Petit Fours & Daring Bakers

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I may have developed a grudge against ice cream.

And I don’t think the ice cream likes me all too much either…

Seriously.

Last time I worked with ice cream it didn’t work out all too well.

And this time making these petit fours? It was messy. Like with ice cream melting all over the place. Why can it not stay nice and solid for like five minutes or something? Arg.

But other than that i rather enjoyed(especially the brown butter!!!) this challenge, and loved how it came out all little and cute(although not exactly perfect).

I’m not sure if can see the coffee ice cream layer because it’s practically the same color as the brown butter pound cake i used and it’s not all that thick.

Oh, and let me tell you about the brown butter. It is magical stuff. Seriously. I love the stuff, mostly because of the smell. Yes the smell…all warm and nutty and creamy and amazing. Oh and by the way for those of you who don’t know what brown butter is, its just simply butter cooked until it turns a dark honey color. I was ranting about browned butter to my father, and he said: “There is no such thing as brown butter.” He though it was a type of butter, not simply cooked butter.

I was slightly disappointed with the brown butter pound cake though…neither the taste nor the lovely, lovely smell of the browned butter remained. And it turned out a bit dry, but I thought that was simply me because I sort of forgot about it(i was working on my summer reading essays), but when I read another bloggers post, I realized it wasn’t just me with the dryness problem…but I didn’t have an issue with that after I assembled the whole thing, because the richness of the coffee ice cream and the chocolate glaze pretty much over powered the brown butter pound cake, and the the melt-y ice cream must have been absorbed by the pound cake which made it bit more moist.

And over all, these came out delicious!

But anyway here we go with the recipe:

Coffee Ice Cream

• 1/2 Cup of milk (i used two percent)
• A pinch of salt
• 1/4 a cup and 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1  and 1/2 tspns of instant coffee
• 1 cups heavy cream
• 3 large large egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

So now we start out with the milk, the salt, the instant coffee and the sugar, in a medium sized sauce pan, and heat that until it starts to steam, and then remove it from heat and let that cool down to room temperature. Meanwhile set up an ice bath( basically a large bowl filled, partially with ice and water, with a smaller bowl on the ice water). Grab a strainer, and pour the heavy cream into the strainer over the smaller bowl of the ice bath. Then in another bowl beat the egg yolks together(lightly) and then heat up the milk in the saucepan until its warm, and slowly pour it little by little, and constantly whisking(otherwise the eggs will scramble). Once the egg yolks are warmed up pour the egg yolk and milk mixture back into the sauce pan which you had previously used and let that cook over low heat, and stir constantly with something you can scrape the bottom of the pan with. The mixture will eventually thicken to a custard which can thinly coat the back of the spatula. Go grab your strainer again and strain(if you don’t you’ll end up with weird little lumps throughout your ice cream) this mixture into the heavy cream, and stir that up and until the whole mixture is cooled down. Now mix in that one tsp. of vanilla extract.

If you have a ice cream maker: Cool it for several hours and then churn according to your manufacturers directions.

If you don’t have an ice cream maker: Simply let freeze for about 45 minutes, and then stir the mixture vigorously. Check back in a half an hour and stir vigorously again. Continue doing so until the whole mixture is completely frozen and appears to be like ice cream.

Now on to…

The Brown Butter pound Cake

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 bars and 3 tblspns of butter(or just 19 tablespoons) all sliced up

2 cups of sifted cake flour(not self rising)

1/2 tspn salt

1/2 cup of light brown sugar

1/3 cup of granulated sugar

4 large eggs

Firstly preheat your oven to 325 degrees farenheit. Then grab a skillet over medium heat. Warm it up a bit and then add the butter. Stir the butter around until the butter turns a darkened honey color or chocolate. Finally when it turns that color pour into a bowl and leave it in the freezer until it solidifies.

Now whisk together the sifted cake flour, baking powder, and the salt. In a seprate bowl beat the brown butter the light brown sugar and regular sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy(this should take about 2 minutes). Then beat in an egg at a time, and then finally add the vanilla extract and then lastly add the flour baking soda and salt mixture.

Flour and butter a 9 x 9 pan and scrape the batter out into it, and smooth the top over with a rubber spatula(or a clean hand). Bake until you are able to insert a toothpick into the center which will come out clean and the top is golden brown.

Let the pan cool down for about fifteen minutes and then flip over on a rack.

Next…

The Chocolate Glaze (make this when i say so in assembling the petit fours)

a heaped cup of semi sweet chocolate chopped finely

1 cup of heavy cream

1 and 1/2 tablespoons of agave nectar(or light corn syrup or golden syrup)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Bring the heavy cream and light corn syrup to a boil in a sauce pan over medium heat continuously stirring. Turn the heat off and add in the chocolate, and let it sit for 30 seconds to let it melt in and then stir once again to completely melt the rest of the chocolate. Finally stir in the vanilla and let it cool a little before glazing the petit fours.

Finally Assembling the petit fours.

Let the ice cream warm up a little.

line the 9×9 pan you used for baking the pound cake with plastic wrap and and spread the ice cream around evenly and freeze for a two hours.

Meanwhile using a cake leveler or a knife cut the pound cake in half, from the sides, not from the center so you end up with two large thin cake layers.

Then after the two hours, put one layer of the brown butter pound cake and top with the layer of ice cream and then top that with the last layer of pound cake.

And then freeze again. I did this over night, but several hours should do the trick.

Okay now the next step is where I had my ice cream disaster.

Make the glaze

Now take the cake and ice cream out of the freezer, and now you have to cut it up into squares approximately one and a half inches in size.

My issue: When i started to cut it it was fine. After a while when I was cutting it up the ice cream was melting and hence, it pretty much squirted out of in between the petit fours.

place all petit fours in the freezer on a tray lined with parchment paper and a good amount of space in between.

Then glaze the petit fours, taking each out of the freezer placing each petit four on a fork and pouring the glaze over. You may have to reheat the glaze a couple of time if it get really gloppy and thick. Heating it will thin it out.

Place each one in the freezer after glazing.

Finally decorate and serve!

I used white chocolate to decorate mine.

Hope you enjoy!!

~D.D.

P.S. Thank you Elissa for this awesome challenge :)

I loved it!

Tiramisu & Love

When I saw this dessert, it was love at first sight…

I still remember the first time we had met…it was a couple years back, I was eating dinner and Tiramisu showed up upon my dinner table…he was gorgeous….a dark brown hue layered with a creamy, warm white and dusted cocoa on the top…mmm…and the taste! Absolutely amazing…a sharp espresso flavor, lightly touched by a tinge of alcohol, with small but very notable ring of chocolate , and a amazing cream blanketing the whole thing….soo crazily delicious!

Of course, the next day I spent a while digging about and finding the perfect recipe, and trying it out, and it turned out quite good, and awesomely yummy. Plus it’s real easy to make :)

Here we go:

Tiramisu Italiano

adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

For the cream(the white part):

• 7 eggs yolks(I’m not sure if size of the egg makes a difference, but I use medium sized eggs)
• 1/2 a cup of sugar(refer down 3 ingredients, for a small modification)
• 1/3 a cup of sweet marsala(you may want to minimize this if you don’t like the taste of alcohol in desert too much)
• 8 ounces of room temperature mascarpone( you can also use the coffee mascarpone if you somehow dig that out and it’s actually cheaper than the regular kind)
• 1 cup of heavy cream(and possibly more) OR some pre-made whipped cream(in which case you should minimize the sugar, unless you, for some magical reason, have found sugarless whipped cream)– (I prefer using the pre-made whipped cream, it’s just easier :D)

For the ladyfingers(the brown part):

• 1 cup espresso coffee(brewed)
• 1 oz. dark chocolate OR about a heaped half a tbsp. of dark chocolate powder and some sugar.
• 1/4 a cup of rum(once again, if you do not like the taste of alcohol minimize this)
• 2 tablespoons of marsala
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 48 lady fingers

and Lastly:

• cocoa powder for dusting!

For the cream:

Okay, so first, in bowl(check the bottom to see if it’s heat proof) over a pot of simmering water combine the egg yolks and the sugar. When they are successfully creamed together, add in the marsala, and then whisk(or use an hand mixer) the mixture until it starts to gain volume. Then set the whisk/hand mixer aside, take the bowl off stove and then add in the mascarpone and mix it in with a spoon(it’s easier with a spoon) until it’s successfully mixed in.

Now for those who are using pre-made whipped cream:

Take a gigantic spoon of the whipped cream, and using a whisk(or a hand mixer with the whisk attachment) mix the whipped cream in. Continue adding spoons of the whipped cream until the mixture appears to be capable of holding it’s shape.Note: every now and then, just pop the mixture in the freezer or refrigerator, because the cold helps the mixture to get thicker.

For those who are making whipped cream from scratch:

Grab a whisk(or hand blender or hand mixer), a bowl(make sure you pre-chill this by putting it in the freezer) and the (chilled)heavy cream.

• If you use a hand blender or mixer, simply flick a switch and in five minutes you will have a nice whipped cream.
• But how ever, if you intend to whip it by hand(which is crazily hard, and I do not recommend, but it is possible, because how did people do it back in the day?), use the whisk and whip the cream really hard, and every now and then put it in the freezer for a few minutes, then take it out and whip it up again.

Then after you have your whipped cream simply whip it into the marsala/sugar/egg/mascarpone mixture and you may need more than you already have to get it to a  state where it is able to hold it’s shape for a couple of seconds.

And voila! You have the cream part of the tiramisu!

Now just stick it in the fridge and let it chill.

Now, for the lady fingers…

Lady Fingers(the brown part) Part:

Okay…

If you are you are using solid chocolate(chips, a bar,etc…), grab a small-ish sauce pan, the chocolate, the espresso, the rum, the marsala, and the vanilla. Put all the ingredients into the small sauce pan, and heat on medium until the chocolate is fully melted. Now lets call this mixture CERMV(the initials of every ingredient).

If you are using chocolate powder grab a bowl(small-ish), the chocolate, the espresso, the rum, the marsala, and lastly the vanilla. Combine all the ingredients in the bowl and go snatch your sugar. Spoon in two teaspoons of sugar into the chocolate/espresso/rum/marsala/vanilla(lets call it CERMV) mixture. Now taste it. If it tastes worthy to be thrown down the drain, add in more sugar, and taste again. Continue doing this until it tastes semi-edible(because remember that we’re dipping the ladyfingers in this then layering them with the cream which already has sugar).

Now take the all the lady fingers, and arrange them in a dish(or dishes) that is(are) capable of holding two layers of the lady fingers, and the cream also. Make sure you do this before you start dipping the lady fingers, because if you suddenly realize that the tiramisu won’t fit in the dish you are working with, it’s not fun to re-arrange soggy lady fingers.

Okay, now we dip the lady fingers into the CERMV and form the first layer of lady fingers on the bottom of your dish.

Dipping tips: if you have the harder kind(there are soft ones that are spongy and hard ones that are…hard)of lady fingers, I reccomend holding them in the CERMV, completely submerged, for exactly five seconds(w/ the Mississippi’s).  However, if you are using the softer ones, try four or three seconds. But for both types of lady fingers you want them soft enough to sag over your fingers a bit as you are dipping them. If they are under dipped, then you will have a very dry tiramisu, without a strong enough coffee flavor, which is not good. If the lady fingers are over dipped, then they’ll break up on your fingers while they are being dipped or carried. But if you’re lucky and they don’t break at all, that’s fine.

Okay so now since you’ve formed your first layer of lady fingers, cover that layer with half of the cream, and then add another layer of lady fingers(that are dipped in CERMV) and cover that with the rest of the cream.

Let it chill in the freezer for a half hour or maybe more.

And TADA! you are done :)

Another little note: when you serve the tiramisu just dust it over with a bit of chocolate powder.

Hope you enjoy :)

~D.D.

P.S. You may not want to keep the tiramisu out for too long in heat, it tend to become a little melt-y(as you can see in my pictures :D)

Coffee & Cold

I don’t know if it’s just me, but the past few days have felt at least ninety degrees to me. But every time I check the weather channel or my thermometer it tells me it’s only eighty degrees. I wonder what it’ll feel like when it is ninety degrees…that won’t be fun at all…

But any way during those days, I’ve been cooling off, with a variety of ice creams(cookies n’ cream, coffee chocolate chip<yummm!!!>, and chocolate), sorbets(mostly strawberry, mango, and chocolate), and some home-made coffee granita(one of the many types of frozen desserts out in the world). Its a fairly simple recipe, and definitely not for those who like all things fancyschmancy. I served it to my father and he turned up his nose, and said, “I don’t eat plain ice.”

I suppose you could say a granita is really similar to your average sno cone, but I prefer saying granita(a: it confuses people and is quite amusing, b: it sounds fancy).

Here’s the recipe:

Coffee Granita

adapted from Not Without Salt blog by Ashley Rodriguez

1 and 1/2 cups of brewed espresso(you could add in some cream or milk, depending on your tastes)

3 cups of water

1 cup of sugar

a pinch of salt(literally, you don’t want any more than a pinch)

Okay, so first brew your coffee, and then mix it with the sugar and salt until the sugar n’ salt dissolves completely then put in a tray, nothing too deep (9 x 13 x 2 is good), and stick it in the freezer, and in approximately an hour(or if you’re feeling particularly impatient like me go every half hour)go and check back on it. If it isn’t semi frozen check back in another half an hour, if it is semi frozen(as in it’s mostly frozen with a itty bitty bit of bit of liquid) grab a fork and start scraping, and until there’s no solid chunks, and then stick it back in the freezer for another buncha minutes until there’s no liquid(although there will be a teeny tiny bit).

Tada! It’s just that simple!

Now just scoop into a dish of choice(mine was a martini glass, ’cause I just think they’re super awesome), and eat!

Bon Apetit!

~D.D