Daring Bakers: Caramel confusion

Another month, another challenge, brings us another cake! One thing for sure, joining the Daring Bakers a year and a half ago helped my fear of baking cakes lessen. I still don't think I can bake a presentable cake (might be that I am far too harsh on myself, I'm forever scared that's it's not up to par. Falling, denting, not done in the middle, overbaked and dry, and never tall enough...) but instead of avoiding them I just make myself bake anyway.

Strange enough, I have no fear of making caramel. Which leads me to the following deduction:

adoring an element = mastering the technique

(following this equation I should be able to make perfect sushi, HAR!).

That's what this challenge was all about; caramel, cake, caramel, frosting, caramel fudge caramel. Sounds like my kind of fare no?
Loved the caramel. Loved making the caramel. Caramel flavour in the cake really shone through. I thought the cake was too dense to be really more-ish though. I do want to make it again though, this time using self-raising flour seeking elevation and lightness!

Brown butter frosting was a first for me, browning butter makes me want to add onions, garlic or meat not cream! It was fairly easy to make, although adding granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar was no sign of intelligence on my part.... Resulting in grainy very very sweet frosting, adding a healthy (?!) dose of "fleur de sel de Camarque" did a whole lot of good to the quarter batch I made. I do want to try another brown butter frosting (eh? yes!) less sweet, keeping the browned butter ánd the salt).Another hitch I encountered was using a 9" square baking tin, I wish I had opted for (mini)cupcakes instead because my kids adored this cake! They literally inhaled it... everyday after school their first question was: is there any cake left? Can we have some? My reckless confirmation made me realise yesterday that all of the cake is gone. Without me making the required full frontal pictures. Darn!

There's some of that gorgeous delicious caramel syrup left; now what to do with left over caramel? Baking Soda is rubbing her hands, foolish grin on her face, drooling and dreaming.... (The onlookers know that she has to think of a way to get it out of the bottle first).

This challenge was a real team effort; three Daring Bakers combined forces and managed to include a famous chef to submit the recipe and even answer questions on our Daring Bakers forum! Great job girls! Our host: Dolores (Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity) and her co-hosts: Alex (Blondie and Brownie) and Jenny (Foray Into Food) chose to make Shuna Fish Lydon’s famous Caramel Cake. Shuna writes a very informative blog called: Eggbeater, go there! And while you're clicking away, don't forget to check out all the Caramel Bakers in the blogroll on the right hand side.

Caramel syrup
500 ml sugar
125 ml water
240-250 ml water for "stopping" the syrup process


Mix sugar and water to a paste in a small heavy saucepan with fairly high sides (used my Le Creuset small saucepan). Don't touch the sugar while turning the heat up to high, cooking until you'll get a nice even, dark caramel color. Take a step back and pour the water into the pan to stop the caramelization. This sputters and rises up to the sides of your pan so beware and stand back while pouring slowly and carefully.

The ferocious bubbling will slow down, continue cooking for a couple of minutes over medium heat, stirring all the time with a wooden long handled spoon, to reduce it slightly. Aim for a sticky feeling when pressed between two fingers or watch the drops fall from your tilted spoon, the last drop should linger and almost pull a thread, not quite but almost.

Apple Cider jelly

apple stem, originally uploaded by BakingSoda.

Recipe:
1 kg tart cooking apples
4 oranges
4 cloves
1 liter sweet cider
cold water
450 gr sugar used on 600 ml juice (measure juice, calculate amount of sugar to use)

Preferrably use organic fruit, otherwise scrub fruit thoroughly to get rid of any unwanted chemicals! Cut up all fruit, peels and cores and all. Using a large pot, add cloves and cider to fruit pieces and fill up with water. Use sufficient water to top the fruit, don't let it swim. Bring to a soft boil and let simmer for 1 hour or until the fruit is really soft. (water needs to be bubbling a bit).

Use either a jelly bag or a clean teatowel (double piece of cheesecloth) and a sieve above a bowl to extract all the juices. This can take well up to a couple of hours or maybe overnight (just cover and keep it on the counter).

Measure the juice and add sugar accordingly. Boil the mixture on low heat to dissolve sugar crystals, then up the heat to high and bring to a rolling boil for about 10 minutes (temperature needs to be 105C/220F. Watch out for splatters and boiling over, use a pot with high sides! You might want to get rid of any foam forming on the surface, use a skimmer.
To make sure the jelly has sufficiently thickened spoon a little on a very cold plate and see if it forms a nice jellied drop.

Proceed to can, I use sterilized jam pots and lids, pour the still boiling hot fluid in and tighten the lid, put them upside down for a couple of minutes and leave to cool.

This jelly is very good with pork, on toast, with breakfast and your Christmas Stollen, or use it in apple pie!

Other posts:
Apfelstrudel
Appel sinasappel gelei zelfde recept in het Nederlands
Apple-citrus syrup
Christmas Stollen!

Appeltaart van Appie / Is this the one? Dutch apple pie

(Please scroll for English)

En? Ken jij iemand die nog nooit iets gemaakt heeft uit de Allerhande? Mensen die geen stapeltje Kerst exemplaren boven op de kast hebben liggen voor je weet maar nooit?
In het laatste nummer stond een appeltaart van Cees Holtkamp (banketbakker en patissier, mede-auteur van Koekje), en die heb ik geprobeerd. Kon het natuurlijk weer niet laten om hier en daar iets anders te doen, het resultaat was erg erg goed!

Recept:
Deeg:
1 tl rasp citroen schil
1 el citroen sap
125 gr roomboter op kamertemperatuur
125 gr witte basterdsuiker
250 gr zelfrijzend bakmeel

Vulling:
700-800 gr appels, geschild, in smalle schijfjes
75 gr rozijnen
10 gr cranberries

mespunt kaneel

1 el custard poeder

6 el appel-sinasappel gelei
150 gr amandelspijs (gemengd met 1 eidooier en 1 el boter)

springvorm: 24 cm, ik gebruikte een taart/vlaaivorm van 28 cm!

Voor het deeg:

- Boter, suiker, citroenrasp en citroensap pulsen in keukenmachine tot een egale masse (gladde pasta) voeg 1 el koud water toe en meng tot het water is opgenomen.

- Bloem toevoegen en kort pulsen tot volledig opgenomen. Dan nog 1 el water toevoegen. Meng.

- Deeg laten rusten, goed verpakt in plastic, paar uur in de koelkast of liever nog een hele nacht. Dit maakt dat de suiker goed wordt opgenomen in het deeg.

Voor de vulling: Appelschijfjes omscheppen met rozijnen, krenten, kaneel, custardpoeder en jam.

Het deeg uitrollen tot een plak die de bodem en zijwanden van je vorm bedekt. De amandelspijs eveneens uitrollen tot een dunne plak (lastig, maar op een bebloemd aanrecht te doen), deze laag amandelspijs komt bovenop je deegbodem en zorgt er zo voor dat evt vocht uit de appels dat niet gebonden is door de custard niet in de bodem dringt = geen soppige korst!

Appels verdelen over de deeg-/amandelbodem en het geheel goed aandrukken.

Bakken: 50 minuten in voorverwarmde oven van 200C (hetelucht 180C), dan nog 10 minuten op 200C voor een mooie goudbruine korst. Evt. aflakken met een paar eetlepels verwarmde jam.

Oordeel: Heel erg lekkere appeltaart! De korst vond ik prima, net de goede balans tussen krummelig en vast, niet te zoet. Vulling vond ik ook erg prettig, vooral het minieme beetje kaneel vond ik beter dan de grotere hoeveelheid die ik normaal gebruik (plus het feit dat er geen extra suiker door de appels gaat, veel frisser!). Dan de vorm, ik vind het lekker om wat meer evenwicht te hebben tussen vulling en bodem dus voor mij was de grotere bodem prima, dit betekent een dunner laagje appels en niet zo'n grote appelhap met minieme hoeveelheid korst. Absoluut een aanrader!

A real Dutch apple pie, brought to you by one of our major patissiers Cees Holtkamp (co-author of "Koekje" a little cookie-book with all Dutch favourite cookies).

Recipe dough:

1 ts lemon zest

1 tbs lemon juice

125 gr butter, roomtemperature

125 gr soft white sugar

250 gr self raising flour
Recipe filling:

700-800 gr peeled, cored, small sliced apples

75 gr raisins
10 gr dried cranberries
pinch cinnamon
1 Tbs custard powder (binds the apple juices)
6 Tbs apple-cider jelly

150 gr almond paste (mixed with 1 egg yolk and 1 tbs butter)

Either a 24 cm springform for a taller cake, or -as I used- a 28 cm tart pan with removable bottom for a thinner crust/thinner filling.

In a food processor pulse butter, sugar, zest and juice to a paste. Add 1 tbs cold water and blend. Tip in flour and pulse till combined. Add another tbs cold water and pulse to blend. You'll get a paste-like dough this way. Wrap in plastic and chill for a couple of hours or overnight in the fridge. The sugar will have the time to fully melt into the dough, ensuring a nice and crusty crust.

Roll dough to a circle fitting the bottom of your pan and up the sides. Roll a similar disc from the almond paste (this one doesn't have to be all the way up the sides, it's used to seal the crust from apple juices). Rolling almond paste can be hard, better to flour your worksurface very well!

For the filling mix apple slices with dried fruit, cinnamon, custard powder and jelly. Divide filling on your crust.

Bake for 50 minutes in a preheated oven 180C (fan assisted oven) or 200C regular oven, then another 10 minutes on 200C (fan) or 220C (regular) to get the golden finish on top.

Unlike the original Dutch apple pie which is baked in a smaller springform I really liked the crust/filling ratio I got when baked in a larger pan as I did. The crust was really great, nice and crumbly without being too soft or overly sweet. Same for the filling, I used to add more cinnamon ánd sugar in the filling, and was happy to discover this one kept a fresh tone of apples!

Really a keeper!

Bread Baking Babes: When the going gets tough..

you get crackers! Swedish knäckebrot to be exact. Our Kitchen of the Month girl Görel over at Grain Doe enthralled us with round rye crackers, made with a rye-starter and a rye pre-ferment. Lots and lots of rye. I love rye! The starter had to be made with grated apples! Yum! My kitchen would smell like a distillery and I would get to munch on knäckebrot as a reward. Did I mention I love my knäckebrot?

Rye. Baking with rye has its moments. Baking with sharp rye -as in whole rye- has even more moments enhanced with colourful language. My starter matured without a hitch, it survived our stay in Rome, and was easily revived for use in the pre-ferment.

I accidently -nah..did it on purpose ssst!- switched the amounts of rye and whole wheat in the final dough. I was running low on rye and forewarned by Lien who had some difficulty getting the dough consistency right I decided to use whole wheat as my main flour. It turned out to be a good one, my dough had what I thought to be the right feel to it. No adding water/no adding flour.

Rolling it out to the final crackers wasn't difficult, deciding how thin it was going to be proved harder. I settled for medium thickness but got chewy crackers. The revelation waited in the middle; I cut out a hole using a cookie cutter and those were perfect!! Nice, cute and crunchy mini-crackers!

The flavour. Yes, most important. I loved the flavour of those tiny ones! Absolutely great. So what I need to find out is how thin they have to be, or else bake loads and loads of mini ones. Thanks Görel, this was a challenging one!

Our Bread Baking Babes can be found on the right hand side column. Join us this month and get your own Baking Buddy Badge! The recipe is to be found here.

Need you!! Fill these with Greek Fish Soup?

Next time I talk before I think please remind me to do some research first!
Short story: I need a recipe for authentic Greek fish soup (Psarosoupa?) preferrably rather uncomplicated to make and palatable for 25-odd teenagers and a teacher. Soup's up for a grade.

Situation is this:
My handsome, very friendly, easy going, 15yr old firstborn also known as Son nr. 1 is currently in his 5th year of our Dutch highschool. One year to go before embarking to University... (yikes, but that's a whole other chapter). Anyway, he is taking Greek and one of the highlights of this 5th year in school is the trip to Greece, to see for themselves what they've been studying. He had a great time, but it wasn't only fun and freedom; they are required to do a project which besides translating enormous bodies of Greek texts also has to include a paper about one of the sites they visited, eventually leading to a presentation for class and teacher. Grade will count with his final exams.

He and a friend chose to highlight the Greek god of the sea and oceans; the sanctuary of Poseidon at Cape Sounion; narrowing it down to his wifes, mistresses and his children. Hmm, boys will be boys.

Dining table discussion of said project presentation:
Son: Mam, we need something to stand out, something that will add a touch of uniqueness.
Silly me: well, dress in toga and trident, do your talk while offering samples of Greek fish soup... Poseidon = water + fish = soup?

They ditched the toga and trident (why? I wonder) but kept the fish soup idea, even mentioning it in their paper.... which got a rave review from their teacher. Teacher even highlighted the recipe and doodled a charicature of himself drooling over fish soup...

Handsome, Friendly, Easygoing Son nr. 1: Mam, you'll make the soup?

SIGH!

I happen to have an assortment of white fish in the freezer, found recipes on the internet using more or less similar ingredients. One serves the soup pureed and uses half of the fish/vegetables as an aside dressed with lemon/olive oil. The other is a clear soup with vegetables and fish, using lemon juice in the stock.

What to do? Anyone a great authentic recipe to be served in paper cups? Help?!

Looking up (Rome)

In one of the travel guides I read the advice to bring a mirror when planning your trip to Rome. Not to check if your appearance can stand the scrutiny of the high and mighty (impeccably dressed and made up) Roman shopgirls, but to avoid sore neck and shoulder muscles from gazing at ceilings!

Brown coarse Bulgur with Sauce Marocque

Write, write, before you forget! On one of my isle prowling in the Turkish shop a bag of whole grain bulgur found it's way into my basket. Sat for a while in the pantry because unlike the quick cooking bulgur you'll find in the aisle of your supermarket this one needed some time to cook. Another thing was that I wasn't too sure the kids would like this version. They love couscous, but this one definitely had a healthy glow to it...

Turns out I needn't worry, it was gobbled up like it was one of the big P's (pizza, pommes frites, pancakes). Cooking this bulgur resembled cooking risotto or pilav. Made a moroccan style tomato sauce to accompany.

Directions brown coarse bulgur:

(5 minutes active cooking, simmering 20 minutes, absorb 20 minutes. Serves: 6)

- 4 tbs butter/margarine

- 320 gr bulgur

- 600 ml broth (I used half chicken/half vegetable)

- 1 tsp salt

Melt butter in a large saucepan, add bulgur and saute for about 3-4 minutes while stirring continuously. Add heated broth and salt, give a quick stir, cover and let simmer over low heat until bulgur absorbs all the liquid. Stir every once in a while to make sure the bulgur doesn't get attached to the bottom and distribute the broth evenly. This takes about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and place a cloth napkin/teatowel (a napkin will do great) over the saucepan and replace the cover! Leave in a warm spot for another 20 minutes. It will stay warm and continues to steam while the napkin takes care of excess moisture, excellent way of cooking.

Sauce Marocque

(takes about 40 minutes, start when you add broth to bulgur or make in advance and re-heat when ready)

2-3 chicken breasts, diced fairly large
1 large onion, chopped
2 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves, pressed
675 gr. fresh tomatoes, skinned, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
10 dried abricots, quartered
1 tbs brown sugar
2 pinches (knife tips) hot spanish pepper
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/4 tsp ancho chili powder
----
Optional: I added some broccoli and green beans
3 tbs parsley, fresh chopped
3 tbs coriander

In another large sauce pan, brown chicken in the olive oil to a light golden colour and remove from pan. Set aside. Saute onions and garlic over low heat in remaing oil and add peppers, saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes, the rest of the spices plus abricots and simmer to reduce moisture from tomatoes, half covered, on medium heat. Aim for a thickening sauce which will take about 15-20 minutes. Then add vegetables of your choice, chicken pieces and fresh parsley and coriander and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables and chicken are done.

Airing

In the spotlight: Rome

Think I can safely say that I came back from Rome, inches shorter than I went. Gosh how we walked! Maybe that's why I bought those towering shoes...gaining height! (That's height with an "H" not with a "W", the latter's been taking care of thank you!). A modest pasta cutter is the one and only kitchen item that came home with me. Sigh. I guess this means I have to go back again someday!

Didn't think it was possible to see all most of the sights and still have a relaxing 4 days, but we somehow managed to do exactly that. Sipping our espresso lungi, risking life and limbs by crossing streets, (pedestrians in Rome? Pah!), pain in our necks from looking up at beautiful ceilings and buildings, had our own silly game by guestimating how many branded items one fashionista can wear in one outfit... We had the most beautiful weather for a city trip, it was sunny and bright, warm enough to walk around without a coat, warm enough to have al fresco dinners. With the kids safe at home in my parents care, not a worry to distract us but where to walk and where to eat...