October Daring Baker's Challenge

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

First off, I must say I absolutely LOVE doughnuts! Eating doughnuts always brings me back to my childhood where I loved the plain sugared doughnuts from the neighbourhood bakery. I have always wanted to try my hand at making doughnuts and this challenge was the perfect oppurtunity! The recipe was pretty straightforward, although the dough turned out quite sticky and hard to handle so I had to work a little bit more flour while kneading it. I was glad to see that they rose like little beauties while resting!

It was quite easy frying them in my trusty wok and they fried up pretty quickly!

The final product! I went with my childhood memories and chose to just dust the doughnuts with sugar and a bit of cinnamon!

They were so soft and fluffy and tasty with a hint of nutmeg, and I absolutely love the little airholes from the yeast!

I brought the doughnuts to a gathering of friends and they were wolfed down in seconds! This is definitely something I will make again!



July Daring Baker's Challenge

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.-

What a challenge! I think the most challenging aspect of this challenge was making space in my freezer to make this ice cream cake! I've never made swiss rolls or ice cream before so this was a pretty interesting challenge.

I am quite happy with how the swiss rolls turned out! It was a bit daunting at first thinking about rolling the roll but it was actually quite okay and I'm gald it turned out with a pretty decent swirl. Also, the vanilla cream was delicious!

The vanilla and chocolate ice creams were quite straightforward to make and most of the time was spent waiting for them to set in the freezer. I did have some problems with the chocolate ice cream, it took quite long to set, unlike the vanilla ice cream.

Assembling the final bombe was quite fun and I must admit I was a little impatient in assembling each layer of the ice cream and fudge sauce as I was making it for dessert for a dinner party that very night.

I was pretty excited when it came out of the bowl quite easily with the swirl of the swiss rolls preserved nicely!

The chocolate layer of the bombe took quite long to set in the freezer, it was still quite soft after spending about 7 hours in the freezer and we ended up having dessert at midnight!

The layers of the cake turned out pretty well except that the chocolate ice cream later started melting very quickly when I sliced the cake, However the cake was delicious and I am sure my friends felt that it was well worth the wait!

June 2010 Daring Baker's Challenge

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard

This is not my first time making a meringue but it was my first time making a Pavlova and boy was it challenging! I decided to try making a big pavlova like what they have here in Australia instead of small portions.

It turned out quite well after I took it out of the oven but the challenge was removing it from the baking paper without the crust cracking and breaking! It also started sinking when I piped the mascarpone mousse on the top so I decided dress it after slicing it into individual slices.

I was quite happy with the taste and it was also well received by my friends but I shall definitely look into how I can make a sturdier pavlova!

October Daring Baker's Challenge

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

I have always wanted to try making macarons and boy was it a challenge! It was a pretty busy month for me and hence I could only do it the day before the reveal date.

The piped macaron mixture.

The baked product. Did not turn out as well as I would have like it to be. They were not smooth and they did not have any feet. Tasted alright though.

I decided to make a dark chocolate hazelnut ganache to fill the macarons. Unfortunately the ganache split after I put it together and I managed to fill a few and they tasted pretty good.

Not a perfect outcome, but I will try making macarons again soon when I have more time!

September Daring Baker's Challenge

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

Here are the pictures of my first completed Daring Baker's challenge! Puff pastry was intimidating before I made it but it was pretty manageable! Really enjoyed making it and the product was really yummy!

The empty shells.

Egg salad and smoked salmon

Chicken and mushroom

Strawberry fool

Looking forward to the next challenge!