DB: Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

So this month challenge was cannoli and I'm not quite sure what my reaction was when I found out about it. I wasn't horiffied but also not over joyed... and of course I let everything come to the last minute and made the challenge today, yes today.

I had no time to think of anything creative to shape my cannolis on so I did the stacked version, I wanted to make a light filling because the dish is already fried so I didn't want to overdo it. My fillings were a hazelnut (nougat) whipped cream and a chocolate whipped cream, the hard-crispy shells and the soft sweet whipped cream went very well together. In the instructions it said that the dough is VERY stubborn, oh yes it was- but I was not going to let him defeat me and after a couple strong rolls he gave in. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the cannolis, both handling the dough and the nice way it fried and blistered.

Don't ask me what happened here....I had so much cream and sauce left, that after trying my luck at some decorating practice the plate looked like a battle field.

If you feel like getting your hands on some home made cannoli, here is a pdf file with the recipe and full instructions.

Blond And Brunette In One Bar!

I was in the mood for a fudgy treat but then I had to make the painful choice between blondies and brownies...then I thought, why?? And so I made this double combination! They were dense and fudgy and after sitting in the fridge they were even better.

So if you ever have to choose between blondies and brownies again, go ahead and make these!

Blondie Brownie Bars:

brownies:

150 gr butter

150 gr dark chocolate

¾ cup sugar

½ brown sugar

3 eggs

¾ cup flour

1 tbsp dark cocoa

¼ tsp salt

blondies:

100 gr melted butter

½ cup sugar

¼ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup nuts, chocolate chips (I used walnuts)

Preheat oven to 170°c.

For the first floor (brownies):

In a heatproof bowl place butter and chocolate. Heat in microwave (or in a bowl over simmering water) until butter and chocolate have melted. Stir in both sugars and eggs. Add flour, cocoa and salt- stir into smooth batter then pour into 27X33 cm square buttered pan. Place into freezer until second batter is done.

Second floor (blondies):

Mix melted butter with both sugars, egg and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt mix only until combined then add nuts and chocolate.

Pour blondie batter on to the brownie batter, smooth in out evenly, but be careful not to stir up the bottom layer- and bake for 40 minutes until the top layer is golden brown. After baking let cool completely before cutting in, to get even cleaner squares cool in refrigerator for two hours before cutting.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Syrup Squares

I got a baking book as a farewell present on the last days I spent in Israel. So I decided to bake something from that book, although I’ve been having problems with the flour here- apparently it’s different than the Israeli (and US) one. But I’ll work around that trying out different mixtures of a number of flours.

Anyway this is basically a peanut cake with a chocolate swirl in them, you make the syrup and you make the swirl! I used chunky peanut butter and thought it made it all more interesting but you can chose whatever. I also didn’t have the size pan that was needed so I just used what I thought approximately fit.

Basic ingredients

With and without swirl

Peanut Butter Chocolate Squares:

100 gr butter, room temp.

6 tbsp peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

2 tbsp milk

1 ¼ cups flour

½ tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

syrup:

½ cup sugar

3 tbsp cocoa powder

½ cup water

½ tsp vanilla extract

First make the syrup-

You can actually make this a few days ahead and keep it refrigerated. In a small saucepan place all the ingredients except for the vanilla, on medium heat. Stir until all of the sugar has melted and the mixture is smooth, now let the mixture come to a boil and let bubble gently for 2-3 minutes. Take off heat , let the syrup cool off a bit then add the vanilla. Let syrup cool at least 10 minutes before using it in the cake (I just placed the whole pan in the freezer while making the batter.

To the cake-

Beat butter, peanut butter and sugar to a fluffy mixture, then add eggs one at a time plus milk and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder- add to the batter. Butter the pan you are using and pour in the batter, smooth it out and with the back of a spoon form 10 little pools for the syrup. Pour about a total of ½ a cup from the syrup to fill the pools, then use a knife and swirl around.

Bake for 40 minutes, until cake springs back to a touch.

Let cool and cut into squares.

Lemon Rosemary Sandwich Cookies

These were made for the coffee and cake after a dinner, I wasn’t sure how they would be received but I guess everybody enjoyed them.

I recently bought myself the Microplane ultimate citrus tool (yikes! I was totally ripped off, mine was way more expensive...grrr) and was looking for a recipe I could use my new gadget for, so this was perfect for zesting the hell out of that lemon.

I thought that this combination went really well, the rosemary flavor is very subtle but does give an extra touch than just a regular butter cookie. The filling calls for vegetable shortening which I couldn't find here so I just used butter instead. I got slightly more cookies than the recipe noted because I rolled out the cookies much thinner.

rolled, baked and filled.

I improvised by using a tomato puree can to cut out the cookies.

Lemon Rosemary Sandwich Cookies:

dough:

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 Tbspn finely chopped rosemary

3/4 tspn salt

1/2 tspn baking powder

230 gr butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tspn vanilla

1 egg white, optional

1/2 cup sugar, optional

filling:

115 gr butter, at room temperature

freshly squeezed juice of half a lemon

freshly grated lemon zest of a whole lemon

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Dough-

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, rosemary, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes on medium.

3. Mix in the egg and vanilla to the fluffed butter and sugar.

4. Gradually add the dry ingredients in two batches and mix until combined.

5. Wrap the dough in 2-3 separate portions in parchment paper and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.

Filling-

1. In mixer, beat butter and shortening for about 2-3 minutes on medium.

2. Add lemon juice and zest and gradually mix in powdered sugar.

3. With mixer on high, beat for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.

Baking and assembling-

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Take one portion of dough out of the freezer at a time. Roll out dough between two pieces of parchment paper or on a floured surface to whatever thickness you wish. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes.

3. Place prepared dough on a pan with a silpat or sheet of parchment paper. If using, brush the each piece with some beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar.

4. Bake cookies for ~15-18 minutes, rotating once half-way through.

5. Remove cookies and let cool.

6. Fill a pastry bag with the filling and pipe a small amount on a cookie. Sandwich the filling with another cookie and gently press down.

Original from: Dessert For Breakfast

Honey Hazelnut Whole Wheat Pound Cake

I was looking for a nice pound cake recipe and found this one on joy the baker. It sounded nice but I had that bag of hazelnut meal I really wanted to use so that was added as well. The honey and hazelnut make a nice combination and the whole heat flour brings it all together. This makes a comforting sweet nutty cake.

Honey Hazelnut Whole Wheat Pound Cake

1 cups white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup hazelnut meal

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

180 gr (1 1/2 sticks) butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup honey

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Butter and flour the loaf pan and.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, whip the butter, sugar and honey on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute after each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the dry mixture and buttermilk in three additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula to make sure everything is evenly incorporated.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pans. Smooth the top down and bake the cake for about hour (I lowered the temperature after an hour and baked the cake for another 30 minutes). The cake will be a lovely golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake will come out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Original from: Joy The Baker

CCCC

This recipe I found in a women's magazine that offered a large number of Christmas recipes, so I just grabbed it for some inspiration. What chocolate chocolate chip cookies have to do directly with Christmas I'm not sure about, but I had the ingredients at home so that was chosen. As I was making the batter I noticed that there was no addition of cocoa powder....So how exactly were they supposed get that dark chocolate color? Great I just bought a magazine full of crappy recipes! Well I made it work, just added some cocoa powder and they actually turned out quite good. Simple, fast and easy- for a pretty impressive cookie (flavor wise that is).

Batter after adding the cocoa powder

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie:

250 gr butter, at room temp.

1 ¼ cups brown sugar

1 tbsp vanilla sugar

pinch of salt

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups (360 gr) flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

200 gr chopped dark chocolate (or chips)

Preheat oven to 190°.

Cream butter, sugars and salt until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.

Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and soda in a seperate bowl, then add to the wet ingredients. Add chocolate.

Place teaspoons of dough on parchment paper and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Cool cookies on wire rack and eat!

Apple Chips

This is such a great way to eat lots of apples!

I made chips from three whole apples and they were gone after 10 minutes.

It is really easy to make them and I think that the hardest would be waiting for them to dry out so you can eat them already!

Before and after baking

Apple Chips:

apples

lemon juice

flavoring (cinnamon, icing sugar)

Preheat oven to 110°.

Cut washed apples into slices with a mandoline, while you are slicing the rest of the apples place the slices in a bowl of cold water with some lemon juice to prevent browning.

After all apples are sliced, place them on as many trays you need in one single layer. Let apples dry out for about an hour (maybe even two, depending on the thickness of the slices).

Tip: Make as many as you can, you will be surprised how fast 3-4 apples are snacked away in minutes.