Baking Partner Challenge - Berry Shortcake

I blame every bit of misreading recipe and instructions to stress and a lot of sunshine and warm summer weather... Seriously, I don't know what got into me...

Number 1 - I think I took too much flour (not sure, though)
Number 2 - I rolled the dough thin ( a lot thinner than I was supposed to)
Number 3 - I came out with crumbly (not soft and not hard) shortcakes. So I'll put the cream and raspberries and rhubarb in the middle of two shortbread cookies

Hopefully I'll get a review from my hubby and his colleagues ;) - but don't bet your last dollar 'cause usually they just say: "It was good/fine/great" :D

Berry Shortcakes (makes 10 shortcakes) (or in my case, a lot more :))

2 pints blueberries or raspberries or a quart of strawberries (hulled and sliced)  (I used raspberry and rhubarb)
4 teaspoons + 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
2 cups (8 ounces) pastry flour or (1 + 3/4 cups (7.5 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup (1 ounce) cornstarch)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 to 1 1/4 cups (8 - 10 ounces) heavy cream
1 to 2 tablespoons melted butter
coarse or sanding sugar, optional, for decorating the tops (I used green sand sprinkles, just because I could :))
1 pint heavy whipping cream

In a large bowl toss the berries with 2 tablespoons of sugar to let some of the juices come out. Cover and refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Fit a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, and 2 teaspoons sugar.

Stir in enough heavy cream to moisten the dough thoroughly. When you squeeze the dough it should stay together without any dry pieces falling off.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and very gently pat it or roll it into an 8" circle about 3/4" thick.

Use a sharp biscuit cutter (2 - 2 + 1/3-inch) to cut into rounds. Combine the scraps and roll out again until you get 10 rounds.

Dip the rounds into melted butter, and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle them generously with coarse sugar.

Bake the biscuits for 15 to 18 minutes until they're golden brown and puffy.

Meanwhile make the whipped cream. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl beat the whipping cream with 2 teaspoons sugar on medium-high speed until thick and stiff. When you lift the beater the cream should stick to it without falling off.

To serve split the shortcakes in half, top with whipped cream, a few spoons of the berries and the juice, more cream, the top biscuit, more whip cream and a few more berries.

So, as you see on the pics I just put cream and berries between 2 cakes...

Berry Shortcake - link to the founder of Baking Partner Challenge :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Baking challenge April...Paleo Lemon Bars

This months baking challenge involved making Lemon Bars. I wanted to do the Walnut Bars too, but I didn't have the time.

I used this recipe for the Paleo version, but I'll also write the "original" challenge recipe for you to try:

Lemon Bars

Basic short crust recipe

All Purpose flour- 1 1/4 cup

Confectioner's sugar- 2/3 cup

Pinch of salt

Cold unsalted butter cut into half inch cubes- 10 tbs  (1 1/4 stick)

For the filling

Sugar- 3/4 cup

Lemon zest- 1 tbs

Egg-4

Lemon juice-1 cup

Condensed milk- 1/2 cup

(or milk 1/2 cup. Milk or condensed milk is optional it gives the bars a custard flavor and firmer texture)

All purpose flour- 3 tbs

Salt- 1/8 tsp

Yellow food color- 2-3 drops (optional)

Powdered sugar for dusting

To make the crust

Pre heat oven to 325°F and position rack in the center of the oven.Butter a 9 inch square baking pan and set aside (you can also line pan with aluminum foil)

Using a food processor,mix flour,sugar and salt.Add pieces of butter and pulse 8-10 times till the mixture resembles coarse meal. Process until the mixture forms large clumps and holds together when pinched between two fingers (around 15-20 seconds). 

Scrape dough into prepared pan and pat it into an even layer.Using a fork prick the dough at one inch intervals. 

Bake the crust for 20 minutes till the edges become golden brown. Allow this to cool in the pan on a wire rack.

To make the filling

Pulse sugar and lemon zest in a processor till it is fragrant. Beat eggs and mix the sugar and whisk till it is pale yellow color. Add the condensed milk, lemon juice, flour and salt. 

Pour over the baked crust. Bake at 325°F for18-20 minutes or until just set and firm to touch. Cool in room temperature and the place in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour before cutting into bars. 

To finish dust the top of each bar with powdered sugar and serve. Store lemon bars tightly warped in room temperature for two days or in the freezer for one week

An InLinkz Link-up

Birthday cake and cupcakes

This is a cake and some mini cupcakes to a man that turned 60 years old... It is an ordinary cake base, filled with raspberry mousse and pastry custard mixed with some whipped cream. Coated with IMBC (Italian Meringue Butter Cream) and decorated with blue soft pearls and white and silver nonpareils.

The cupcakes are either filled with lemon curd and frosted with IMBC, or filled with pastry custard and frosted with whipped chocolate ganache

Links:

IMBC

Milk chocolate frosting

Baking challenge - april

Sooo... I made the carrot cake and a Paleo carrot cake - I have also made chocolate babka buns, and will do a paleo version and post them later...

ORANGE CARROT CAKE with ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FILLING and PINEAPPLE CREAM CHEESE ICING

CAKE
4 eggs, room temperature
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup spiced rum
1/2 cup golden raisins
2 cups finely shredded carrots
1 cup flaked coconut
1 - 11 ounce can mandarin orange sections, drained WELL and coarsely chopped
•         Pour rum over raisins and set aside for at least an hour.
•         Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
•         Line pans with waxed paper and grease and flour the paper in 3-8 inch cake pans.
•         In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, orange peel, salt and sugar.
•         In another bowl cream together the canola oil, vanilla and 1 egg. Add additional eggs and beat until well creamed.
•         Add dry ingredients gradually until well blended.
•         Fold in carrots and coconut blending well.
•         Drain raisins and oranges WELL and fold in last.
•         Spoon batter into prepared pans.
•         "drop" pans to settle batter evenly.
•         Bake 30-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
•         Cool 10 minutes.
•         Remove layers from pans and remove wax paper.
•         Invert cakes onto rack and cool completely before assembling.

Because I like to use what I have at home at the moment, I used Bacardi Rum w/ coconut extract in stead of the Parrot Rum, and I substituted the mandarins w/ bits of orange 

ORANGE CREAM CHEESE FILLING
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup orange marmalade
1/2 cup powdered sugar
•         In a medium mixing bowl beat cream cheese until fluffy.
•         Add orange marmalade and powdered sugar.
•         Spread the filling between each layer.

PINEAPPLE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar

•         In a medium bowl beat cream cheese and butter until smooth.
•         Add lemon juice and vanilla. Beat until blended.
•         Add powdered sugar gradually until well blended and smooth.
•         Ice first layer and then add 2nd cake top and ice again including sides of cake.
•         Refrigerate 1 hour to set icing before serving.

Paleo Carrot cake recipe here

An InLinkz Link-up

March baking challenge goes Paleo

Hi y'all

Since I'm trying to find some new ways to stay healthy, I'm trying the Paleo lifestyle for a period of time... When it comes to adjusting your food there's both pros and cons... The pros are that I feel healthy, I don't starv myself, I don't go hungry and there are a lot of exciting recipes I can try (both main courses and desserts) :) On the downside comes the cost... Almond flour cost a lot more than APF and some of the other ingredients are not a staple in my house so it cost some money to fill my cupboard with the right stuff...

So... Enough is enough - here is the "original Cracker challenge recipe" followed by the one I made... Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS THAT ARE REPLACED WITH ORIGINAL:
·         Vinegar (instead of cream of tartar)
·         APF (instead of Pasta flour)
 

PREPARATION TIME:  20 minutes (excluding overnight refrigeration)
BAKING TIME:  10-12 minutes (I made them, like four batches)
YIELD:  40-45 crackers
INGREDIENTS REQUIRED:
·         ¾  cup of all purpose flour
·         Pinch of salt
·         Pinch of Baking soda
·         2-3 drops of vinegar
·         ½ tsp sugar
·         ¼  cup lukewarm water
·         1 and ½ tsp active dry yeast
·         3 tbspn water
·         1 tbspn butter
·         1 tbspn oil
For the topping
·         1 tsp sea salt
·         1 tbspn dry herbs (You could also prefer  any seasoning, or any specific herb)
METHOD:
Bring last three ingredients (water, butter and oil)  to boil, in an vessel.  Stir till butter is melted, keep aside. Cool them till they are lukewarm.

Mix yeast with lukewarm water and sugar, keep aside.
In an separate bowl, take the dry ingredients together like flour, salt, soda. To this add vinegar and gently mix through.  Now add in yeast mixture, by making and well and mix.  After yeast is mixed well, pour our lukewarm wet ingredients and mix to form a soft, sticky dough

Transfer this dough to an greased dry vessel and cover with an cling wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.

 After an overnight resting, dough wont double as such, but still an ‘little’ rise is okay.  Bring this to room temperature  and keep them over the working table dusting with excess of flour.

 Fold them through left half vertically.  Repeat the same through right side, till this resembles an ‘envelope’.  Pre-heat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.
Turn them to 90 degree and start rolling.  This folding and rolling is done, in order to get an flaky cracker, the ones you see in commercially known Britannia 50-50, Monaco etc.

I rolled them, till I got an very thin sheet.  About, 34 *20 cm.  You can forget about measurements, also the shape, here, but remember to get an very thin sheet.

I cut them horizontal and vertical lines, with 4 cm as an apt length for each of my salting cracker.  Spread topping uniformly and press them with help of rolling pin under an baking sheet, in order to stick the topping over crackers.Cut them over the drawn line, place in baking sheet and make holes using grilling stick/toothpick.  Be careful when you separate them, these crackers will be sticky.Bake them in pre-heated oven for ten to twelve minutes.  Watch them closely, as they can easily burn or brown, remove from oven till edges are slightly brown and cool over wire rack completely.


GRAIN FREE  PALEO ALMOND CRACKERS

Ingredients:
1 cup almond flour
1 egg white
1 pinch salt

(that's it!)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together the almond flour, egg white, and salt until it forms a paste.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Make sure you use parchment paper, because if you don't you'll end up chipping your crackers out of the pan. Place the dough in the middle and top with another piece of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin (or any other cylindrical instrument), roll out the dough as thin as you can get it. Try to make it take up the whole cookie sheet if you can. Super thin. I mean it!

Peel off the top layer of paper and score the dough with a knife into whatever size crackers you want. Bake in the 325 oven for 10 minutes and then check on the crackers. You are looking for them to color ever so slightly. A little color means crispy, but a lot of color means burned nut taste, which is no good. If the edges have started to color nicely, remove them to a plate and put the remaining crackers back in the oven. Keep doing this, checking every 5 minutes and removing the golden crackers, until finally they are all baked to perfection.

Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

You can make many variations on thee crackers by adding in different seasonings to the dough base.  I used sea salt and poppy seeds.

Baking challenge february - Linzer cookies

I made the Linzer cookies for this months challenge... I had homemade cloudberry jam at home, so that's what I used. The cookies are supposed to be light in colour, but I used only hazelnut flour, so they turned out a bit "rough".

Last months challenge I gave to my husband to take to work, this month I gave it to my dad, to take to his bridge evening :)

Makes about  40  2 inch  cookies
1  cup 2 tablespoon  (5.06 ounces)/145g unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2.5 ounces) 63g  ground almonds and/or hazelnuts
1/4 cup (1.75 ounces)/50g granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
8 tablespoon of  unsalted butter
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest or 1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon grated orange zest or 1/4 teaspoon orange extract
Strained or pureed good quality preserves or fruit spread
 1 teaspoon + extra Powdered sugar for dusting

Equipment:
Cookie sheets, lined with parchment paper
Food processor
Large and small cookie cutters of the same or a different shape, such as a 2-inch square and
a  ¾ inch square

Directions,
Blanch almond and make powder with 1 teaspoon of powdered sugar like this.
In a bowl of kitchen aid stand mixer combine the flour,   ground nuts, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon, cloves , almond extract and the lemon and orange zests or extracts .  Then add the butter (cut into several pieces if firm) mix well until mixture looks damp and crumbly. Continue mixing until all the dough comes together.  Remove the dough, press it into a ball, and knead it a few times to be sure all of the dry ingredients are blended into the dough.
Form the dough into 1 flat patty. Wrap and refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours and preferably overnight or up to 3 days. The dough may be frozen for up to 3 months.

When you are ready  to bake. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven.

To Roll and Cut Cookies:
Remove dough from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature until supple enough to roll but still quite firm. It will continue to soften as you work. Roll the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch between sheets of wax paper or between heavy plastic sheets cut from a plastic bag. Turn the dough over once or twice while you are rolling it out to check for deep wrinkles; if necessary, peel off and smooth the paper or plastic over the dough before continuing to roll it. When the dough is thin enough, peel off the top sheet of paper or plastic and keep it in front of you. Invert the dough onto that sheet and peel off the second sheet.

Cut as many large shapes as possible. Dip the edges of the cookie cutters in flour as necessary to prevent sticking. Cut a smaller shape from the center of half of the large shapes. Use the point of a paring knife to lift and remove scraps as you transfer the cookies to the lined pans. Place large cookies at least 1 1/2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. If the dough gets too soft at any time-while rolling, cutting, removing scraps between cookies, or transferring cookies-slide a cookie sheet underneath the paper or plastic and refrigerate the dough for a few minutes, until firm. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Gently press all of the dough scraps together (don't overwork them with too much kneading) and reroll.

Bake for 15  to 25 minutes , or until the cookies are just beginning to color at the edges. Rotate the pans from top to bottom and from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. (The small shapes may be baked for 8 to 10 minutes on a separate cookie sheet to make miniature cookies, or the dough may be combined with other dough scraps to be rerolled and cut.)

Let the cookies firm up on the pan for 1 to 2 minutes. For lined pans, set the pans or just the liners on racks to cool; for unlined pans, use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to racks. Cool the cookies completely before stacking or storing. The cookies are delicious fresh but even better the next day. May be kept in an airtight container for a month or more.

To assemble, shortly before serving, spread each solid cookie with a thin layer of preserves. Sift powdered sugar over the cookies with cutouts. Place a sugared cutout cookie on top of each preserve-covered cookie.

Leftover cookies can be stored in an airtight container, but the moisture from the preserves will soften them

Baking Challenge January

My husband and his friends at work ate this yesterday, with some whipped cream, grated dark chocolate and Rum...

This month we have tried a Dutch recipe - suggested and tried by Kaveri of Palakad Chamyal.

Traditional Dutch Apple Pie (Appletaart)

Recipe Source: The Dutch Table (http://www.thedutchtable.com/2010/01/appeltaart-dutch-apple-pie.html)

For the crust/base

All Purpose Flour – 2 cups

Butter – 175 g

Sugar – ¾ cup

Milk – 4 tbsp, cold

For the filling

Tart Apples (Elstar/Babern/Granny Smith) – 2 big

Lemon Juice – 1 tbsp

Raisins soaked in apple juice (next time I will try soaling them in Rum :)) – 1 cup

Speculass Spices (recipe further down) – 1 tbsp

Cream of Wheat/Semolina/Rava – 2 tbsp

Sugar – ¼ cup (See notes)

White Bread – 2 slices

How-to-do-it

1.       Mix the flour with the sugar, salt and cut in the butter. Rub gently and quickly with your hands. It is ok to have pea sized pellets.

2.       Add the cold milk 1 tbsp at a time and knead into a dough.

3.       Do not work too much with hands. Do the kneading quickly.

4.       Refrigerate the dough at least for half an hour or until the dough is firm and pliable.

5.       Get the filling ready,

6.       Peel and core the apples.

7.       Cut the apples and slice them. Don’t make them small. They have to be big slices.

8.       Toss them with the rest of the ingredients, except the bread and set aside.

9.       Grease and dust a springfoam pan. (I used an 8 inch pan)

10.   Take the dough out of the refrigerator, keep aside 1/5th of the dough.

11.   Press the remaining dough onto the base and ¾ the height of the sides of the springform pan.

12.   Cut the edges of the bread and cut them into small cubes. Place these bread cubes all over the base.

13.   Now add in the apple raisin mixture, press lightly to fit in.

14.   Now, to do the lattice,

15.   Take out ¼ th of the dough that has been kept aside,

16.   On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough and cut into strips.

17.   Place 3 strips from one end to the other, and the remaining 3 strips crossing over the previously laid strips.

18.   With the last bit of dough, roll into a rope like and place around the circumference of the pie.

19.   Brush the top with milk and sprinkle some sugar.

20.   Bake at 350 F (175°C) for 75 minutes.

Notes:

I have skipped the eggs in the recipe. Feel free to follow the original recipe with eggs.

I felt that the apples I used were too tart, and the sweetness of ¼ cup was slightly on the lesser side. Taste the filling and feel free to increase or decrease the sugar depending on the tartness of apples.

The speculaas spice mix:

15 grams  cinnamon

5 grams  cloves

5 grams nutmeg

2 grams white pepper

2 grams coriander seed

2 grams aniseed