31 Aug
Daring Bakers do Chocolate Eclairs
Posted by Chelle as Chocolate, Custard Desserts, Daring Bakers, Pastries | 28 Comments
Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé.
Classic éclairs.
Chocolate pastry cream.
Chocolate glaze.
Hosted by Meeta of What’s for Lunch Honey? and Tony of Tony Tahhan, I was pretty excited when this month’s challenge was announced, as it wasn’t a layer cake and didn’t include a substantial amount of ground nuts. Score. I had made éclairs once previously and they were fabulous, so I was really looking forward to tackling these, especially since they included chocolate pastry cream instead of the traditional vanilla pastry cream that is usually found in the middle of éclairs. I bought a special piping tip to use to fill the middle of the eclairs (instead of slicing them open) and was ready to go.
Alas, don’t be fooled by the picture above; I would not consider this a successful challenge!
27 Aug
Strawberry Pretzel Squares
Posted by Chelle as Brownies & Bars | 28 Comments
Let me start off by saying that I rarely use recipes that come from Kraft Foods, mostly because it seems that almost all of them use the same bottled or prepackaged ingredients, and I really have come to respect and enjoy things that are truly homemade and from scratch. That being said, I LOVE THIS DESSERT. I started eating this sometime in high school when my aunt would bring it to any family gathering that occurred in the summer. I immediately fell in the love with the combination of salty and sweet and would have to restrain myself from eating the whole pan. In all the time that has passed, this is the first time that I have ever made this myself and having leftovers in the house = pure heaven!
25 Aug
Croissants
Posted by Chelle as Daring Bakers, Pastries, Yeast Breads & Baked Goods | 20 Comments
Buttery, flaky croissants. Wow. These are every bit as incredible as I hoped they would be. These were the Daring Bakers challenge in January 2007, which was about six months before I joined. I have been wanting to go back and attempt the challenges that I missed as well as the ones that were difficult for me (I think I’ll be appending all of these to my current “My 100” list), so when Erin asked if I’d be interested in making these croissants with her I jumped at the opportunity. It was also great timing because I knew that my grandparents were coming to visit and I had already planned on making chicken salad, and what better to eat chicken salad on than a croissant?
23 Aug
Cheddar Ale Spread
Posted by Chelle as Appetizers/Snacks | 19 Comments
I had the opportunity to entertain my grandparents this afternoon for the first time. I was excited to plan some great things to eat and everything turned out just wonderful. As a result, my next few posts will be pieces of that meal, and I figured what better place to start than with an appetizer! This cheese spread has a fabulous tangy flavor, thanks to a small amount of dijon mustard and beer. The recipe calls for an ale, and I think you could really use just about anything so long as it’s not a light beer; I used one of my new favorites - Blue Moon. I processed this pretty well in the food processor, but you could easily choose to pulse it for a chunkier consistency if you would prefer.
16 Aug
Zebra Cake
Posted by Chelle as Cakes | 11 Comments
Annie and I were back in the kitchen together this week, and she chose an amazing cake for us to bake up - a Zebra Cake! The special part of this yellow and chocolate cake is the way the batter is added to the pan, and thus makes a zebra pattern when it is cut into. The recipe for this cake didn’t include a frosting, but let’s be honest - the frosting makes the cake and I just couldn’t imagine eating a naked cake! I added Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate frosting to the cake, and a half recipe was perfect for the size of this cake. I thought that the flavor of the cake was just alright, but the technique is really very neat. I may try to play around with this using different cake recipes.
