Daring to do it: Pie

 

Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens! Cream pies, fruit pies, chocolate pies, even crack pies! There’s nothing like pie!

To say I was excited when I saw the announcement of this month's challenge would be a HUGE understatement. I love pie.  Like, really and truly love it.  And, ever since  discovered home-made crust, I make pie kind of regularly.  Rachael's challenge was really exciting to me not only for the chance to make pies, but also to learn some new ones.  Of the four recipes Rachael gave us, I had only ever made one - and it wasn't even the same recipe, just the same type of pie.  So this was going to be fun.
Now, I am kind of disappointed in myself for this month's showing.  I really wanted to make nine kinds of pie.  (If anyone knows the picture book reference to all nine kinds of pie we like best, I might have to find a way to bake a pie just for you!)  But, after one intensive week of pie baking, I didn't have the chance to make any more...  So four pies was all I managed...
First was a strawberry pie which my family has made for a long time:

I started with the cookie crust from the Crack Pie recipe Rachael provided:

I then decided to kick it up a notch:

Yup.  Chocolate.  How could that not be good?
Add the berries and the berry glaze:

Slice, eat and enjoy!

 

Next I made the chocolate caramel tart provided in the challenge. 

Start with a pastry crust, which I love making:

I also love using my tart pan...  It's the little things in life...!
After the shell is prebaked, yummy home made caramel goes in:

Then comes the chocolate mouse layer:

Bake until rich, dark and decadent:



Once again, slice and enjoy:

This pie is SO good.  I mean, it is amazing.  I have already had the request to make it again!  I did make a few recipe adjustments to make it non-dairy, but they didn't seem to alter the end product, and I will totally be keeping this recipe!

Next was a recipe I have had in my collection for a while but I hadn't tried before.  Brown Sugar Pie:

This time I used my tried and true pie crust recipe that I know by heart:

Then whip together the sugary filling:

Another pie bake, another chance to slice and enjoy!

Sweet!  This was kind of like a pecan pie without the pecans.  I really liked it!

Finally I made a double crust fruit pie: 

I again used my regular pie crust recipe, doubled.  Roll out the bottom layer, using between half and two thirds of the dough to leave enough overhang, then fill with fruit:

The fruit in this case was all I had in the house - peaches, plums, nectarines and an apple to fill it up.
I then used my handy little pie rolling 'bag" to roll out the top crust and cut out some sort of design: 

But I didn't like the way it wound up with that big hole in the middle.  So I played:

I kind of felt like a rock star - that looked so cool!
Last time for the month I got to slice and enjoy:

 

 

Pie month ROCKED.  Rachael, you have me on a pie kick again, and I can't thank you enough.  Neither can my family, who loved this challenge as much as I did!

Check out what my fellow Daring Bakers made this month, but please keep a napkin handy to wipe up the drool!

 



Surprise! Crepes

My first introduction to crepes was the yummy cheese-filled blintzes my mom used to make.  I had no idea they were called crepes, though, for the longest time.  I just knew them as the wrappers for blintzes...  Live and learn, right?
And learn, I have.  Crepes are so much more versatile than blintzes.  (Not that there is anything wrong with blintzes!  I still love them!)  There is almost nothing more decadent than a warm crepe folded around gooey Nutella...  :)
For this month's Surprise I was unsure what to do with sourdough crepes.  Of course blintzes were on my mind, but with a dairy allergic kiddo, that wasn't in the cards.  I just wasn't sure if sourdough would lend itself better to sweet or salty, especially when the recipe called for Eve to be the biggest ingredient - barely diluted, well soured starter... 
The batter was very thin.  I know it is supposed to be, but I was worried it was too thin, not having added any flour other than what Eve had going for her.

As expected, the first crepe out of the pan was not a good indicator:

Soon a rhythm was reached, though:

Stack o' crepes.  I had tasted the first, not-too-pretty crepe on its own, and I was still not sure what to think.  It was pretty sour...  What to do?

Spread with some yummy apple cinnamon preserves:

Roll it up!

Serve to two adorable little girls asking for something "special" to eat.
Success!  Big Girl, who was asking what the "strange" smell of the starter was, told me these were the best crepes she had ever eaten.  (Mind you, at 4, she has not exactly sampled a large variety of crepes, but it was still cute...!)  The sweetness really cut the sourness, and it worked really well together.  I love being Surprised by what my starter can make!!
Check out how the other crepes turned out!!

Daring to do it: Meatballs

This month was a ton of fun in the Kitchen.  It was a great example of how something basic, like the meatball, can be turned into something fun and creative!

The June Daring Cooks’ challenge sure kept us rolling – meatballs, that is! Shelley from C Mom Cook and Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to try meatballs from around the world and to create our own meatball meal celebrating a culture or cuisine of our own choice.

Oh yeah - it was also fun because my sister and I got to host it!

When we were trying to decide what our challenge would be, Auntie Twin, a.k.a. CMomCook, a.k.a. Shelley, and I kept coming back to basics.  I was hesitant about meatballs because, well, the name says it: meatballs.  What would us vegetarians do?  Then she decided to give the challenge the working title of "roundish ground stuff," and I got over my hesitation.  This was going to be fun.

If you want to read the whole post and recipes, check it out here.

For now, I will just share with you what I made in preparing for the challenge.

First were the Florentine cannellini bean and spinach balls:

These were baked first, then simmered in tomato sauce.  I think these might have been my favorite.

Next were quinoa and spinach balls:

These were pan fried, which I had never done before. 

I did make one type of actual meatball, since I was visiting my parents' home.  These are sweet and sour meatballs using a combination of beef and turkey:

Vegan tofu balls:

I used flax seed egg replacer to make these truly vegan.  This was also the first time I had ever had a meatball sub of any kind, and I really loved it!

Thank you to Shelley for all of your hard work this month. And thank you to all of the amazing Daring Cooks who participated!!  Check out what they did here!

Surprise! Brownies

Well, I missed last month's Surprise of pasta.  Or, rather, I made the pasta, ate and enjoyed the pasta, then never wrote my post.  Oops.  And I was well on my way to forgetting this month's Surprise, too, but I was reminded this morning, so was saved!  (Thank, Shell!)
This month we were encouraged to make brownies.  Yum.  I am married to a certifies chocoholic, and my girls seem to be following in his footsteps...  Don't get me wrong, I love chocolate.  But I am perfectly happy with non-chocolate.  Hubby?  If there is a choice, chocolate always wins.  Always. 
I found the recipe on the Sourdough Surprises Pinterest board and got to work.
The batter came together really easily.  I loved the way Eve looked going into the chocolaty gooeyness....

As I was putting the batter into the pan I realized that I had forgotten to add the vanilla.  Ummm...  oops?  So I added the vanilla to the pan...  It works, right?

Coming out of the oven things looked and smelled good.  I had thought the brownies would have risen more, but it looked fine.

Holy chocolate, gooey goodness!

These might just have been the best brownies I have ever made.  So yummy.  So rich, so chocolaty, so good.  I think we ate them in two days.  And that was only because I made us put them away before we finished them in one!  The sourdough tang was there, but very subtle.  It did just enough to enhance the chocolate.  So good.
So if you still thought that sourdough was only good for breads, let yourself be Surprised at the amazing things you will create with your starter!!

Daring to do it: en Croute

Another month, another fun challenge from another fun host!

Our lovely Monkey Queen of Don’t Make Me Call My Flying Monkeys, was our May Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to dive into the world of en Croute! We were encouraged to make Beef Wellington, Stuffed Mushroom en Croute and to bring our kids into the challenge by encouraging them to create their own en Croute recipes!

I love crust.  I am a bread girl, and crust falls into that category for me.  So this challenge was exciting for me.  Crust wrapped yumminess?  Yes, please!
As soon as I read the challenge and the recipes Monkey Queen gave us I remembered something I had made with my mom a year or so ago: Vegetables Wellington.  I knew that would be my contribution to the Challenge this month.  I used the recipe for puff pastry from the Mille Feuille challenge a few months back and made a yummy dinner.
The rolled out dough:

The veggies and beans, ready to fill:

Assembly - not the neatest job, but it worked:

Trying to make a pretty presentation...  trying being the operative word:

Flaky, vegetabley goodness:

Plated and ready to go:

We all loved it.  We all decided that we would love to try other things wrapped in dough.  Big Girl even said she wanted to be wrapped in dough!  While I didn't want to go quite that far, a few days later we did try something different: Veggie Burgers Wellington!
Fun little packages on a plate:

Yummy goodness inside!

Thank you so much, Monkey Queen, for bringing your flying monkeys out to play with us this month.  I loved this challenge, and I am so looking forward to wrapping lots of meals in dough in the future!!
Take a look here to see what my fellow Daring Cooks wrapped up!!

Daring to do it: Savarin

I know I have said it before, and I am pretty certain I will say it again, but I really love being a part of the Daring Kitchen.  It is so wonderful to be in a community where people want to work together and ave a good time.  Last month it was brought to the community's attention that the host for the April Daring Baker's challenge had gone MIA, and we were at risk for not having a challenge to do.  There were a bunch of suggestions offered by Bakers, and then one stepped up and offered to prepare and host a challenge with only a couple of weeks time to research, prepare and coordinate it.  Having hosted a challenge, I can tell you this is not a small undertaking!  Please, no matter who you are, stop by Natalia's blog and give her huge cyber-hugs for such an amazing job, especially in such a short amount of time!! 
Ok, now on to the regular post...!
 

This month's Daring Baker's challenge was something I had never heard of, but not something that was entirely new to me.  It was a lot of fun, a lot of work, and really yummy!
Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious cakes!

I had never heard of Savarin before, but I have used a cake-soak for a plain cake, so the idea of it wasn't too intimidating.  The cake, though, kind of was!  The savarin recipe Natalia gave us was for a very plain yeasted cake.  One with a sponge, lots of egg yolks added one at a time, various rises...  then the baking, cooling, soaking and filling!  The hardest part of getting ready to make this challenge was finding the time to do it all!  Here are all of the steps, as best as I could capture them.

The sponge:

Mixing the dough:

The egg yolks:

Trying for the elastic,thready stage:

And now for the window pane test:

First rise:

Folding and shaping:

Next rise:

Proofed and ready to bake:

Out of the oven, risen quite nicely!

Cutting off the top - er, bottom!- of the cake to make a flat surface:

Making a vanilla cake soak (from my favorite Mark Bittman cookbook):

Soaking the cake:

Glazed with a simple powdered sugar/soy milk glaze, filled with dairy-free chocolate pudding, dusted with powdered sugar:

Sliced and served:

My mother-in-law hit the nail on the head when she said this tasted a lot like a chocolate eclair.  And that is totally a good thing.  My biggest complaint was that the cake soak did not soak all the way through the cake - the top and bottom were saturated, but the middle of the cake was still rather dry.  (The plain cake was very much like a light brioche, which is yummy, but rather plain.)   Were I to have the time, I can see making this again.  It was delicious, and it is so versatile!  It is just very labor, and time, intensive, and I am not sure I would go for it again without a special occasion.  That being said, should a special occasion arise, this is an AMAZING treat!
Thank you so much, Natalia, for stepping up and teaching us about this wonderful dessert!  I an in awe of the hard work you put in, and of the generous support you offered all month long.  I can't wait to see what the rest of the Daring Bakers created!!