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Here we have it folks, the first in what I’m sure will be an orgy of evidence to prove that klutziness is in fact genetic. Many of you may have looked at this picture and thought, “There’s she goes again.” But it wasn’t me! This “Oops!” belongs to my Mom. I guess it runs in the family.
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Holy cow am I late on this one. This was actually supposed to be for the Daring Bakers challenge last month. Jenny Bakes supplied a simple enough cheesecake recipe to follow, but I just couldn’t do it. I can’t handle another cream cheese, brick-in-my-stomach-after-eating cheesecake experience. It’s good going down, but an unruly house guest to my stomach later.
So I hemmed and I hawed all month long….what the heck was I going to do? I want to participate in the challenge, but the thought of cream cheese brick syndrome left me nauseous. I know that some of the other DBers had similar issues with cheesecake and did some tweaks, so I began a search for a light alternative. Then I remembered Martha. That’s right, the woman who started it all for me and the very first baking book I bought offered salvation in a ricotta cheesecake *cue the angels singing with light shining down from the heavens*
(To appease the DB powers that be: The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.) Click to continue…
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Last week when I was making the tiramisu cake when I lost my beaters. You know, the beaters for my hand mixer. I spent close to half an hour searching the entire kitchen, resisting the urge to look through the rest of the house for them. Don’t ask me why I was compelled to search my bedroom for hand mixer beaters, but when you feel like you’ve looked in every logical place on the planet your mind suddenly jumps to the illogical ones. Click to continue…
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My first true visual disaster in a Daring Bakers challenge. Who knew that I could screw up a three ingredient recipe? What you see here is actually an illusion. I know, it looks pretty appetizing (at least I think so). However, I had to perform radical surgery to get the cake to look so appealing. Despite that fact, I am IN LOVE with the taste of my visually disastrous cake. I have to add that while I love the cake, the coconut ice cream (recipe below) and strawberries really put this dessert over the top.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.
While our hosts were kind enough to include two recipes for vanilla ice cream, we had the freedom to choose any flavor our little hearts desired. As luck would have it I just picked up Dessert FourPlay
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It is ironic that what appears to be the simplest of tasks turns into a laborious challenge. That was the big lesson I learned attempting January’s Daring Bakers Challenge.
This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
They also supplied a recipe for savory tuiles from Thomas Keller from the French Laundry and his cookbook
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Yep, those were the exact words that left my lips the night (or was it morning?) when I finally finished the assembly of this challenge. I just joined the Daring Bakers group last month and while last month’s challenge wasn’t too difficult for me, seeing as I had made a caramel cake a couple of months earlier, December was certainly a doozy. pics
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Here we go again. I wonder if I will ever be able to bake something without having a step go horribly wrong or dropping something on the floor.
Yesterday I was trying to make those Brown Butter Madeleines I mentioned in my other post. I read through the directions at least twice. I got all ingredients ready to go. Saucepan and butter in hand, I started to brown my butter.
Note to self: DO NOT HAVE TV ON WHILE BROWNING BUTTER Click to continue…
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one… But seriously, according to one tale a French baker and a Polish King would collaborate in bringing to the world one of the most beloved French confections … the Madeleine. There’s as many theories about the origins of the Madeleine as the origins of the Universe, though not as much fervent argument (I think. Uh-oh, maybe I was wrong). My favorite is still the one about the Polish King who became so enamored with the petite cake when he tasted it that he named it after Madeleine, the French servant who baked them. At least King Stanisław Leszczyński had some sweets to cheer him up when he was in exile from his country.
Of course the history of the Madeleine doesn’t just include Kings and Queens. You’ve got your literary references as well. Who can forget it was Proust who gave the Madeleine much acclaim in Remembrance of Things Past. Talk about being enamored, “…at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence … I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent, mortal.” Now I’ve been known to drown my sorrows with sweets, but I don’t remember ever having one of those experiences. “I had ceased not to feel … mortal”!? Wow. Maybe I’m just not that type of a writer. I’d love to eat something that made me feel like a superhero.
You may remember from a previous post that I had been in search of a Madeleine Pan
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No, this isn’t some far off desert wasteland or a new image back from one of the Mars Rovers. This is the reason why I should always use my rolling pin when making any kind of crust.
This was the pâte sablée shell I made for Clotilde’s delicious Plum Tart with Walnut Cream. Très délicieux! (Sorry folks, I don’t speak French. Babel Fish is your friend.) The technique suggested to create the tasty tart shell called for “using the heels of your hands and your fingers” to press the dough into your tart pan. I’m guessing that someday scientists will link this ability to some French genetic marker because this Polish Princess just doesn’t have the knack. So instead of a nice, lightly golden tart shell I ended up with this blasted and barren landscape that could probably give Death Valley a run for its money on most depressing vista. Click to continue…
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