Daring Bakers: Filipino Deserts

This months Daring Bakers challenge is Filipino desserts.  The challenge listed two desserts from the Philippines - a cake called Sans Rival and a dessert called Bibingka.  The idea of making a Filipino dessert did appeal to me.  I went to the Philippines several years ago and loved it.   The people there are great and it was one of the best "food" countries I have been too.  They have a wonderful mix of different cultures foods along with their own.  I had a bunch of desserts their but I do not remember seeing either of these.  I wasn't too excited about the Sans Rival since it didn't really look like something I would like and I was thinking of making just the Bibingka - but the challenge said the Sans Rival was the mandatory part of the challenge.  November 14th was my wife's Birthday and the Sans Rival looked better to her that the Bibingka so I decided to go ahead and try it.

I think Sans Rival means without rival in French - kind of a big claim to make.  It is basically just a frosted cake, only layers of meringue are used instead of cake.  I made half a recipe and I also left the nuts out of the filling for my wife.  Other than the fact that it is a little tricky to frost half a round cake - the cake came together very easily.  I wasn't really expecting much from the Sans Rival but it was much better than I thought it would be.  The meringue cake held up well and provided a nice light contrast to the rich buttercream frosting.

I was really looking forward to trying the second dessert, the Bibingka.  As much as I was looking forward to it, I think my wife was the opposite - cheese in  dessert like this did not sound good to her.  The recipe had a few different choices for the topping of the dessert.  The salted egg (an egg left in saltwater at room temperature for several weeks) sounded interesting but I didn't really have time to make it and I was pretty sure if my wife didn't want the cheese there was zero percent chance of getting her to eat salted egg on top.  This was another easy dessert - only a couple of ingredients mixed together and cooked in a ramekin lined with a banana leaf.  The Bibingka was delicious and even my wife agreed.  I would describe it as a cake/custard.  It could be made without the banana leaf but the leaf does give it some flavor and makes for an elegant presentation.

Thanks to Catherine of Munchie Musings for this months Daring Bakers challenge.  If you are interested in either of these recipes you can find them at the Daring Bakers Recipe Archive.

Daring Cooks: Moo Shu Pork

This months Daring Cooks challenge was Moo Shu Pork.  I love Moo Shu,  I had made it once in the past but did not make the "pancakes" so it sounded like fun to try to make all the parts.  The challenge even had a recipe for hoisin sauce so I decided to make that as well.

The recipe came together easily.  It is like a lot of Chinese cooking where most of the time is spent preparing and cutting all the ingredients and the actual cooking is a small part of the whole process.  The hoisin recipe was very easy - just mix the ingredients.  The hoisin was much runnier than most I have seen before but it tasted very good.  The ingredients were also much different than a bottled hoisin I had (where the main ingredient was sugar).  For the Moo Shu I did use a standard green cabbage since I had just gotten one from our CSA and I also used a mix of white mushrooms and the black mushrooms.

The most interesting part of the recipe for me was the making of the pancakes.  They are just flour and water but the technique is the interesting part.  I did follow the alternate #2 directions from the recipe.  For the technique you form two small 3" pancakes, then you coat one side with oil, press the two pancakes together and roll them to form one 6" pancake.  You cook this is a dry pan then you separate the two pancakes.  They come right apart where they were oiled and you have two very thin pancakes that are nice and delicate and cooked nicely.  I was a little scared of this technique and my first set or two came out a little thick but after I got the hang of it they were not hard and came out very nice.

Thanks to Shelly of C Mom Cook and Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood for this months challenge.  I loved it.  If you would like to follow along and try out this recipe it can be found in the Daring Cooks Recipe Archive.

Daring Bakers: Croissants

When I read that this months Daring Bakers challenge was croissants I was both excited and a little worried. I was excited because I love croissants and thought it would be a challenge to make.  One of my first real jobs was at McGlynn's bakery - McGlynn's was a large bakery that provided baked goods to supermarkets (they have since been bought by Pillsbury).  The break room at McGlynn's was incredible - it had several rows of bakery cases full of all sorts of baked goods - still warm out of the oven.  I ate too many croissants when I worked there - not a good place to work while on a diet. 

I was a little worried because I did not know much about the making of croissants and assumed it was difficult.  The provided recipe and its 57 steps and 12 hour prep time didn't make it look too simple at first glance either.  Well turns out they are not really that difficult.  Most of the 57 steps are just fold and fold again - then stick in the fridge and wait a while.  I had assumed it would be more like phyllo where you have to roll many paper thin sheets and put butter in between.  A croissant is sort of the same effect - it is made flaky by the many layers of dough separated by butter - but it turns out all the magic happens in the folding technique.  

The croissants do take the better part of a day to make - but not really much hands on time.  They were easy to make - if you can make a pie or bread (and can count to 57) you can make croissants.  I made half plain and the other half I spread some Nutella on before I rolled up.  They were both really good.  Nice and flaky.  If you do make them go ahead and eat them all the same day - they are not nearly as good the next day.

Thanks to Sarah for this months challenge.  I loved the Julia Child video provided - check this out if you want to see Julia make croissants - I don't like coffee but I think even I think I could drink that Café au lait she makes at the end.  If you would like to try out the recipe check out the Daring Kitchen recipe archives here.

Daring Bakers: Candylicious!

Candy - this months Daring Bakers challenge was to make two different candies. One of the candies must had to be a chocolate candy and the other could be anything. Candy making is one of the things I got into a long time ago - when I was in college I made my first dipped candies. I like candy making since it is kind of cooking and chemistry combined. There is lots of cooking over the stove and watching a thermometer - and it is kind of crucial that you get it pretty exact. Well, since then I have not really done much with the candy making. Not because I didn't enjoy making candy - but because I didn't really need to eat it. Well this challenge gave me a chance to get back into candy making and try some new things.

I have been really busy lately which kind of takes the creativity right out of me - so I just decided to do some of the recipes that were provided to us. I am not really a chocolate person so I decided to make two of the non-chocolate recipes provided and one chocolate candy.

The first candy I decided to make was Pâte de fruit. I do not eat a lot of candy but if I had to pick my favorite it would be those candy orange slices. Pâte de fruit is what those orange slices are trying to copy. I made an orange and a lemon version. They are made with real fruit and real zest and you can tell. The flavor is very real and fresh - not artificial like the ones you buy in the bag. They also are much softer and not as chewy as the ones from the store. They are not hard to make - but they take a lot of stirring. I didn't keep track but think I must have stirred over a hot pan for close to an hour for the two versions - but it was definitely worth it.

I didn't need to make another non-chocolate candy but the recipe for Sponge candy (aka honeycomb aka seafoam) looked kind of fun and easy too. You just throw the ingredients in a pan and wait for it to hit 285 degrees. When it hits temp you take it off the heat and add a bunch of baking soda. As soon as the baking soda is added it foams like crazy and you put it in your prepared pan. For a long time it sits there growing and falling and looking like it is breathing. My four year old loved it. The recipe said I would make a mess cutting it and I did. I have no idea how they got the nicely cut pieces shown in the example. This wasn't really my favorite candy but it wasn't bad. It tasted of baking soda to me and I wonder if the amount could be reduced. Also, this is not the candy to eat if you wear braces.

My last candy was a rolled truffle. Truffles are something that are pretty easy to make - no tempering or anything. You just warm the cream and pour it over chocolate to melt it. When it gets semi-hard you scoop it out and roll it in balls. I added a little bit of grand marnier for flavor. I then rolled some of my truffles in cocoa and some of them into chopped pistachios. Even though I say I am not a big chocolate person these were very good. Nice soft, melt in your mouth, chocolate flavor. The grand marnier added just a hint of orange.

Thanks to Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts, and Line Drives and to Mandy of What the Fruitcake for this months challenge. You can find all the recipes I used in the challenge in the recipe archive at The Daring Kitchen.