Its Happening...

Fitzroy is officially in the "Beware of the Blob" stage. He escaped today. Not a slightly-bubbled-over escape... Not even a full circle cascade escape. I'm talking lid popping, bowl tipping, double waterfall ooze across the counter top escape!

Its my fault really. I've been overworking Fitzpatrick. Making it raise whole batches of croissants for 20 hour shifts, without even the backup of some commercial yeast. Which consequently the recipe had requested... >.>

And then there was the negligent feedings of last week. Barely once a day.  And then yesterday I just sprung it on him. Two or three feedings! Big feedings! Followed by snacks! Suddenly instead of barely ecking by at 3 ounces... he was suddenly excess of 7! Thats nearly half way up the container I keep it in, and I've already mentioned that he tripples when well fed!

I knew overflow was a possibility... I put it into lock down. Added a bowl to catch excaping ooze. But it wasnt enough. Fitzpatrick overpowered my defenses and tipped the whole bowl over somtime this morning. Oh well. I just scooped his very slightly dried out bubble puddle back into the container and carried on. I did just scrub down the counter the night before after all. And I needed those 7 ounces of starter!

I'm making buns you see. To make sandwiches. Asian Chicken Sandwhiche;s just like these from Use Real Butter.  Except 'just like' them because in contraindication to the whole hog approach Use Real Butter advocates, I'm actually going to do tofu. Though I hope it wont really be a concession.

I'm trying out an theory. That if McD's can make something as nasty and tastelessas mechanically separated chicken goo taste good enough to be widely accepted by the consumers, than a tofu patty prepared well should be able to completely outshine it.

Not that I'm implying the recipe makes a McD quality sandwich. Or that I think tofu tastes as bad as mechanically separated chicken. But mostly that fried chicken sandwiches make me think of that. And I want crispy fried tofu patties to be a thing.

So far my plan is to

MARINATE! Get that salt and flavor into the center of the curd!
BAKE! Pressing might be enough, but I'm too impatient, and want it dry!
BATTER AND FRY! To hopefully give a crispy fried outside. This I am following the recipe... basically >.>


And Irony of Ironies.... I now have my camera running again. But I lost my phone... Better pictures! But also more work! >.< Hence none here. Have to find my cord...

Woe

My camera is dead... Ok not dead. Just... in a drug induced coma? Suffering amnesia? Short term memory loss? I'm not sure the exact medical diagnosis best fit to describe it, but from a technical standpoint, it has no memory left on its card.

Now, you may be assuming thats an easy fix. Just delete some! But you see... even in this age of data storage enlightenment, I don't have any sort of back up in place. So for the reeaaaallly important pictures. Family, friends, and favorites... Memories in JPEG(raw was a victim of memory shortages a long time ago). They stay on my card, you know, in case my computer crashes. And funny story, my computer crashed! After almost 7 years of faithful service, my laptop deserved a final rest. They do think they can get the data off, but I don't regret my Compact Flash safety net.

So to sum up my explanation with an explanation, any pictures I post in the next while are from my phone. My phone which happens to be by anyone reckoning, equally ancient as my deceased PC. Grainy, small, and blurry close up... Back in my day, food bloggers didn't all have lightroom and photoshop and 600$ macro lenses! And if they did I avoided their pages in abject and bitter envy. Anyway, these cant hold a candle to that, but they are photographic evidence, albeit inadmissible.

Braided chocolate loaf ready for the oven! Look at the beautiful stretch marks!! (who wore them better? The bread.)

The Challah recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Some sort of sideways batch sourdough ciabatta stuff I made spiked with commercial
yeast out of desperation to start actually using starter!

I've been using the 'basic sourdough' formula from Peter Reinhart's  The Bread Bakers Apprentice as guidelines, but I can't say I'm been a faithful formula follower. At all. But it does help to have a starting point instead of reinventing the wheel. But I like the freedom of just... baking on whim. Taking the generalized understanding of flour, yeast, time, heat, acids... and seeing how far I can stretch it. I made blackberry walnut bread today... which I'm sadly too full of bread rosemary garlic sweet potato bread to have given a decent try. My Wheat Berry bread hasn't even been opened.

It seems, that the solution to eliminating waste in sourdough upkeep is NOT baking 2 loaves at every feeding (ie twice a day). There's only so many loaves a 4 people can eat in a day! Every day! For two weeks straight, and counting!

Death Match

I think it is in every slothful blogger's psyche to hyper focus on their absence when coming back from a long one. Struggling with the internal guilt of ones own erstwhile enthusiasm and forgotten dreams of a functioning blog... And then it detracts from whatever they were inspired to write about in the first place.

That done, albeit indirectly... I'm here to do a list. A list of things I've made in the last couple weeks, in particular, the breads I've made, and those I intend to.

You see, I've started a sourdough culture. I like to call it Fitzpatrick, sometimes Fitzroy, sometimes even Francheska. Sometimes I sing songs to it...  When my infatuation with sourdough was young, like my starter... I'd sing "Tiny Bubbles" to it...

Later, as Fitzpatrick matured and began to hit its own stride... doubling, then trippling its volume between feedings I felt a more cautionary tune for my pet was required.

And finally, after many a feeding, some cuddling, and serenades a plenty  I've reached the "you actually get to make bread with it" stage! Hurrah!

So far I've made some commercial yeast spiked dough with my sluggish starter. Mostly just to salvage spent flour from it. A flat and badly developed ciabatta type thing. A tasty but impervious to toasting loaf or two. And now actual sourdough boules, that came out with a mild tang, full flavor and an indecent amount of oven spring. Chewy caramelized crust too. Of breads I'd report?

Non-sourdough Ciabatta - came out admirably for my first attempt with a wet dough

Chocolate Bread - still working out the balance, but a braided dark chocolate loaf... promising.

Basic Sourdough Boules

Challah - At least one loaf turned out beautifully... (the other I tried freezing and the thaw/bake might have been badly time and executed)

On the billet

Sweet Potato Rosemary Garlic Sourdough - (aka Smash-fry bread)

Bagels

English Muffins

Cheddar Chive Torpedos (That one from that popular Peter Reinhart fellow's book)

Sandwhich loaf

Deli Rye (and subsequent ruben sandwich (made with homemade sourkraut possibly)

Wheat berry loaf

Smitten Kitchen's Black Bread 

Pannetone

'Amish' Friendship bread (pretty sure its not actually 'amish'...)

And then it gets even more vague... I want to get back to some whole grainy things. I want to explore mixins, added flavors... maybe an olive bread, or a feta and sundried tomato combo. I want to perfect the chocolate bread. Get the most sour out of the bread I can. I want to try different flours in varying degrees. See where I can go with it. Filled breads, quick breads, beer breads... which i guess is still a quick bread. But right now, my head-space is all bread all the time! My latest obsession. 

If I took care of my readers, I would come back with pictures and videos of my accomplishments... I could point out my camera is in past dire need of a memory card, and my computer died forever, but to be honest it likely wouldn't effect the outcome >.>

Confidence Rage Quit

I wanted to add, to my struggle with the first batch of croissant dough... That I was furious it didn't turn out.

I wasn't nervious about doing croissants. The only reason I haven't hitherto-fore made them is that it takes all day, uses a lot of butter, and I usually go for danish instead. Knowing I could do danish dough, I didn't sweat the croissants at all! Even with the messed up recipe I figured it'd work out about right.

And then they turn out FAIL. I knew exactly the things I had done wrong. I knew exactly why it had failed. I knew how to fix it. But why, jam it, did I let it fail?! I got this one! Only apparently I didn't!

I made the second batch the next morning, out of spite for the first failing. To comfort my longing for GOOD croissants too. And to salve the idea that I had 4lbs of fail dough in my freezer.

Now I realize, I just have 6lbs of HEART FAILURE dough in my freezer begging to be baked.

-_-

Jam!

Maybe that's not quite the expletive replacement I'm looking for... But just noticed one of my favorite food bloggers put her blog on hiatus. Baked was the only foodie blog I kept hotlinked on my browser. It was high quality without being so... overwhelming. Felt like following a friend instead of idolizing a celebrity...

I really ought to put a bit more work here. I've been cooking up a mess in the kitchen, so its not like I've slowed down the cooking. Heck, its the one thing I never really put off longer than a couple weeks. A girl has to eat!

Thats whats so beautifully easy about learning to cook. You get the chance practically three times a day to try your hand at it! It even has a built in punishment reward system. Get good at it, and practice, BAM! You get to eat something tasty. You don't practice? Then you're paying someone else to do it, or eating medocre food. Unless you have a sweet deal with another chef friend who's cooking for you... Lucky dog! Feel the wrath of my envy!

I made the croissants. Twice. In massive culinary text book size batches. Which was a bit of a mistake, as I knew from the get go the recipe was faulty. The Pastry Chef, the CIA pastry text book, has a terrible editor, horrible consistency, and I wonder if any of the recipes were tested... but its beautiful and I knew that before I bought it at half price.

The recipe measures milk in lbs. The danish recipe on the next page, in fl oz. RED FLAG. The 2lb 8 oz of flour is listed as 1.31 grams, in their metric measurement. Should be KGs I realized. RED FLAG. Use butter, it says. Unsalted and add salt to dough? Salted butter? RED FLAG! And finally, it was a sugar enriched dough which I think is sort of a technique avoiding short cut. What about proper fermentation to create sugars? RED FLAG, but one I truly didn't mind because it gave me an excuse to buy some malt syrup.

It was the sugar that did me in on batch one though. Fine, the combination of sugar and my own slothfulness. I took almost 24 hours to make the dough start to finish, retarding the dough overnight in the fridge (because I made it at 2AM). This is a big NO when you have sugar in your dough! It makes the yeast frenzy and produce way too much alcohol bitter nasty spent yeast flavor... and bam. Thats what the croissants tasted like. Also, I used unsalted butter, because the recipe didn't specify. I did add salt, but not enough.

Bland, excessively fatty pastry dough.

Waste. Of. Butter. JAM IT!

I quartered it, baked one, and saved the rest for caramel or cinamon buns. Going to be FANTASTIC! Even with the poorly made dough.

The other batch? Great! Salted butter, what I had on hand, and an expedited process, (I started at noon instead of 2, and didnt even go to a movie or a walk mid process). And bingo. I need to let them rise longer though!!!

Pictures? I have one! On... my phone... which I apparently deleted after sending it to Jordan. Now, to see if he REALLY appreciates my mad kitchen skills, and kept it, so that he may send it back, that I might post it for you allz!

Doing Something

I'm going to make some croissants. I'm gunna make a big sum. I decided to use the CIA's pastry texts recipe, for 5lbs of dough. Figure I'll freeze the extra. Real exciting stuff. If I feel like it, I might even post a picture. Heh. Bake on.

Computador

I’m testing out my mothers knew computer. It has windows 7 and this is from the windows live writer.. set it up to configure to see how it would work. I’ve been wishing I could come down in the morning and just open up logged in blog all set up and pretty, ready to be written and posted, and this could be it. Course… all of my millions of pictures are on my other computer so that wont help me much. Troublesome indeed. I’ve been cooking and not picturing and you know how no one reads when theres no pictures. And its even worse when someone almost never writes AND has no pictures. What can ya do. Maybe I’ll write more with better tools eh? We can hope.

First One Down!

Alight. First of the fourty... twenty, out of the way. Sort of. You see, they're baked and tasted and shipped and all gone, but I haven't uploaded the pics. And dont want to make this the post about it... soo... I did it!

The Fourty

I'm attempting something to kick up my awesome. I don't have a lot of awesome going on... but there will be some awesome if it kills me. I'm grabbing 40 recipes just a whim short of 'at random' and cooking them. I feel a bit cheap, because I'm just stealing them off food porn sites that a hundred other people have tried... I should be making up my own, but right now I don't have the wherewithal to handle it.

To be noted I will be making something similar or inspired by or exactly the recipes listed.

1. Lavender Brigadeiro from Patricia Scarpin at Technicolor Kitchen
2. Soy-glazed Flank Steak by The Bitten Word
3. Red Bean Spinach Soup by Jessie at EatStudy
4. Pasta with Summer Squash, Sausage, and Goat Cheese over at Use Real Butter (A name I highly support)
5. Homemade Pita Bread and Hummus at Savouring Time in the Kitchen
6. Taste the Sun... Then Play In It Fruit Salad at Healthy. Happy. Life.
7. A perfected BLT inspired by Lick My Balsamic
8. Spring Yogurt as made by One Particular Kitchen
9. Mozzarella scratch made inspired by Kristen
10. Hard cheese inspired by the rennet instructions I bought for the cheese that Kristen inspired
11. Fried Cheese Curds inspired by squeaky cheese
    
12. Roasted Red Peppers Stuffed with Quinoa and Feta with Balsamic reductions ~ Kristen
13. Cheesy Grilled Pepper Poppers by a blog I've since forgotten :/
14. Cream of Leek and Parsnip Soup posted on Ceramic Canvas
15. Indian Cardamon Mava Cakes from my nemesis Tartlette
16. Frothy Mint Lemonade over at Eat Make Read
17. Quinoa with Summer Vegetables on Karina's Kitchen
18. Pasta with Bacon Peas and Ricotta posted by Junglefrog Cooking
19. Chocolate Ginger Cookie a Martha Stewart recipe baked at Food Gal by Carolyn
20. Butter Mints inspired by a woman at a catering gig

There. The first 20. These are link intensive, more so than I should make them probably, but I'll post the next soon.

Dry Like My Bread

Man... I've left all my foodies high and dry lately. I'll see what I can do. Maybe blog my catering gigs.

I Got A Puppy! I Got A Puppy! I Got A Puppy! Hey Hey Hey Hey!

This morning dawned sadly, tossing and turning in my sleep with a tear evoking dream about my Carson. I woke breifly with tears in my eyes. I had been petting her. Spending time with her... and then it struck me that it was past. Too late to pet her silky neck flaps and tousle her ears. I miss her so much. She was a beautiful sweet kind mischievous friend and nothing can ever replace her.

I miss too though, having a dog at all. I'm not one to be stingy with doggy love, or to clam up with heartache forever. I'm prepared to give some love, maybe a puppy and maybe too a adopt-a-dog. I've been asking for weeks...

An hour or so later Mum woke me again, this time with a call. A call for puppies. Free labs had been advertized on the radio that morning. We drove out a little before noon. Three were already gone... and there was a really really handsome boy, but meet our girl.... (no name).

A Pharmaceutical Kitchen

I'm no wise woman ready to spout off home remedies or lists of medicinal foods. I made a cough syrup once, I guess. It had honey and vinegar and cayenne pepper and tasted vile as you might expect, but it was still better tasting than the real stuff.

That aside I found a better way to bring the pharmacy into the kitchen. Legally dears, no green brownies here, just antiques(though at one point it did contain antique medicinal cannabis). Fresh onto my kitchen wishlist comes this lovely medicine cabinet.

The top and three drawers are filled with 288 of these amazing tins. Each with the wonderful antique writing and old paint, and a little window looking into the contents within.

Its only worth five to seven thousand dollars. That's the rub with antiques. I don't mind very much that they're old. Its the design I like. Designs that are out of manufacture and amazing and hard to find. I'd just as soon have a new box with a set of new jars, spice labeled instead of medicine jars, for my own. I love the uniqueness of the jars, and though I'd miss a sprinkle feature, easy spoon access and the window would be worth it.

Now I'm trying to convince my Dad to build be me a cabinet for my regular jars... but if any of you know a tin manufacturer... give em the hint.

Pic-less In Denile

Believe it or not, I've been doing stuff when whilst neglecting my favorite blog. The truth is, I've discovered a hatred for uploading picture. I cant keep them organized. Its a terrible hassle to resize them (because I take them COLOSSAL!). Its a pain to keep edited ones and originals separate and safe. An increasing worry over digital storage, and a lack of editing software. And there's an inescapable fact, food blogs, like cook books SURVIVE ON PICTURES.

Very few people want to read a blog about food with no pictures. And heck, even if you DO post pictures regularly, without the amazing skill of the great food photog-blogs out there, you twont get linked. Its very distressing.

So while I could tell you about my cheesey rolled rustic bread, and my still singing a chorus of crackles fresh from the smoking hot oven blue cheese walnut sour dough... I wont without pictures. Nor will the Girl Scout style Samoas get posted. And those all HAVE pictures taken. Crappy, thoughtless and easy pictures... but at least some sort of photographic evidence of their conception. The angel food cake I baked (that fell because apparently letting it cool UPSIDE DOWN is really really crucial to structural integrity), and the egg nog that resulted to clean up those egg yolks. The carmels I made. The biscottie I whipped together, or the Dorrie's disagreeable cookie recipe I tried(think chocolate chip cookies, shaped like paper disks)

None of it. And if I did, I probably wouldn't give you recipes. Cuz I'm lazy like that. Word.

Tossing You A Bone Bean Soup

I'll throw you some scraps here. This was my attempt at a bean soup. Five beans to be exact. Canned beans. I was hungry quick like, wanted vegges, beans, loads of flavor, and some crunchy spicy sprouts to top it off. And so it became.

Bean Soup

1 can black beans
1 can navy beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can white kidney beans
1 red pepper chopped
1 crown of brocolli chopped into small flouretts
fresh chopped up tomatoes
some beef and chicken bollioun to get me started
some turkey sausage stuff
spicy sprouts for topping
Probably some onion/shallots all sauteed up, but I cant remember

I tossed everything but the beans(and sprouts) into a crock pot to get all cooked up and flavorful . The brocolli and red pepper smelled sooo good cooking. When things were cooked I added the beans, not wanting them to get mashed up during cooking. And we ate it, and it was warm and tasty and thats the soup.

Go Komen!

My mother and I were flipping through channels the other day. We only have four channels, coming from the bunny ears on our roof. Yes, over the air. And yes... we need a stupid converter box.... That aside, we were shocked to stumble upon the broadcast of a nude photo shoot...

Woah! Wait?! Was she topless? We flip back through the couple channels our momentum sent us through. And there it was. A topless photo shoot with no lil censor bars or strategically placed muffins... OPB?! Good heavens! Of course its OPB... The only channel to broadcast nudity. Under the banner of education of course. This one we learned was about breast cancer. It is, after all,National Breast Cancer Awareness month. Apparently its also adopt-a-dog, vegetarian awareness, and national sausage month, but those have nothing to do with my cake.
I was practicing the sponge cake that goes to a Boston Cream Pie recipe. I've had the darndest time with it in the past. It should have nice big bubble pockets to soak up the creamy filling, but instead it has come out as a sweetened hockey puck of baked egg, replete with flour globes suspended throughout. As I'm using this recipe as a base for experimentation, I needed to perfect it. And so using what I had, a sponge cake, raspberry jam, cook and serve custard, and some "white chips", This lovey Raspberry Boston Cream Pie came into existence. Its even pink for the month!

Raspberry Boston Cream Pie
(Mine was actually scaled down to 3/4)

1 C Cake flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs
1 C sugar
1/4 C milk + 2 tbs
almond extract (or vanilla or raspberry flavoring)

Preheat the oven to 350 F
Butter and flour a 9 inch cake pan.

Sift together salt and flour 3x. (I skimped)

Warm eggs and sugar to about 110F till sugar dissolves. Whip 6 minutes till pale. (I whipped two of the egg whites separately to give more lift to the cake)

Warm milk (original recipe had a vanilla bean to steep here) but do not boil. Add to eggs while whipping.

Fold in flour and bake 30 minutes.

Filling - I used a raspberry flavored Jello cook and serve custard mix, but a pastry cream would work better.

Topping - I have no clue how it went together... It had sieved melted raspberry jam. Cream. Powdered sugar. Some melted 'white chips. A lil butter... and I melted it slightly before putting it on. It was grainy from the sugar and white chips...

Topping Ideal - Heat some cream. Add some white chocolate. Add some raspberry jam, seedless. Maybe try butter instead of cream if it had trouble setting up...

It came out a little less than picture perfect... I blame it on my own laziness. Had I made the pastry creme from scratch, and had white chocolate for the glaze... Ghirardelli doesn't sell white chocolate chips! They sell 'white chips' whatever the heck that means. Albertson's brand are better! They don't melt well, taste like powdered milk and wax, and really shouldn't exist. Anyway... If I did it again I'd make the glaze a white chocolate raspberry ganache glaze. And probably some real raspberries in the pudding.

I Did a Gig

Now for the 'I did a gig' jig! Sorry everyone. Really, sorry. That was painful. I couldn't resist. But I should have anyway.

Putting that behind us now, I did a catering gig the other day. I love working with Kristen for a number of reasons. She plans its all, I just show up and chop stuff. Not super glamorous, but its relatively risk free for me. She knows everyone in town, so I'm constantly meeting people when I'm working for her.

I get to see all the kitchens of Baker! This one has all the gadgets, but no counter space. A walk in fridge and freezer, lockers to dump your stuff when you come in, and a whole ton of massive stainless steel machinery I cant name. The kitchen before didn't even have hand soap. The one before that belongs to this cute cafe I've always admired from afar. Almost no fridge space, and the sun was baking me through the eastern windows, but it was still cute. Another cute kitchen kitchen was a residential one, pretty but by large unused. And the one before a well rounded small professional kitchen. It was possibly the easiest to work in. But it could use a walk in fridge too.

Cooking breakfast, lunch and tea on Saturday we were at a slow point, and I paused to taste one of our creations. A broken hazelnut scone, I'd been wanting to taste. Terri walks past and seeing me munching, I compliment her (she made them) and admit that 'really, its all about the food'. She chuckles and continues to get something or other done. I taste some of the berries with creme fresh, and a piece of her bacon quiche. Two things I'd never taste living in Baker that I hadn't yet made myself. She sees me again... and again. About the forth time she walks past me in some nook noshing, I reassure her "I really do work! I mean... some of the time I'm not eating! Really!". I do...

It really amazes me how she can come up with the menus she does. There nothing unheard of. Most of them are simple and easy to throw together en mass, as they need to be. It may be the simplicity that baffles me. They taste great, they're simple to prepare, and they compliment each other shockingly well. And its so simple... yet I can't even conceive them till she points it out.

Potato wedges with Romano, butter, salt and pepper. Basically cheese and potatoes... I can do that. I always have some sort of cheese and potato on hand. Yet this is the first time I thought to do it.

Potatoes from the garden. Yes. Purple potatoes from the garden. And cheddar, cuz we always have some cheddar. And some onions because everything's better with onions.

Honey Get The Pryin' Bar!

I'm getting out of this rut, says I. I have not posted here - anything of note- in ages! To be perfectly candid, I haven't been doing anything I deemed post-able. The moments where I have created, I disowned them from their start. Not taking the time to photograph anything. Not bothering to check the lighting, or even tidy up the island.

Well, I'm up. I may be catching a cold... but dang it, I'll be darned if that will stop me from doing something pretty in the kitchen. And when some unsuspecting fool devours my creation they will feel the sheer will and perseverance I exemplified in my efforts to complete it! Ok fine... I'll wash my hands and try not to infect anyone...

I've been so jealous of all other foodie blogger's and their creativity. And a bit mad at myself for always trying the same basic un-garnished recipes. So... I'm going to do a bit of experimenting.

Wish me luck!

Missed It Miffed

Have you ever seen Nim's Island? Its a fine show about a girl and her father, a scientist, who on a secluded tropical island, and a muti-phobic author who comes to their rescue. Rescue? You may ask. From what? Well a group of pirates has discovered the island while Nim's father was away. Now these pirates have the dastardly plan of making Nim's island a tourist cruise destination.

And there Nim is, trying desperately to fend off the interlopers. To keep her island fresh and pristine and unique, and not homogenized like the tourists and pirates wish it to be (the tourists is very cliche/homogenized).

This is the best analogy I can come up with at the moment for my current quandary. TasteSpotting is such a wonderful site. It really does inspire me(as much as it intimidates me). It always has new new new cutting edge food ideas. Like the honey drops for tea. Little packets of honey gone hard candy for tea on the go. And some great insights on what to do with whats in season. Sometimes there's a prevaling theme... like cup cakes. There's always a lot of cup cakes.... but they're all different.

But once each month a tidal wave hits TasteSpotting. A huge massive two-page-or-so wave, of sameness. A different color different shape different presentation... but all the same. Like the wave of tourists flocking in like they own the place, blasting away the uniquity, the mood, the moment, of TasteSpotting.

I'm being a bit dramatic... but really, I feel it to be incredibly brash. We all have a place in TasteSpotting. Its in our lives, our hearts, our blogs (and generally also in our stomachs). But bakers.... we're to big of a group to fit into TasteSpotting. We have our own site. We have our own blogs. And we have our own following. We don't need to all of us at once go out and hostile take over the mainstream food blogging epicenters and strut our stuff at them.

I love it all, but everything has its place.

Promised Puffs

About a month ago I told my mother I should bake some cream puffs for her office. She too thought it was an excellent idea, but then life interfered. I can make them Monday night and fill them for you in the morning! Or so I thought. Well, this being the same week I'm baking cakes for intermission at the play I'm also acting in... I didn't get around to it. So then next week. Nope. Week after? Maybe Monday and even Tuesday too are bad days to do it, I realize.

All of a sudden, I decide that asking what day would work best for them would... well... work best. So Friday I decide. Sadly when this was decided we left for Utah to visit family for a week. Sometime around then it occurs to me, I have no clue what the Daring Bakers challenge is this month. AND ITS ALMOST OVER! Eep! Less then a week, and I'm not even in my own kitchen till 4 days before it goes up! AND I'm leaving for Portland 2 days after I get back! And one of those is spent going to Idaho for a dentist appointment! And then I decide its also my only chance to bake some apricots fresh of my grandmother's tree.

Good thing it turns out to be Eclairs! I made them before I packed, the day I was leaving. I filled some with a caramel laced filling, and some with Splenda sweetened whipped cream for Val, who's diabetic.

And a chocolate glaze. (I mean look at it! Shiny Chocolate Deliciousness!)

Oh... and the folks we were staying with didn't have internet so I ended up not being able to post anyway.
-_- Forgive my repeated procrastination and lateness....

Under Cover Of Darkness

Crazy week... but I got it done! Daring Bakers challenge number three! Whoo!

And whats on the menu you might ask? (That is if you really hadn't seen everyone else's yet...)

Charol Walters Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

This is where things get difficult. Do I post the recipe, which is huge, or leave it up to you to blog sleuth it, or buy Charols Great Cakes book? Seeing as the latter is definitely easier for me, your on your own for that. I'll give you the basics though, just because I'm so nice.


There were several elements to this cake.

Filbert Genoise (or hazelnut)
Basically a egg leavened cake with hazelnut meal used more than flour. Pretty dry on its own... though if you have the time and the guts to try it out (failure is a definite possibility with these) kind of a fun challenge. My wonderful mother helped me sift and sprinkle in all of the dry ingredients while I delicately folded them into the pillowy eggs, praying for them not to fall flat… and what do you know? They didn’t!

sugar syrup, flavored with dark rum – Sadly dark rum, or liqueur, spirit, or what have you, isn’t something I have on hand. That whole being a minor thing… So to make up for lost flavor, I tried caramelizing the sugar before adding all the water. I burnt it a bit though so it wasn’t as tasty as I was hoping.

Praline Buttercream – Two steps on this one. Making the praline was difficult. I got distracted and cremated the dry sugar twice before I achieved success. And the success was hard won. Tossing in the hazelnuts cools down the sugar which results in hardening… which results in them all being stuck together in one massive hard clump of hazelnut sugar glass! Luckily I did flatten it out, but it could have been bad.

After grinding this up (a scary thing in my oh so delicate Hamilton Beach pocessor) you mix it into a sort of meringue butter cream. I strayed from the exact Swiss butter cream recipe on technique. Instead of whipping first then heating and whipping… (which I did try and had trouble with) I mixed the sugar with the unwhipped eggs, and then warmed them, gently wisking, to 160. Its amazing to think you can heat egg whites that hot and have them not cook! So THEN I whipped them and added butter. And then into its pillowy whiteness I folded some praline paste.

This would have been wonderful with the cake… but… I added an extra ¼ C sugar, cuz I like my butter cream sweet. Sadly EVERYTHING was pretty sweet in the cake assembled… so it was a bit much.

>

½ cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks – I… excluded this bit, but did add some cream to my syrup.

Apricot Glaze – to smooth up the cake for the ganashe
Ganache Glaze – Which I got wonderfully thin, and the only thing that wasn’t WAY to sweet.

The over all? This cake was an insane amount of steps. Heck, even the butter had to be clarified, and the flower sifted and the… it goes on. It was pretty fine, but I’ll stick to something a lil less touchy for my go to.

So… bake on!