Daring Bakers Challenge: Swiss Swirl Ice Cream Cake

I'll admit it. I'm still in Japan mode. My family and I are still coming off our high so when I saw this month's Daring Bakers' Challenge, I decided that I needed to make something with some of my spoils from the trip - Green Tea, Sakura Essence, and Azuki.  

The July 2010 Daring Bakers' Challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita's world - life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that's then used to make a bombe with hot fudge.  Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

I love Japanese pastries - never overly sweet but rather light and fluffy in nature with just enough sweetness to let the eater know that it was dessert.  I saw a recipe for a Green Tea Roll in Orange Page, a Japanese Magazine and thought I'd give a variation a try.  The Sakura Ice Cream came out as a screaming pink concoction mainly due to very shaky hands.  The fudge layer was mixed with azuki beans which I started to eat by the spoonful.

In my  mind's eye, I pictured a perfectly layered creation that was even all around, smooth without bumps and creases. The reality was much different:

This pink sakura ice cream that managed to seep through?  It was a lot worse on my first attempt - the  whole thing was pink.

I have to say, when i took a bite of it, it was really good.  I was a little surprised seeing as how the combination was a little crazy but it married together well. I'm still tweaking the recipes a bit and will post up when I'm happy with it. 

Daring Bakers Challenge: Piece Montee

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

I've been a very bad Daring Baker. I joined 3 months ago and I've only completed ONE challenge. I will do my best to do better. Really.

I have to say, I love Choux Cream Puffs.  I could eat a dozen of them on my own in one sitting.  I've always wanted to learn how to make them so when I saw this challenge, I was thrilled. Unfortunately, after the SECOND failed batch, the thrill almost turned into despair.  It turns out that I just didn't cook it long enough.  

I wish I could say I took a step by step photo of the whole experience but as I was on the verge of tears for the first 2 batches of pate a choux so I was unable to see clearly enough to snap off a clear photo.  

The lovely flavoring of the lilikoi bavarois recipe is courtesy of Executive Pastry Chef Ricky De Boer of the Fairmont Kea Lani.  He has been so utterly gracious since my quick visit to the resort! [If you find yourself in Maui, please be sure to visit the Kea Lani if for no other reason than to enjoy the delectable Lilikoi Creme Brulee!] Unfortunately, as I was typing off an email telling him how wonderful his lilikoi cream was, it curdled. So my 2nd batch had less eggs than I had intended since I was too lazy to run out and buy more!

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)

from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan, originally created by famed pastry chef, Nick Malgieri
 

¾ cup water
6 Tbsp (85 grams) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Preparing batter:
Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. 

When it reaches boiling point, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring until it combines.  Once the mixture is well combined, cook until it pulls away from the sides of the pan,  while stirring constantly [mine pulled away from the sides right away, so i'm not sure what I did wrong - i just cooked it until it had the consistency of mashed potatoes when I smashed the dough with my wooden spoon].

Remove from heat and add 1 of the eggs, stirring until it once again looks like mashed potatoes.  Repeat until all eggs are used.  The consistency of the batter should be thick.


You can either pipe the batter on to the cookie sheet or scoop out with a spoon.  


Brush tops with the egg wash.


Bake the choux until it puffs up completely [approximately 10 - 12 minutes] at 425 degrees.  Then reduce to 350 degrees and bake until it dries out, approximately  20 - 30 minutes depending on size [it should have a nice golden color]. let cool on rack.

Lilikoi Cream: 
Executive Pastry Chef Ricky De Boer, Fairmont Kea Lani
2 cups Heavy Cream
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup [4 oz] sugar
1/4 cup [2 oz] lilikoi puree [goya brand puree is available at most Mexican markets]
1 tsp Vanilla extract


Bring cream, vanilla, sugar & puree to a  boil.  Temper yolks in and double broil until the cream thickens and coats the back of a spoon.  Because I'm a spaz and impatient, I didn't temper the egg yolks enough so I ended up pouring the mixture through a sieve to strain out the clumps.  I mixed this cream with whipped cream [16 ounces of heavy cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar] to thicken it enough to hold in the choux.

Using a small pastry tip and bag, I filled each puff with the delicious pastry cream until completed.


For the Caramel recipe, please visit  La Fuji Mama's site - she totally saved me on that one. I used the caramel to build the tower. Well, tower is a gross exaggeration of what it is - maybe mound is a better term.

Daring Bakers Challenge: TIRAMISU!

The February 2010 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking.  They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month.  Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

I first heard about Daring Bakers about 6 months ago.  I've been lurking around for 4 of the 6 months.  I've been waiting for a good time to pull the trigger and finally decided to sign up for it last month.  As luck would have it, my very first challenge was Tiramisu.  Not just throwing Tiramisu together from store bought items but actually making each component from scratch. I almost started to cry [well, actually, I did cry for a minute, then told myself to suck it up.  You know the rules - there's no crying in the kitchen.]

There were just a few rules you had to adhere to [you know this was already going to be problem since I'm not much of a rule follower]:

1. Make my own Savoiardi/Ladyfinger biscuits, Mascarpone cheeese, zabaglione and pastry cream with the given recipes,

2. Sponge cake is NOT an acceptable substitute.

I have to admit, I was tempted to cheat on the mascarpone cheese but I'm not a cheater...even if I am a total lazy @$$ and like my shortcuts.

My step 1:

Ladyfingers/Savoiardi: I couldn't believe it...whipping up the egg whites.  It was like trying to make [or in my case, destroy] Macarons.  I was convinced that it was going to fail.  Oddly enough, these things were DELICIOUS and the easiest thing for me to make.

Step 2:

Zabaglione is made with eggs, sugar, vanilla, and Marsala Wine. Really??  Marsala wine?? I'm not even sure I know what that is and I've got a very healthy wine collection.  Hmmm...they're allowing me to use Port as a substitute.  AWESOME. I bought some Port when I was in Lisbon last November.  Popped that sucker opened and of COURSE I had to make sure it was good enough to use.  Tasted...and promptly cursed my rotten luck that I only bought 1 bottle of it. Cooked up the zabaglione with a bit of hesitancy because I wasn't 100% sure what a thick custard was supposed to look like.  Does thin custard look like egg nog?? Hmmm...things that were running through my head as I watched [helplessly] as it cooked.  

Step 3:

Pastry Cream was a little easier since it gave me clear instructions on time [12 minutes] and key indicators - like the fact that it would start to bubble.  I accidentally dropped the wooden spoon on my mouth and was forced to taste it.  It was really good.  But just to clear the taste of it, I did have some more Port.

Step 4:

Called it a night and went to sleep.  

Step 5:

Go to work, then to the LA Clipper game [they won]. Finally make it back home to start the Mascarpone at 11:00pm.  This is where things get very, very tricky. I had to immerse the mixing bowl in a pot of water [not exactly double broiler style] to slowly heat the creme.  It was supposed to take about 15 minutes.  30 minutes later, my temp finally hit 155 [I was waiting for 190 degrees], then started to drop and kept on dropping and dropping.  

 

Frustrated I decided to just throw it into a pot and cook the sucker.  2 1/2 minutes later it finally hit 190 degrees [I cried tears of joy].  The instructions indicated that I'd see clear streaks as I stirred [i didn't].  I kept cooking in hopes that I'd eventually see streaks [i didn't]. I gave up after 12:00am came, let it cool,  set it in the cheese cloth lined sieve, and refrigerated. 

Assembly:

Espresso?? Geez. I was just thankful that I had coffee.  Made a pot of coffee for the ladyfingers to soak in.

Took out the mascarpone out of the fridge.  The directions said to use a spoon to get rid of the lumps.  I was a little concerned since my mascarpone was the consistency of butter - NOT like regular mascarpone at all.  I opted to use a fork after deciding a sledge hammer would be too extreme.  [i ended up adding some cream to soften the cheese]

Mixed the mascarpone with the zabaglione, pastry cream and a fresh batch of whip cream.  The original mixture may have been hard as a rock but it tasted heavenly.    

I brought the Tiramisu in for my office.  Some people tried Tiramisu for the first time [??!!!] and loved it.  Sadly, there was no leftovers for me to stuff my fat face. To top it off NO ONE GOT FOOD POISONING!!  YES! Success!!!