DB Danish Redux

I made my second danish braid today and it DID come out better than the first. I wasn't so anxious this time I guess. I took the dough from the freezer last night , and when thawed I formed my braid and filled it with this cream cheese filling -
12 oz cream cheese
1/3 cups sugar
1 egg
plus a little raspberry jelly down the middle. I let it rise in the fridge overnight and baked this morning. Much better the second time around!

Danish Braid a la Daring Bakers

I'm going to start out by saying right off that baking with yeast is not my favorite thing to do. Oh I have made bread in a bread machine with no problem. But this recipe for the June challenge, chosen by our hosts, Kelly of Sass and Veracity and Ben of What's Cooking started out scary because you do not proof the yeast. And it appears to be a recipe that requires patience, of which I have none. This recipe calls for making a dough, laminated with a butter block. No, I have not had the pleasure before.
I made my danish on a Saturday and baked it for a Sunday breakfast. I made the dough recipe as written. It gave me a chance to try my mortar and pestle that my friend Kim picked up for me during an Ikea trip. I opened the cardamon pods and tried to crush the seeds but couldn't get them fine enough so I used my coffee grinder first and then used the mortar and pestle. I didn't have an orange left in my fridge like I thought, so I used water and orange extract instead of orange juice and zest. I had a little fun incorporating the butter into the dough, because it actually seemed to come together like it was supposed to! I did sneek little unbaked bits and it seemed tasty enough.
For my filling I used 8 oz of cream cheese, 1 egg and 1/2 cup sugar. Next time if I fill with cream cheese I will double the filling as it seemed not enough for our tastes.
I think I may have voodooed the dough into not rising to my satisfaction or maybe I was hasty and baked too soon. I also think my dough could have used more flavoring, but maybe more filling would help. I have the second slab of danish dough in my freezer to try again later. I'l try to be more patient!
Daring Bakers are such a fun group. Always something to learn and stretch our cooking skills. Anyway, you can find the long recipe at the hosts' blogs.

Daring Bakers go to the Opera!

A few months ago, in the wintertime, I was searching food blogs for something interesting to eat and stumbled upon a post of one of the Daring Bakers. The DB's started as "just a lovely group of ladies who enjoyed baking the same recipe together, as written, and then showing off our finished delights to each other and the rest of the "blogosphere"". ( It has expanded to include men and women from all over the world!) Hmm -I thought this sounded like a way to increase my baking skills and have fun at the same time. Right I was! But little did I know that all too soon I would get to actaully co-host the challenge for May as one of the "newbies". YYYYIpppppEEEEE!
So- this month's challenge is hosted by the the 2 founders of DB, Lis and Ivonne, along with myself and Shea (fellow lucky newbie!).

The Daring Bakers challenge for May is Opera Cake. Opera Cake traditionally is a joconde (cake) of Paris origin flavored with coffee buttercream and chocolate ganache. Our recipe uses light colors and flavors. After much back and forth, I chose to make a coconut version.
We decided to lighten up the cake to reflect partly the time of year, but also to honor those battling cancer for their perseverance. I have a good friend and former neighbor, Cheryl, who is dealing with what began as colon cancer, but has since advanced to other areas. Also, Barbara at Winos and Foodies for has impressed many with her courage.
At first glance, it looks like this recipe is gonna be another all day show. But actually, it was pretty easy! I broke it down into parts to make it even more simple. One night I made the syrup. No problems there, simple as boiling water! The next night I made the buttercream (coconut was my flavor of choice). I got kind of a late start do the the fact that I was putzing around and my butter was frozen. I got started cooking and set to beating my eggs.

Whoops, I let the syrup get slightly higher than 225 degrees. Oh well, keep on plugging through and SLOWLY pour the hot syrup into the egg mixture. All seemed well, except when I stopped beating I had some strings of egg on the whisk even though I was very careful to pour it down the side of the bowl. So I pull off the strings and continue on to step 5, but this is taking longer than 5 minutes, with no sign of cooling down. So I elect to give it some help.
I hold a bowl of ice under the mixer bowl for a few minutes and that works well to cool it down.
I add the butter and beat it in.
But then I tasted it. Holy moly- this has to be some of the tastiest buttercream I have ever had. Coconut buttercream crack!! Hope it lasts to put in the cake.
The next day, it's time to tackle the baking the joconde. Quite a lot of eggs to crack. My jelly roll pans are a tad small, 10x15, so I make a 4" springform with the extra batter. All goes well, and the cakes bake up quickly, a little longer than 7 minutes (check pan size) as the center took longer to set. I lay them on the counter to cool as stated in the recipe.
I had no real issues assembling the cake. I layered as the recipe stated, but added some coconut flakes on top of the second buttercream. But when it comes time to make the white chocolate glaze, I decide , due to my family's objections, to not glaze the cake as stated, except for my little round cake. I finished the top of my square cake with more buttercream. I added a little raspberry syrup on the plate for presentation.
The finished Opera cake is pretty tasty, I should have used a little more syrup brushed on the layers, but I was afraid it would be too soggy. The layers are impressive and look pretty when cut. Of course the buttercream is beyond fabulous.
If you would like a copy of the recipe, please email me- it is 7 pages long!

Cheesecake POPS!!

The Daring Bakers Challenge for April was Cheesecake Pops from the cookbook Sticky, Gooey, Messy, Chewy By Jill O'Connor, picked with care by our hosts, Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasm and Deborah – Taste and Tell. This is something I never would have thought of, but now I am a believer! They are just the right size!
The cheesecake itself was easy to make, made even easier by my brand spankin' new Kitchenaid Commercial 475 mixer! Yay! I never thought I needed one because my trusty Cuisianart 7 speed hand mixer has plowed through whatever I have asked of it. But the Kitchenaid was such a great deal, with an extra $35 off at Costco, that Mark talked me into it. So nice to not have to stop the mixer to add something.
Anyway, The cake was easy, but took much longer to bake, partly because I used a 9" springform because I didn't have a 10" pan and it is my deepest pan. Also, reading other posts prepared me for a longer bake. I baked for almost 1 1/2 hours, then cooled and refrigerated overnight. Rolling the balls was kinda messy. We all had fun with the balls- reminiscent of this great SNL skit. Mmmm, balls. Fun and games. And yes, my balls are mis-shapen. I ended up using an ice cream scoop and kinda shaping them. I guess I'll buy a smaller cookie scoop, since I'm sure I'd use it anyway. At the end I just cut some in random shapes, which worked real well, and sent them to the freezer to firm.

I used Mercken's milk chocolate wafers to coat some, and while I was at the cake store, I bought some Mercken's butterscotch, which I had never used before. I wasn't going to use them for this recipe, but Mark and Lacey are big bscotch fans so I decided to make a few butterscotch ones. Mark liked the butterscotch better, so I ended up making 1/2 of each flavor. (Note-blogger doesn't like that picture!!!)

The dipping went pretty well, but on the end of my first chocolate batch the chocolate started seizing, so maybe it was too hot, or maybe the cheesecake started to melt a little. I was working by the stove under the halogen lights, so for the rest of the batches I microwaved the chocolate or butterscotch and kept the balls in the freezer until I need more. After that adjustment, coating worked fine.

Mine are certainly not the prettiest- due entirely to my inpatience about anything- but they are really quite tasty!

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops
5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room
2 cups sugar
¼ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
5 large eggs
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)
Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional
Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F. Set some water to boil.In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.
When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.
Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.
By the way, if you haven't checked out the Daring Bakers, founded by Ivonne and Lis, visit our website for more info!

Daring Bakers Make Dorie's Cake

Wow! My first Daring Bakers challenge completed! I am proud to be a part of the group, now over 1,000 strong, started by Lis and Ivonne. Reading other blogs posting about these Daring Bakers got me interested in finding out more. So I signed up for the group and thought- what the heck- might as well start blogging instead of having someone else doing the work of posting about my exploits in the group. Which lead me to thinking that maybe blogging was a good idea also in the fact that I would have a record of what and when I made something to refer back to.
The challenge for March - picked by the host of the month, Morven - was Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake. It's a very pretty lemon cake layered with hot meringue buttercream frosting and raspberry jam. It is a visually beautiful cake. For some reason in the past, I have shied away from recipes that called for egg whites or yolks. Maybe its lack of time, for separating eggs is easy, but sometimes the recipes that call to do that step are a little more involved. But the cake itself was a cinch to make and is light and lightly lemony in flavor. The frosting is very rich and buttery. I took the cake to work, where our office of 6 left just a quarter of the cake to bring home.When I told Mark of the cake I was baking, he claimed that because he didn't like jelly donuts, he wouldn't like the raspberry part. (Hmm- took me 26 years to find that out!) The raspberry layer does make the cake a very appealing sight, with the contrast of the red against the white cake. But to make him happy, I used lemon curd in place of the raspberry, and the cake was very yummy with an extra lemon kick.I would use the cake recipe again in a heartbeat, but personally the frosting was not to my liking. Maybe it was the thought of the 3 sticks of butter in it, but I would have liked a lighter frosting. I may be in the minority, cuz at work they liked the play of the rich frosting and the lighter cake. I would like to try the hot meringue idea without all the butter.

PERFECT PARTY CAKE
Courtesy of Dorie Greenspan’s Baking from My Home to Yours (page 250).

Words from Dorie
Stick a bright-coloured Post-it to this page, so you’ll always know where to turn for a just-right cake for any celebration. The original recipe was given to me by my great dear friend Nick Malgieri, of baking fame, and since getting it, I’ve found endless opportunities to make it – you will too. The cake is snow white, with an elegant tight crumb and an easygoing nature: it always bakes up perfectly; it is delicate on the tongue but sturdy in the kitchen – no fussing when it comes to slicing the layers in half or cutting tall, beautiful wedges for serving; and, it tastes just as you’d want a party cake to taste – special. The base recipe is for a cake flavoured with lemon, layered with a little raspberry jam and filled and frosted with a classic (and so simple) pure white lemony hot-meringue buttercream but, because the elements are so fundamental, they lend themselves to variation (see Playing Around), making the cake not just perfect, but also versatile.

For the Cake
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk with the lemon)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 large lemons)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Finishing
2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves stirred vigorously or warmed gently until spreadable
About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut

Getting Ready
Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter two 9 x 2 inch round cake pans and line the bottom of each pan with a round of buttered parchment or wax paper. Put the pans on a baking sheet.

To Make the Cake
Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
Put the sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl or another large bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between the two pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up (the cooled cake layers can be wrapped airtight and stored at room temperature overnight or frozen for up to two months).

To Make the Buttercream
Put the sugar and egg whites in a mixer bowl or another large heatproof bowl, fit the bowl over a plan of simmering water and whisk constantly, keeping the mixture over the heat, until it feels hot to the touch, about 3 minutes.
The sugar should be dissolved, and the mixture will look like shiny marshmallow cream.
Remove the bowl from the heat.
Working with the whisk attachment or with a hand mixer, beat the meringue on medium speed until it is cool, about 5 minutes.
Switch to the paddle attachment if you have one, and add the butter a stick at a time, beating until smooth.
Once all the butter is in, beat in the buttercream on medium-high speed until it is thick and very smooth, 6-10 minutes.
During this time the buttercream may curdle or separate – just keep beating and it will come together again.
On medium speed, gradually beat in the lemon juice, waiting until each addition is absorbed before adding more, and then the vanilla.
You should have a shiny smooth, velvety, pristine white buttercream. Press a piece of plastic against the surface of the buttercream and set aside briefly.

To Assemble the Cake
Using a sharp serrated knife and a gentle sawing motion, slice each layer horizontally in half.
Put one layer cut side up on a cardboard cake round or a cake plate protected by strips of wax or parchment paper.
Spread it with one third of the preserves.
Cover the jam evenly with about one quarter of the buttercream.
Top with another layer, spread with preserves and buttercream and then do the same with a third layer (you’ll have used all the jam and have buttercream leftover).
Place the last layer cut side down on top of the cake and use the remaining buttercream to frost the sides and top.
Press the coconut into the frosting, patting it gently all over the sides and top.

Serving
The cake is ready to serve as soon as it is assembled, but I think it’s best to let it sit and set for a couple of hours in a cool room – not the refrigerator. Whether you wait or slice and enjoy it immediately, the cake should be served at room temperature; it loses all its subtlety when it’s cold. Depending on your audience you can serve the cake with just about anything from milk to sweet or bubbly wine.

Storing
The cake is best the day it is made, but you can refrigerate it, well covered, for up to two days. Bring it to room temperature before serving. If you want to freeze the cake, slide it into the freezer to set, then wrap it really well – it will keep for up to 2 months in the freezer; defrost it, still wrapped overnight in the refrigerator.

Playing Around
Since lemon is such a friendly flavour, feel free to make changes in the preserves: other red preserves – cherry or strawberry – look especially nice, but you can even use plum or blueberry jam.

You can view all the Daring Bakers' Party Cakes here.