DB: Piece Montée

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

What a fun challenge. I made the classic version, vanilla creme pastissiere to fill and hard caramel to glue. The only thing non traditional was the shape I guess. At the end of the post you'll see my inspiration.

Making the dough. (totally felt like a work out)

Look how cute and tiny they are...!

Ta-Da! I was inspired by an art project I made in high school, It's a sculpture made entirely out of disposable plastic cups.

Hey!

Well first of all I'd like to apologize for my absence. As you may know I moved back to Tel Aviv and I'm having a long distance relationship with my mixer since it stayed in Germany.

I will definitely continue participating in the Daring Bakers challenges and hopefully be reunited with my mixer soon.

On to some exciting news! This blog is now officially Purplecookie.com !

And if you want to stay updated anytime anywhere please check out the link below and download the Purplecookie application from Nokia's app store - Ovi.

http://store.ovi.com/content/37426

Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies

I'll quote Martha on this one:

Velvety, delicately tart cream cheese blends well with the more cakey, sugary blondie batter. The resulting bars are remarkably rich and highly habit-forming.

Oh yes.

These are by far my favorite blondies!

Blondie batter, amazing on its own!

Before and after baking

Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies:

160 gr butter, room temp

1 ⅔ cups plus 2 tbsp flour

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp coarse salt

1 cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

170 gr (6 ounces) cream cheese, room temp

¼ cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 165°c.

Line a buttered 20 cm square (or round) baking pan.

Whisk together 1 ⅔ cups flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Beat 130 gr of the butter and the brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add two eggs and 1 tsp of vanilla, mix until combined. On low speed add the flour mixture until well combined.

Transfer to a large bowl.

Beat cream cheese, granulated sugar, remaining butter and flour, 1 egg and ½ tsp vanilla on medium speed until smooth.

Pour half the blondie batter into the pan, and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Spoon two-thirds of cream cheese mixture on top, and spread evenly. Drop dollops of remaining batter on top. Top with dollops of remaining cream cheese mixture.

Gently swirl cream cheese mixture into batter with a knife, running it through the layers.

Bake until golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out with crumbs but not wet, 45-50 minutes. Let cool slightly in pan , about 15 minutes.

Let cool completely before cutting in, if you want really clean cuts, place the whole pan in the fridge until cool.

Store at room temperature for about 2 days, they keep longer in the fridge.

Original from: Martha Stewart's Cookies.