San Fransisco Restaurant scene. "Bostini Cream Pie" is a similar idea to the Boston Cream Pie, but sexed up a little. Rather than the standard issue vanilla sponge cake, filled with standard issue vanilla pastry cream, and finished with ganache; the bostini version is an individual dessert of orange chiffon cake nesting atop a layer of vanilla bean custard. Each portion is glazed a la minute with warm bittersweet chocolate. I knew right off the bat that this dessert and I would get along famously. Chocolate and orange is such a heavenly combination, and I love a good eggy custard.



The actual recipe required that we first make the custard and pour it into ramekins. We were then supposed to bake the chiffon cake in ramekins that were the same size as our custard cups. This way we would have an individual cake to unmold and place inside the ramekin of custard, then pour chocolate over it. It was meant to be served inside the ramekin. Confused yet? This seemed like a very silly way to go about putting this dessert together. For one thing, I don't have the 16 ramekins required for this recipe sitting in my cupboard. I was convinced the procedure could be tweaked and I was right. The custard is basically a pastry cream, which will hold up on it's own if it's properly cooked. And why not just bake the chiffon cake in a sheet pan and use cookie cutters to punch out the desired size? This was a recipe from a very well reputed San Fransisco restaurant, but sometimes the way things are done in professional kitchens are not prudent for the home.

Armed with ring molds, parchment paper strips, and refrigerator space, I went about making the custard. The recipe for this is pretty straight forward. I ladled the cooked pastry cream into the parchment lined ring molds and refrigerated them overnight. The chiffon cake was also easy to put together, and delicious! Once the cake was cooled, I cut out adequately sized rounds and placed them over the chilled pastry cream. Once the glaze was cooked (no problems there either), it was time to unmold. I slipped off the ring, peeled away the parchment and poured the warm chocolate over the whole thing (side note: the sight of warm chocolate cascading down a piece of cake is the hottest thing ever. It kind of turns me on).

The verdict? Pretty darn good. The custard itself was just too rich for me. I'm used to pastry cream made with all milk. This was mostly cream. A few bites were all the hubby and I could get through with out feeling sick. The chiffon was my favorite. It has lots of orange juice and zest, adding tons of flavor to a normally somewhat dull cake. And the chocolate? You just can't go wrong with good bittersweet chocolate (I used Scharffenberger- a San Fransisco treat) and butter. It was as good as it sounds. I would make this again, but for the sake of my ever growing bum, I would make an all milk pastry cream. Other daring bakers have substituted the orange in the cake for things like coconut milk and raspberry puree, which also sound delicious. speaking of other daring bakers, check out their versions of the bostini, you will be impressed, I promise...these people have chops!


For the recipe for Bostini Cream Pie, head over to Mary's blog