Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Sans Rival!

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake!  And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

In case you’re confused, yes, this was last month’s challenge.  I am super late posting this!  Procrastination, the usual culprit, wasn’t to blame this time.  Although too late to count, I finally decided to make the Sans Rival last week in between bowing string parts for Beethoven 3 (it’s totally fine and normal if you don’t know what this entails).  With the ingredients on hand and friends to feed it to that evening, why not?

(umm, especially when this is the only thing I’ve been able to make since Thanksgiving…)

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Phyllo Dough and Baklava!

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Whoa, Nelly!  Phyllo dough from scratch?!  Yes way.

I have a story that goes with this.  Sit tight, it’s a good’un. 

Daring Bakers’ Challenge: Marquise on Meringue!

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt.  They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise.  The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

Are you guys wearing your fancypants??  You’re going to need them for this dessert.  It’s famous, so you don’t want to be under-dressed.  That would be rude. What do your fancypants look like?  If I could design the pair in my mind, they would be purple, sparkly, and with a ruffly butt.  Totally class, right?  For some reason stirrups keep wanting to bombard my vision, but I think I’m going to pass on those.

Right.  So this dessert has kind of a lot of components, each requiring its own set of steps.  It was way overwhelming at first, but after reading over things a few times along with all the questions others were asking/answering in the DB forum, I realized that it wouldn’t be difficult, just time-consuming.  Definitely an exercise in planning, which isn’t really my forte.  But I did it!

I’m guessing the $1,000,000 question right now is: What the #$%^ is a marquise?!  It’s kind of like a chocolate mousse, but a little richer.  After making the base for it, you freeze it which allows you to cut it, coat it in cocoa powder, and place it on the meringue.  When you finally eat it, it’s so dreamy soft….mmmmm.  It’s not overly sweet, especially with the kick from the spices, and you know how I love me some spicy chocolate!

And when there’s also torched meringue, boozy caramel, and spiced nuts, how can it be anything but amazing??  (Answer: it can’t.) 

Almond Ginger Granola

I’ve been having a problem lately with the freezer being crowded up with too many concoctions resulting from this blog.  For example, these cookies which I made last month were finally finished off.  (The frozen dough balls never did make it to the oven.  Oops.)  And I’m pretty sure there are still slices of Stollen in the deep freeze, too.  Grody.

While I’ve always got ideas in my head, not to mention a list with things needing to be crossed off, I just haven’t wanted to make even more things.  After all, I’m usually just cooking for myself.  But then I realized I could make something that I hadn’t made before, but have been eating pretty regularly lately: Granola!  ’bout time, right?

Spicy Bark with Almonds and Sea Salt

Chocolate is good for you!  Nuts are protein!  Sea salt is fancy!

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.  Even though the holidays are over, you don’t really need an excuse to make this simple recipe.

(This post is brought to you by the bulk foods section at Central Market. )

After seeing Victoria‘s brilliant Cookie Dough Bark a couple weeks ago, I started thinking about what sort of not-peppermint-bark I would make.  I love spice and seem to be fond of throwing it into chocolate, so of course my mind went that route. 

In December drinking horchata…

I love to make things from scratch and do so whenever possible, but somehow found myself with a half-full container of store-bought horchata.  “Somehow” is kind of a strong word though as I actually purchased said container.

You see, Jill and I were going to watch Love Actually a few nights ago, and I am accustomed to drinking things that taste like Christmas while doing so.  Usually this is a seasonal beer like Great Lakes Christmas Ale (when in Cleves) or Shiner Cheer, but neither of us were quite ready for alcohol after Monday night’s Flip Cup shenanigans.

I went to get some apple cider from the store, but could only find a $5 gallon container of it, which was way too much cider and monies.  While in the hot drinks aisle, I spotted “Klass” horchata.  I don’t remember when I first heard of the sweet, cinnamony rice and milk drink, but had definitely never tried it before.  And for $1.50?   Yes, sir! 

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Yeast Bread

Wait, what?  How is it November already?  And how have I not made anything with pumpkin until now?

Well, look out, folks, because I’m about to go bananas with pumpkin.  (oh, huh..there’s an idea!)  FYI: pumpkin pie is NOT in the forecast.

First up is pumpkin bread.  Sure, when people hear “pumpkin bread” they think of a quick bread, myself included.  While I do love me some of that, I was super intrigued when I found a couple recipes for pumpkin yeast bread at King Arthur Flour.  My yeast bread-baking experience is pretty limited.  In fact, I had only made one recipe twice (it’s awesome!) before this one, so I’ve been wanting to expand my horizons in the Land o’ Carbs. 

Spicy Brownies

Oh, my.  I’ve been experimenting again.  Once you start, there seems to be no turning back!

This didn’t start off as an experimental idea, though.  I found this recipe in a Moosewood cookbook, and it’s almost identical to Mark Bittman’s brownies, which I’ve mentioned before.  The only difference is that Moosewood calls for brown sugar instead of white, but they both claim to be originally from an old recipe somewhere else.

Initially, I was going to add peanut butter chips to half and white chocolate chips to the other half.  Then I thought of cinnamon chips, which is when my mind started going into an over creative mode.  You see, I had an orchestra audition on Monday, and when I have to practice a lot, I start thinking about things I would rather bake instead.  Not feeling very confident with the possible outcome, I was planning to bake these after I got back from the audition as a comforting activity and treat.