30 Oct
Daring Bakers: Pizza (and my video debut!)
Posted by Chelle as Daring Bakers, Pizza | 26 Comments
Otherwise known as The Great Pizza Tossing Debacle.
Okay so it wasn’t necessarily a debacle, I mean the pizza WAS edible, but things certainly didn’t go as smoothly as I had planned. I made the pizza on a Tuesday night with the plan to let it rest overnight in the fridge (per the recipe) and make it on Wednesday. Well, along came the migraine from hell that kept coming back off and on for a couple of days and needless to say I wasn’t interested in doing much of anything in the way of making food. So I ended up letting the dough sit in the fridge until Friday and although the recipe states that the dough can stay in there for up to 3 days, I have to think that perhaps it caused the dough to get too soft. The result was a less than stellar attempt at tossing.
Part of this month’s challenge was to get a picture of ourselves tossing the pizza dough, as that is the traditional method of shaping pizza dough. Unbeknownst to me, I was being recorded! You can see me live in action (pardon the cuss!):
So there it is, my video debut!
05 Oct
Daring Bakers: (Late) Lavash Crackers
Posted by Chelle as Daring Bakers, Yeast Breads & Baked Goods | 13 Comments
First, an apology for being so tardy on this challenge. I have no good reason other than September simply ran away from me. Busy weekends, busy work, and this just got pushed to the back burner. But I am so happy that I stayed the course and still gave this a try because this is a phenomenal recipe that can be adapted to suit any taste. This was also an historical month for the Daring Bakers - this month we went vegan (insert shrill shrieking from this bacon cheeseburger fiend)! Thanks to Natalie of Gluten a Go Go and Shel of Musings from the Fishbowl for co-hosting this monumental event. And if that weren’t exciting enough, September was also my 1-year anniversary as a Daring Baker. What fun I’ve had expanding my baking repertoire and pushing my boundaries. Thank you to Lis and Ivonne for creating and maintaining such a wonderful group! And now onto these crackers!
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!
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?
30 Jul
Strawberry Mirror Cake
Posted by Chelle as Cakes, Daring Bakers | 16 Comments
I joined the Daring Bakers in September 2007 with my inaugural recipe being Cinnamon Rolls & Sticky Buns, but prior to my joining, the group had already made 10 fabulous, daring recipes. It is my goal to eventually tackle all of them, as well as the few that I had some trouble making since I joined. When my friend Annie said that she was interested in making the Strawberry Mirror Cake that was chosen by Culinary Concoctions by Peabody in July 2007, I figured it was a great way to jump start my way to completing all of the ones I had missed. And true to Daring Baker form, this was certainly a challenge! But I stuck it out, and it was definitely worth it, both for the sense of accomplishment and flavor of this wonderful cake.
