Coming back to the Daring Baker's challenge, I finished my challenge on the 27th of May, but could never post it, As I had made one step of this recipe before, I was comfortable doing this.

The May 2010 Daring Bakers challenging was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cup Cake , Cat challenged everyone to make a Piece Monte'e or Croquembouche based on recipes from Peter Kump's baking school in Manhanttan and Nick Malgieri.

This month's challenge was ''Piece Mont'ee, which literally means ''mounted piece''.  It is also called Croquembouche which means ''crunch in the mouth'' !!, The Piece Montee is actually a large cone like structure made of Profiteroles (Cream filled Puff Pastries, which I have seen in Super Markets dipped in chocolate), It is served like this as a dessert in weddings!!, people pick them out from the structure and enjoy it, there are loads of Videos you should definitely watch to know and how it is done.

PIECE MONTE'E OR CROQUEMBOUCHE

For the Piece Montee to mount there are three steps involved, first you have to make the Vanilla Creme pattissiere, Pate a choux and the glazing.

INGREDIENTS:
FOR THE VANILLA CREME PATTISSIERE (Half batch)
1 Cup (225ml) Whole milk
2 tbsp Corn Starch
6 tbsp (100gms) Sugar
1 Large Egg
2 Large Egg yolks
2 tbsp (30gms) Unsalted butter
1 tsp Vanilla

METHOD:
Dissolve Corn starch in 1/4 cup of milk, combine the remaining milk wit 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 coninuing whisk.
Cream thickens and come to boil, Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla
chill until ready to use.

FOR CHOCOLATE PASTRY
Dissolve 1 and 1/2 tsp instant expresso in 1 and 1/2 tsp boiling water, whisk into pastry cream wit butter and vanilla.

PATE A CHOUX
INGREDIENTS:
3/4 or 175 ml water
 6tbsp (85 gms) Unsalted butter
1/4tsp salt
1 Cup (125gms) All purpose flour
4 Large eggs
1 tbsp Sugar

METHOD:
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 stir 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 with a wooden spoon, 1 minute to cool slightly .
Add 1 egg at a time , the batter will appear loose and shiny, like a buttered mashed potato, keep adding eggs one at a time reapeating the same process, until all the eggs are incorporated.
Meanwhile keep your pastry bag ready with a round tip 1'' apart, I just piped the pastry without any tip 🙂 I think that is why my pastry was quite big!!,
Bake the choux at 425 degree F/200 degree C, until well puffed and urning lightly golden in colour about 10 minutes, Lower te tempratrue to 350 degree F/180 degree C and continue baking until well golden coloured and dry about 20 minutes more, Remove to a rack and cool.
Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.

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 Monte'e.

HARD CARAMEL GLAZE:
1 Cup (225g) sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

METHOD: 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 center begins to smoke.  Begin to stir sugar, Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber colour.  Remove from heat immediately, and use it immediately.
Assembling your Piece Montee: Lay out the 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, make a pattern stick them together and start from the bottom layer and build it upwards like a zigsaw puzzle, seeing which pieces fit together.
Once ready to assemble dip the top of each choux in the glaze and start assembling on the sheet. continue dipping and arranging the pastries in usisng the glaze t hold them together and build up.
Once done, I poured some more chocolate glaze on to of it and allowed my kids to enjoy by decorating with what ever they want.

You can take an other look at my Croquembouche..................

My Verdict: It was simply delicious so my kids declared and wanted me to make it again!!, but they did not like the caramel glaze as they found it quite sticky!!, So next time minus the caramel glaze I am going to do this again, My eldest said it was so delicious and said it tasted like the Eclairs, I had to tell her that it was the same choux pastry!! which I have used to do this, Loved it, thanks Cat for this lovely challenge!!....
c u soon...., take care......

I would also like you if you are interested in doing this check out Audax Artifex's blog for some wonderful tips and important things which you need to understand and keep an eye when you want it to turn out perfect. He is a great baker and a very creative one at that, and check out on other daring bakers for their lovely creations and feast your eyes with such creativity you will be awed to see.......

The post Piece Montee or Croquembouche - Daring Bakers challenge for the month of May 2010 appeared first on My Veg Fare.

Well, well, well this was a difficult situation I was in and few more like me who are vegetarians and vegans, as Suet is made from meat!!, Even though here they sell a vegetable suet by Atora, I had never tried it and really did not know how it works, May be someday I might give it a try!!, But then Esther, was a wonderful host who wanted all of us to participate and was she flexible, yes!!, she was very !!!, she wrote that she wanted all of us to bake I mean Steam away or Bake or however you know how to make a pudding!!, and yes here we go we all had free reins so we could just make whatever we wanted!!
If you are interested on how the suet is made check out in Esther's blog or visit the main Kitchen where loads of our Daring bakers have contributed to stuning puddings to feast your eyes!!
I just wanted it to be atleast in something realtively near so I really wanted to Steam and see how the pudding tastes and looks!!, I was so surprised that it turned out very well..., Here is my pudding recipe...
This recipe after searching so many books I found this one, which attracted me for two reasons one by the look of it and the other was it had dates in it!! The most loved dry fruit by me....!!!,This book is a collection of Desserts and doesn't have an author.., whoever found this one won my heart and of course my family and friends who enjoyed it, especially my H who said, it was simply Gorgeous and had a generous second helping !!! as it was quite sweet...
Sorry once again I have to apologise the not-too-tempting-clicks!!, But they were really too yummy!!, you all must give it a try.

CHOCOLATE, ORANGE AND DATES PUDDING

 INGREDIENTS:
100 gms Golden Caster Sugar
2-3 Seedless Oranges
200gms Unsalted butter, softened
200 gms Dark Muscovado sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 unwaxed Oranges ( I used 2 tbsp)
3 tbsp of fine-cut Orange Marmalade ( I used home-made Marmalade from my previous recipe)
3 Eggs beaten
1 tbsp Orange-Flower water (Optional)
150 gms Plain Flour (I used 100 gms Plain flour + 50 gms Quinoa Flour)
50 gms Unsweetened Cocoa powder
2 tsp of Baking Powder
150 gms ready-to-eat dates, chopped

Served 7 !!

METHOD:

First make a sugar syrup, pour 150 ml water into a small sauce pan and add the caster sugar. Cook over gentle heat until dissolved.

Slice each Orange thinly into about 6 neat slices. Submerge them in the sugar syrup. set a disc of  non-stick grease proof paper on top and simmer gently for 30-40 minutes. Lift the Oranges out with a slotted spoon and drain on a wire rack. Boil the syrup until reduced by half.

Line the base of the pudding basin with a disc of non-stick greaseproof paper. Place the best Orange slice on top of the disc, and use the rest of the slices to line the sides of the basin.

In a large bowl, cream the butter, muscovado sugar and orange zest using an elctric whisk, until light and fluffy.

Beat in the marmalade, then gradually beat in the eggs and orange-flower water, if using, mixing well between each addition. Sift the floour, cocoa and baking powder into the egg mixture and fold in.  Finally fold in the dates.

Spoon the mixture into the basin, It should come about three-quarters of the way up the sides.  Smoot the surface and cover with a disc of non-stick greaseproof paper.  Take a large sheet of aluminium foil and fold it in half.  Make a pleat in the centre.  Press the foil over the side of the basin with the pleat in the centre. Press the foil over the side of the basin, tie around the top with string and trim away any excess foil.

The pleat will open out and allow the pudding to expand during cooking.

Stand the basin on a trivet in a large, deep pan and add enoough water to come at least 5 cm up the sides. Cover with a lid and simmer gently for 2 hours, topping up the water level from time to time.

Remove the foil and disc and insert a skewer into the centre of the pudding.  If it doesn't come out clean, re-cover and steam for a little longer.  Run a knife around the sides, turn out onto a dish and brush with syrup. Serve with what ever you enjoy!!!!.

VERDICT: I just loved Steaming this pudding as I had never done this before, Every one loved it!!, I used my pressure cooker to steam this pudding, I did not have a pudding bowl, so I steamed it in a pyrex bowl!!

I served with my Home made Mascarpone cheese, which I had learnt it in previous Tiramisu (which I did not make !!, just made the cheese) Daring Baker's challenge.

Home Made Mascarpone cheese cre'me:

50 gms Mascarpone cheese

150 ml Double cream

50 gms Icing sugar

I softened the cheese, mixed it with Icing sugar and added the creame and thoroughly beat into a soft sweet cream.

Here are some more clicks of my lovely chocolatey, orangy dates pudding....

My kids were saying it just tasted like the Orange chocolates sold exclusive only in UK, which is just like the orange segments, as if you are peeling an  Orange, So if you ever come to UK, do not forget to buy these Orangy chocolates.., as I heard from lot of people that you can get it nowhere!!
Enjoy!!!

The post Chocolate, Orange and Dates pudding for Daring Baker's challenge-April 2010 appeared first on My Veg Fare.

http://slice-heaven.com/store/show/FREEGHPATTERNS
http://www.gingerbread-house-house.com/free-patters-for-gingerbread-ho..
http://www.fashion-era.com/Christmas/christmas_food_gingerbread_house_re..
http://www.celebrating-christmas.com/recipes/gingerbread-house.shtml

The post Ginger Bread House - Daring Baker's Challenge December 2009 appeared first on My Veg Fare.

FRENCH MACARONS:

Ingredients:

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)
Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)
Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)
Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.
3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).
6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.
7. Cool on a rack before filling.

The above is the original recipe from the Daring Baker's you must visit other Daring Baker's for their tips and methods of baking a good macaron.
My verdict:  I did twice, I was not happy with my achievement, I have planed to do it again, as I did not get the feet what they kept saying, I just had to put my feet up and cried my best..., I thought I must quit baking,
For the filling:  I did not try any thing, as I was quite upset, as I did not achieve the results, I used
2 tbsp of poppy seeds
4 tbsp of dessicated coconut
1/4 tsp of cardamom powder
2 tbsp of roasted pistachio
1/2 and 1/2 of butter and sugar
I roasted all the ingridients except coconut powdered them and mixed with the butter and sugar cream and filled them.
well, children said it was quite nice and have finished them, that is all I could say.

The post French Macarons - Daring Baker's challenge october 2009 appeared first on My Veg Fare.

This is with my first pastry dough !!

Hi everybody,Yes, I too have joined the Daring Bakers !!, and this is my first challenge, Oops!, it was quite a challenge for me, well anyway I and my girls enjoyed it the most we all did the baking, as they all helped me in baking, taking photos and not of course the best was all of us sat and filled them with whatever we liked and ate it together!!. They even said that the pastry was good than the store bought one !! .

The September 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was Hosted by Steph of A whisk and a spoon, she choose the Vols-au-vent based on the puff pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Puff pastry is in the ‘laminated dough” family, along with Danish dough and croissant dough. (In fact, if you participated in the Danish Braid challenge back in June 2008, then you already know the general procedure for working with laminated dough.) A laminated dough consists of a large block of butter (called the “beurrage”) that is enclosed in dough (called the “détrempe”). This dough/butter packet is called a “paton,” and is rolled and folded repeatedly (a process known as “turning”) to create the crisp, flaky, parallel layers you see when baked. Unlike Danish or croissant however, puff pastry dough contains no yeast in the détrempe, and relies solely aeration to achieve its high rise. The turning process creates hundreds of layers of butter and dough, with air trapped between each one. In the hot oven, water in the dough and the melting butter creates steam, which expands in the trapped air pockets, forcing the pastry to rise.

Prep Times:-about 4-5 hours to prepare the puff pastry dough (much of this time is inactive, while you wait for the dough to chill between turns…it can be stretched out over an even longer period of time if that better suits your schedule)-about 1.5 hours to shape, chill and bake the vols-au-vent after your puff pastry dough is complete Forming and Baking the Vols-au-VentYield: 1/3 of the puff pastry recipe below will yield about 8-10 1.5” vols-au-vent or 4 4” vols-au-vent
Michel Richard’s Puff Pastry DoughFrom: Baking with Julia by Dorie GreenspanYield: 2-1/2 pounds doughSteph’s note: This recipe makes more than you will need for the quantity of vols-au-vent stated above. While I encourage you to make the full recipe of puff pastry, as extra dough freezes well, you can halve it successfully if you’d rather not have much leftover.
There is a wonderful on-line video from the PBS show “Baking with Julia” that accompanies the book. In it, Michel Richard and Julia Child demonstrate making puff pastry dough (although they go on to use it in other applications). They do seem to give slightly different ingredient measurements verbally than the ones in the book…I listed the recipe as it appears printed in the book. http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry

The same filling i used and made it like a large pie !!

With some more left over pastry I made puffs with savoury filling which once I had posted by using ready made puff pastry block and with some more I made another savoury filling with left over okra and peas gravy mixed with potato,capsicum and onion dry curry!! They were the best so my kids and friends said. They even asked for more !!

At last I posted this.., with so many difficulties, just now when I uploaded my photos to the blog at 12:30 in the night suddenly google page disappeared and said their was an error and reloaded on its own again !!, but all the photos were gone, Good God ! I had to redo them again. Oh! no I deleted another two photos by mistake, oh! God now I am tired I will post this it is getting 1 O'clock in the night. Good night and hope my readers will enjoy this and thanks for the recipe and suggestions and guidence to the all the daring bakers who helped through this, I really did enjoy this and looking forward to the next one, bye....

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