Daring to do it: Baklava

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.


The Daring Baker's monthly challenge is announced to the participants on the first of every month. This month was no exception. (Duh.) So on June 1st I see that the challenge will be to make homemade baklava, including homemade phyllo dough. Wow. That sounded kind of intense under normal circumstances. But factoring in the whole baby-is-due-in-a-week thing made it a little more intimidating. Flash forward three days. Baby is here! Yes, Baby Girl was born on the 4th, and we are so in love with her. Big Sister (previously called Little Girl, now we are going to have to play with the names!) wants to hug her, hold her, help her all the time. But with a two year old and a newborn, finding time to make multi-step desserts is a little hard. What's a mom/Daring Baker to do? Break it down and do one step at a time.

I started with the dough for the phyllo dough. I knew I could make it and put it in the fridge, so I didn't feel pressured with that step. The dough came together beautifully. I was really impressed! Into the refrigerator it went. I thought it would be there overnight. Two nights tops. Well, it had to sit a little longer until I had the chance to use it... Suffice it to say, this dough keeps well in the fridge!

Next step - rolling the dough. If you have ever used phyllo, you know that it is paper thin sheets. I never thought I would have to roll dough that thin! While time consuming, this wasn't actually as difficult as I feared it would be. True, it was a lot of rolling to get enough sheets for a pan of baklava, and yes it was kind of frustrating that the thinner the dough got the more fragile and prone to ripping it got... but the dough was satiny smooth to roll, and it was the kind of thing that gave a real sense of accomplishment! After flouring each sheet generously and layering waxed paper between each one, I again put everything into the fridge, this time for a real overnight for assembly the next day.

Traditional baklava filling consists mainly of nuts. I did not stay traditional. I started with walnuts and a few almonds, but then used graham crackers to fill out the crunchy filling. I don't know why I did this, I guess I just didn't want this to be so overwhelmingly nutty... The filling was "seasoned" with brown sugar and cinnamon, then we were just about ready to get to work. Baklava requires a lot of butter as it is assembled. I, of course, used margarine, but that seemed to work fine for me. Butter the pan. Add a sheet of phyllo. More butter. Another sheet. More butter... While not as time consuming as rolling the dough, this was a little... tedious. But I had my trusted kitchen helper with me, which always makes things more interesting! As I layered in the first round of the nut filling I decided to go with an idea I had been kicking around. I added golden raisins to each filling layer of my baklava. Again, not exactly traditional, but it just sounded good to me. Lots of layers of phyllo, butter, crunchy filling and raisins later, the baklava was ready to go into the oven.

The final element for the baklava was the syrup. Once cooked, the pastry is doused with a honey based syrup which infuses the whole thing with both moisture and flavor. Instead of using the given recipe, I used this one from Lemon, Vanilla and Honey Baklava. My amendments to the recipe were to use half brown sugar, added a vanilla bean and the grated lemon rind in addition to the juice. The biggest problem with the syrup was that the given recipe is for a 9 x 13 pan, and I made a 9 x 9 pan... There was a bit too much syrup... Oops... So my baklava was swimming a little bit.

And the finished product? Well, everyone who tried it loved it. Everyone. None of us was able to eat just one piece. While there were leftovers, they didn't last very long! Everyone was a bit doubtful when I told them about the graham crackers in the filling, but we all agreed that it tempered town the nuttiness without taking anything away from the dish.

This was a fabulous challenge. It really was Daring, making phyllo from scratch! Erica, thank you so much for giving me the chance to do this! It never would have occurred to me to make phyllo sheets. Will I do it again? Possibly, but not until my girls are older than two years and newborn! Will I make baklava again (with store-bought phyllo)? Yes, yes, yes!!

If you are interested in trying this for yourself, here is the recipe Erica provided. And if you want to be amazed, look here to see what my fellow Daring Bakers created!!

Daring to do it: Potato Salad

uI promise, there are lots of things going on here other than Daring Kitchen challenges... But time has been kind of hard to capture, and keeping up with posting has been less than easy... I hope to get back into the swing soon, but you never know... Especially because there are now two little ones in the house to play with!

This month's Daring Cook's Challenge was a little different than usual. It was, like the edible containers challenge, a contest, which is fine, I guess... I never cook or bake to win prizes, though, so I sort of ignored that aspect.

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

I love potatoes. A lot. So this was a challenge that I thought would offer endless possibilities to me. And, in some ways it did. But, as I mentioned above, things have gotten a little hectic around here, and the birth of our new Little Girl (there will be an update one of these days!) took precedence over even my favorite food, the potato.
I made two different potato salads this month. I will give brief descriptions of each and show you the pictures, but this post will be a bit briefer, as you never know when a newborn is going to need you!

Potato Salad #1: Empty the Fridge!
This was a very basic salad - boiled russet potatoes and pretty much any vegetable I could find. Only the potatoes were cooked, everything else was raw to maintain color, freshness and texture. I used: broccoli, carrots, snow peas, sugar snap peas, sweet onion and zucchini. To dress the salad I simply used balsamic vinegar, tossed in while the potatoes were still warm. As I said - pretty basic. Yummy, though. Sometimes things are best kept simple, don't you think?


Potato Salad #2: Roasted Potato Salad with Sun Dried Tomatoes

Having made a raw salad, I wanted to also make a warm, cooked one. I love roasted potatoes anyway, so this was pretty much a natural for me.
I started by roasting my potatoes with onions and garlic. To that I added any other vegetable I could think of: red pepper, green pepper, yellow squash, celery... I think that was it! I also added some cooked white beans, for flavor, texture and protein. To all of that I then added some Italian herbed sun dried tomatoes. Everything went (back) into the oven to heat through, then the whole thing was dressed with white wine vinegar and some additional Italian seasonings.

Thank you, Jami, for giving me an extra opportunity to play with one of my favorite foods! It certainly was fun to see the amazing variations which our Daring Cooks around the world came up with. I am definitely going to have to try some of those!

If you like potatoes half as much as I do, do yourself a favor and look here to see what my fellow Cooks made!

Daring to do it: Marquise on Meringue

(Sorry this post won't be as "well written" as usual... Time grew short, and Little Girl's birthday took precedence over the writing process...)

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

This was an intimidating challenge. Just looking at the recipe I was concerned... So many steps! So much time! So DAIRY!!! I know, there was a vegan alternative presented, but it just didn't seem like it would turn out "right" (at least not the way I wanted it to...). After putting it off for a long time, claiming to be looking for a time when there would be more people to eat it, Ifinally got down to business. I did spread the process out over a couple of days, which was actually really helpful.

The marquise itself consists of the chocolate base and the "actual" marquise. Neither one was particulartly hard, per se, just somewhat labor intensive. This dish is all about the texture being right, so I tried very hard to make sure that my cream whipped up well and the chocolate was smooth. In order to keep portions controlled, I chose to make my marquise (well, part of it anyway...!) in my brownie bites pan. The little squares would be easier to unmold, and would have the benefit of being smaller than I would likely cut portions for myself!
The meringue was a great recipe, unlike any I have used before. I had never disolved the sugar in the whites over heat before. It was an interesting way to make a smoother meringue, and I might have to play with that again! (It was, though, impossible to photograph, as one hand held the bowl and the other was mixing the sugar in the whites...!)

I chose to forego the nuts and caramel sauce reccomended by the hosts. As delicious as they sound (and I really do hope I find a chance to make them another time!), I didn't have it in me... The berry sauce I made was a combination of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and raspberries cooked with the juice of one orange, a bit of water, a sprinkling of sugar, a little cinnamon and a splash of vanilla. The sugared berries were exactly that - the same variety of berries, tossed with some sugar for shine.

This really was an amazing dessert. The chocolate marquise had an amazingly smooth, rich texture, and the meringue's sweetness and crunch (because I made cookies) were a great compliment to each other. I also found the tartness of the berries to be a great accompaniment, so I was pleased with the choice I had made...!

Thank you, Emma and Jenny, for introducing us to this amazing, decadent, beautiful and delicious dish! This was like going to pastry school, except without the pressure, cost and competition!!

I highly recommend that you look here to see the wonderful creations created my my fellow Daring Bakers!

Daring to do it: Gumbo

Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

Wow... Gumbo... This is a dish I never thought I would make. For one thing, it never occurred to me that there would be a vegetarian alternative for it. (Which, I know, is silly, as there is pretty much a veggie alternative for everything!). Another hindrance was that I have never had okra, and I never really thought I would have it. I had been warned of the sliminess factor enough times to feel that it was not something in which I would be interested... But here was the May challenge, and gumbo it was - okra and all. After thinking it over for a while, and seeing the interesting combinations people were coming up with, I finally decided that I would dive right in. Except for one little problem... This is a BIG recipe. It makes a lot of gumbo. Who was going to eat all of it? And this is how it came down to the wire, the last day of the challenge month, and I just made it. With enough left over to have for at least two more dinners for us, and a large container going home with a friend!

In case you don't know, gumbo is a stew which has roots in many different cultures - from Africa to Native America. There seem to be certain elements which are needed in order to make a real gumbo. (Meat or seafood, I think would normally be included as "needed," but there are others!) First is the roux. I have made "normal" roux before - butter (well, margarine) and flour cooked to thicken a white sauce. Roux for gumbo is different. This is a dark roux combining fat and flour and cooking them together for a long time until it develops a beautiful brown color and a rich flavor base for the gumbo.

The second important element for gumbo is the "Holy Trinity." No, this challenge did not make me change religious beliefs. The trinity here is the three core vegetables of the dish. I am used to the trinity being the traditional mirepoix - onions, celery and carrot. The Creole/Louisiana trinity, though, is slightly different: onion, celery and green pepper.
The third piece of the gumbo is the okra. Okra is used as both a flavor component and a thickener for the gumbo. As far as I can tell, okra is not NECESSARY for gumbo, but it is traditional, and it adds a certain quality which makes gumbo stand out. Another thickener usually used in gumbo is file (pronounced fee-lay) powder. This is an ingredient I had never heard of, and knew I would not use again, even if I make gumbo again (which I think I will!). So I omitted it.
Because I was going to be making a vegetarian gumbo, I felt pretty strongly that I should make my own vegetable stock. Without the added flavors of meat or seafood, I felt it was important to take the extra step, and also to make sure I was adding flavor wherever I could! I then chose to use as many vegetables as I could! To make up for the quantity of "stuff" in the stew which would normally be chicken, sausage or shellfish, I upped the veggie quotient, and loved it! In addition to the trinity vegetables and okra I used carrot, parsnip, zucchini, tomato and garlic. I think that chopping the vegetables was the most labor intensive part of this process! I am glad I did it the night before so it would all be ready and waiting for me! (The term mise en place really took on a new importance with this dish!) I also wanted to be sure to add some sort of protein element to my gumbo, so I used lentils and texturized vegetable protein.

Veggies ready, it was time to start cooking. First and foremost was the roux. One cup of vegetable oil was heated in my biggest pot (which, I must say, is not big enough!), then one cup of all purpose flour is added. Then whisk. And whisk. And whisk some more. Here are a few pictures of the progress from light to dark, which really was a magical transformation!

When the roux was as dark as I could get it I added my diced onions. The smell was amazing-- rich, deep, almost like wine, but in a good way! (Don't forget, I don't drink wine, don't like wine, so this was a surprising smell for me to like so much!) One by one I added in the other vegetables, giving each a good toss in the roux for coating and flavor. I also added my own seasonings, as I don't have Creole spices, nor do I even have all of the components to make my own. Each addition created a new smell sensation which was amazingly intoxicating. Apparently it could be smelled a couple of houses away, too! Last to go in were the okra and the vegetable stock, then it was time to let everything simmer away.

It was recommended to us Daring Cooks to make Louisiana rice to accompany our gumbo. I wasn't up for that challenge, so I made a Basmatti rice blend that I had in the pantry which included some vegetable flavorings of its own. Once dinner time arrived we were all ready to dig in! (Even Little Girl, who for the previous ten minutes had been walking around saying "I like gumbo!" Despite the fact that she had never had it... So cute!)

I have to say, the gumbo was absolutely worth the effort! The roux added a deeper flavor than I am used to in a soup, and the mix of vegetables was delicious! The okra did not "dissolve" the way I had thought it might, but the sliminess factor was not what I had feared - it added texture to the stew and was soft and easy to chew. With the lentils, TVP and rice this was a hearty, warming and filling dinner! The one place where I did not do as well as I would have liked was with the seasonings. I was hesitant to go too strong, not wanting Little Girl to get upset, but I think I went a bit too light. Next time I will be a bit more aggressive. We did balance this somewhat with the nontraditional (I assume) addition of cheese to our individual bowls, but I think more seasonings would go well. All of us really enjoyed the gumbo, even going back for seconds despite feeling somewhat full from firsts...!

Thank you so much, Denise, for challenging us to make this! It was a lot of fun to work with you this month. Your support and enthusiasm were helpful and appreciated!

Take a look here to see what my fellow Daring Cooks created. It really is a treat for the eyes!!

Daring to do it: Edible Containers (Sweet)

For the first time since joining the Daring Kitchen, I have had to sit out a challenge. Between craziness at home and Passover, I just didn't have the time, energy, availability and ingredients to give the challenge the attention it would have deserved. Nonetheless, here you go...

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

I did attempt to make some chocolate cups on my own, but they totally failed to keep their shape, and the warm weather ensured that they melted (ok, softened...) despite time in the freezer. I did help my sister with her chocolate cups, which turned out beautifully. Check those out on her blog.

Evelyne, thank you for hosting the challenge this month. You did inspire some beautiful creations. Please look here to see what my fellow Daring Bakers came up with! And don't forget to vote!

Daring to do it: Edible Containers (Savory)

It's that time again... But this time there is a twist! Come check out what is going in the Daring Kitchen!!

Renata of Testado, Provado & Aprovado! was our Daring Cooks’ April 2011 hostess. Renata challenged us to think “outside the plate” and create our own edible containers! Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 17th to May 16th at http://thedaringkitchen.com/!

Wow. What a fun, creative, and interesting challenge! And so open ended...! For many people, this would be great - no limitations, total freedom... For me this was incredibly daunting! As much as I love to create and twist recipes for my own purposes, I find it helpful to have some sort of parameters set (even if I choose to break through them later on!). Renata provided us with some great ideas and suggestions, but then gave us free reign to create any sort of container that sounded good to us - and any sort of filling to put inside of it! (I must say, Renata was the best host for this kind of challenge - she provided amazing support, suggestions, and encouragement throughout the month, which really allowed for the creativity to flow from my fellow Daring Cooks!) Once I got over my intimidation of doing something "wrong," I finally got going. And I actually tried my hand at three different containers! (Ok, four, but one of them was such a flop it didn't even make it to the table!)

Container number one: Rice bowls with roasted vegetables

My first thought for an edible container was rice. Doing a search for "rice bowls," though, brings up a lot of examples of conventional kitchen bowls filled with rice, vegetables and protein of some sort. Yummy, but not what I wanted. I finally found this link. It was perfect! And included pseudo-origami, so I got to exercise more of my crafty muscles! The bowls came together pretty well, and baked up nicely. They also held the veggies, which made the endeavor a success in my book!

Container number two: Bread bowls with vegetable soup

I have eaten bread bowls before, and liked them very much. Most of them that I have encountered were large rolls of crusty bread hollowed out to make room for the soup. That is what I expected to make. Then I found this recipe to make bowls from bread dough. I was intrigued enough to try it. The recipe was straightforward enough, and the resulting bread tasted great. But it was a little hard to remove from the ramekins on which they were baked. The end result was yummy, though, and I have some thoughts on what to do next time to make it work better. And I really do think there will be a next time!

Container number three: Potato cups with scrambled eggs/veggies

I love potatoes. I think I have made that pretty clear over the course of my cooking and eating life! So I had to try a potato bowl! Using a mandolin I thinly sliced potatoes and layered them in cupcake tins, sort of flower petal like. I then lined the potato cups with foil and filled the foil with my fancy "pie weights," aka dried beans and rice. Into the oven they went. The foil/weights were removed partway through the baking in an attempt to brown up more than just the outer edges. The cups looked great coming out of the oven. Getting them out of the cupcake tin, though, was another story. The cups didn't really hold their shape... They tasted great with the eggs and veggies, and I was able to almost reassemble them for the initial "presentation," but I am not sure I can call them successful containers... I have a variety of thoughts on how to produce a more cohesive potato bowl, and hopefully if I do them again it will hold together better.There are still a bunch of ideas floating around my head, some more nebulous than others...! Hopefully I will have the time, energy and guts to try some of them out at some point...!

Renata, thank you so much for being such a great hostess for this challenge! I really don't think I would have gotten as into it as I did without your energy and support. Please take a look here to see the amazing creations made by my fellow Daring Cooks. You will be blown away by the imagination and skill displayed! And please vote for your favorites!

Daring to do it: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This challenge was posted at the perfect time. I was in Florida visiting my family and was in the mood to make something special for dessert. I saw this recipe and was immediately drawn to it. I printed it up and showed it to my mother. She was intrigued, too. We made it on the first day. We then made it a second time before returning to PA. I then made it two more times, making a total of five different flavors for this one recipe! I don't think I have ever been drawn to a challenge recipe in this way. Sure, there are others that I have made a couple of times, and there are a few more which I plan to make again. But I made this one four times, with five different flavors...! All during the course of the challenge month! And I can't wait to make it again! I honestly think that the reason this is such a great recipe is that it is one which was found in a family collection. Jamie found it when going through her father's things - undated, uncredited... but SO good!
Having made bread before, I was not intimidated by the yeast dough. I was a little curious at the hosts' description of the dough as being "soft, smooth, sexy and elastic." Sexy? Bread dough? As odd as the word choice might have seemed, it was dead on. This dough was so smooth, so sexy, I loved working with it. Clearly!!
For the explanation of this recipe/the fun picture part, I'll show you the dough process from the first time, then I will just show you the variations I did, along with any changed I may have made. I was super thrilled with how easy it was to play with this recipe - different flours, varying amounts of sugar, different types of milks... All versions led to amazing cakes!
The dough starts with warmed milk and butter. For this first version I used rice milk and margarine. (That way the resulting cakes would be parve.)

Once risen, the dough is divided into two parts to make two different loaves. For this first time through I made a cinnamon and chocolate version. The dough is rolled out, then meringue is spread over it. I then sprinkled cinnamon-sugar over the meringue, then chocolate chips were generously added and the soon-to-be loaves were rolled up jelly roll style. The recipe calls for the rolled up dough to be formed into a wreath (like in the stollen challenge from a few months ago), which I did with one of the sections. For the other, though, I folded it into a loaf pan so it would be more like a babka. (If you don't know what a babka is, it is a yeasted and twisted filled cake. Love it!) The cakes rise again, and are then painted with egg wash and baked.

They came out of the over beautifully. We cut into the babka loaf that night, and were rewarded with an amazingly soft, light and chocolaty cake that was almost impossible to resist! I knew right then that I would be making this recipe again...
I just didn't know how many times!

And now for the variations:

I made a strawberries and meringue wreath with part whole wheat flour:

I made a savory spinach and cheese braid, mixing ricotta cheese in with the meringue, and filling with sauteed spinach, onion and garlic, and sprinkling with shredded cheese:
I made a chocolate peanut butter loaf version, using this recipe for peanut butter meringue and plenty of chocolate chips:
And I made a lemon meringue wreath version, adding lemon zest to the meringue and filling the cake with lemon curd:Thank you so much Jamie and Ria for hosting such an amazing challenge. And thank you, Jamie for sharing this recipe, which could have been a family secret, but you let us in. This has truly been one of the best challenges in in the year since I became a member.

I highly recommend that you look here to see the amazing creations made by my fellow Daring Bakers. But be sure you have a napkin ready to wipe up the drool!!