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. 

Bourbon Peach Ice Cream

Peaches and bourbon.  They’re both so southerny summery, right?  So many things they have in common with each other…

When you buy them, you take them away in paper bags.

They can both be a deep golden shade and are, uhh, juicy.

One is fuzzy while the other will make your brain fuzzy from consuming it.

Twins!  Of course they go well together.

However, I didn’t put the two together until I saw a post that Mary wrote about a month ago.  She’s making the cake for her friends’ wedding (!) and had a cake tasting so they could sample a couple flavor choices.  As you’ve probably guessed, one of them was peach (and cream) and bourbon.  I love, love, love peaches and have a lot of recently acquired booze.  Naturally I had to make this in ice cream form. 

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. 

Raspbanana Muffins

These might as well be called Lazy Muffins.  You see, I bought some bananas a few days ago, but didn’t eat them fast enough.  I’ve never really thought of myself as a picky banana eater, but evidently I am.  Green is no good, but neither are brown spots.  I like my bananas perfectly yellow, apparently.

Anyway, when life gives you overripe bananas, make carbs, right?  So that’s what I decided to do.  But then the two eggs I had were past the expiration date and I was too lazy to go buy some more.   You may assume that I decided to add raspberries simply because I had some.

Hokey Pokey Biscuits

Up until recently, I had traveled a lot within the states, but never abroad.  There was always the dream to go somewhere “someday”, but never a concrete plan to actually do so.  The top destination on my bucket list, so to speak, was New Zealand, and one day early last December, I saw that Air New Zealand was having a special.  The only catch was that the departure had to be booked for sometime between Christmas and New Year’s, which was only 3 1/2 weeks away!  The special was only for three days, and with five minutes left, I held my breath and clicked the button to purchase.  Eep!

To make a long story fairly short, I packed my bags, left on the 29th (7 months ago from today!) and after about 20 hours of traveling and layovers, arrived in Auckland two days later.  December 30, 2009 did not exist!  I had absolutely no plan or idea of what I was going to do, aside from attend a few concerts, but I had five weeks to explore all by myself.  It was fantastic and I keep dreaming of going back.