Daring Bakers...Baked Alaska

I finally got around to completing my Daring bakers challenge. This month the Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers have partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge the Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petite Fours. The sources of Elissa's chellenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop.

I chose to go with the Baked Alaska, mainly because the idea has always intrigued me. Again the recipe was quite laborious with three components to put together (cake, ice cream and meringue). I have never eaten pound cake and think it must be an American cake as I remember it being mentioned on Grey Anatomy once (both entertaining and educational). The process of browning the butter was quite interesting and not something I had ever done before, I think it contributed a wonderful flavour to the cake, and will do it again.

Overall I didn't think too much of the dessert, the meringue was really soft and fluffy, which is not my favourite thing, I find things that are airy in texture make me feel a bit gross when they are in my mouth. The pound cake was quite dry, which I think was caused by sitting in the freezer allowing the meringue to set and then blasting it in the hot oven to brown it off.

I would recommend giving the pound cake a whirl, it was dense and quite rich with a lovely flavour from the browned butter. It would make a good birthday cake if you felt like a change from a plain sponge cake.

POUND CAKE

275g Unsweetened BUTTER

2 cups cake FLOUR (never heard of, put 2 tbspn of cornflour into your measuring cup and make up to a standard cup with plain flour)

1 tsp BAKING POWDER

1/2 tsp SALT

1/2 cup lightly packed BROWN SUGAR

1/3 cup granulated SUGAR

4 large EGGS

1/2 tspn VANILLA EXTRACT

Preheat the oven to 160C, place a tray in the centre of the oven and prepare a 25cm x 25cm baking tray with some baking paper.

Put the butter into a saucepan and heat slowly. On a medium heat gently brown the butter, it will smell delicious and nutty. Watch it like a HAWK it will burn easily. Once ready allow to cool, transfer to a shallow bowl and pop in the freezer so the butter congeals, but doesn't go completely hard (about 15mins).

Sieve together the flour, baking power and salt.

Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Mix in vanilla.

Combine mixtures gently until just mixed. Scrape into prepared baking tray.

Cook at 160C for about 25 minutes or until lightly brown on top and a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tray and turn out on a rack.

You could cut this in half and fill with jam and cream, or ice with a really rich ganache. The cake is quite plain, but a perfect base to impress.

The best muesli slice...ever

I cannot believe it has been nearly 2 weeks since my last blog....shocking! It has been a very busy couple of weeks, The Boss' Great Grandmother came to stay and we went on a road trip up north to Keri Keri, I love Northland so it was a real treat. I suspect Great Grandma left with a bleeding tongue due to the number of times she had to bite it, as she witnessed my attempts of 'modern' parenting. The wonderful thing about my Grandmother is she makes her own pastry and bread, she could not hide her disappointment when she caught site of my frozen bought pastry and bags of bread. So while she stayed she made us a wonderful bacon and egg pie, which nearly had me converted to making my own, yet to be truly converted though. She also made us a Yorkshire pudding, which I am going to have a go at asap, so watch this space. Yorkshire pudding is not for those threatened by heart disease, but is a delicious treat with a slow roasted piece of beef and gravy.

Onto this super slice I made for Mr Hoopers lunch box this week. You need a few ingredients, but things are flexible with this recipe so feel free to mix things up a bit. You may recall a previous blog for a muesli slice, well this one has similar ingredients, but is naughtier, and doesn't need cooking, fabo!

THE BEST MUESLI SLICE...EVER

125g crushed BISCUITS such as malt, arrowroot or wine (not too fine, a chunky rubble)
25g shredded COCONUT
100g SULTANAS
25g PUMPKIN SEEDS
50g CHOCOLATE CHIPS
100g chopped HAZELNUTS or WALNUTS
125g ROLLED OATS, toasted (about 7-10mins spread on a tray in a hot oven)
50g chopped DATES
100g chopped DRIED APRICOTS
100g melted BUTTER
200g SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK

ICING
150g CREAM CHEESE
about 100g ICING SUGAR
zest and juice of half a LEMON

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Pour in the melted butter and condensed milk, mix very well. Line a 25cm x 30cm (approx) tray with some baking paper. Press the mixture into the tray and refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.

You can either mix the icing ingredients by hand with a vigorous stir, or throw everything into a food processor. Spread icing on the slice and decorate with a sprinkling of nuts or pumpkin seeds if you so desire.

Some variations you could try out...
-replace the rolled oats with you favourite muesli
-replace the choc chips with currants, dried cranberries, or crystallised ginger
-use macadamia or pecan nuts

I hope you enjoy this slice, it is so easy and a fabulous sweet treat to fill the 3pm void, and quite frankly who can resist cream cheese icing!

I am planning a baby shower at the moment, so if you have any hot tips on throwing the best shower ever, please share them.

Date Snowballs

Today began poorly. As Mr Hooper walked out the door for work, I clung desperately to his leg, begging him to pull a sicky. He refused. As the door shut behind him, I rocked gently back and forth in the corner of our living room, watching my 6.5 month old son move around the room leaving behind him a trail of destruction. The Boss has transformed into The Beast, he is crawling and pulling himself up, so I am now on strict concussion watch, his head is massive so gravity enjoys dragging it towards the floor at a tremendous rate.



To maintain moderate sanity I imprisoned him in his high chair, with the wonderful satisfaction that ultimately I have the upper hand, well at least for now, no doubt I will receive years of pay back when he is twice me size and has a drivers licence. So as The Beast writhed with frustration in his new limited dwelling, I set about making these super delicious treats. My Mum makes them often and calls them Date Slugs, I have changed the name to glam them up a bit!

DATE SNOWBALLS

4oz BUTTER

1 loosely packed cup of soft BROWN SUGAR

1 1/2 cups DATES chopped finely

1 beaten EGG

1 tspn VANILLA ESSENCE

2 1/2 cups of RICE BUBBLES, aka rice crispies.

about 1/2 a cup of shredded COCONUT for rolling

Melt butter in a pot, and add the sugar, dates, egg and vanilla. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and stir for 5 minutes. Allow to cool until warm, don't let it go cold. Stir in the rice bubbles. Make into small balls with damp hands and then roll in the coconut.

Since this mornings 'episode' I have eaten 5 of these date snowballs and am feeling remarkably better, perhaps they are also medicinal.

Daring Baker - Swiss Swirl ice cream cake

The car got broken into last night. It is not a flash car, in fact it is a pretty average car,full of Mr Hoopers crap, so I'm not too sure what they were hoping to achieve. They did try to steal the petrol, but the tank was empty, so my first suspicion is BP have decided instead of drilling for oil, they are just going to go on a global syphoning campaign. Good luck mighty BP, we are always running on empty anyway.

So onto my first Daring Bakers 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.


The recipe required loads of different components, which is the kind of recipe I tend to shy away from. I prefer to compile in one go, where as this recipe took about 3 days to complete, mainly due to freezing time. It began with making a Swiss Roll, which I found really hard, it cracked all over the place, but due to time I managed to sort of squish it all together. Then there were two batches of ice cream to be made and a hot fudge sauce, this was all layered together to create an ice cream cake sheltered with a layer of swiss roll slices. I moaned the whole way through this recipe, however Mr Hooper hovered like a starving rabid dog, licking everything in sight. As it turned out, the dessert was really yummy, kind of like ice cream with brownie bits, which is my kind of pudding.

The recipe is very long and detailed so if you are interested in giving it a go, check out at the Daring Bakers Website, and if that doesn't work let me know and I will post the recipe details.

Blueberry and White Chocolate Muffins

The last few weeks have been all about low fat food, bran and lentils......yawn. Today I have decided to turn an old page and return to my love of butter, chocolate and sugar. Before I go on to this delicious recipe, I need to ask...if you are reading this, I need help. Last night I cooked pork chops, and they were a disaster. I have two pork chops left in the freezer, and they will remain there until I discover a recipe that will actually produce a delicious, tender, juicy chop. Mine were dry and chewy, just terrible, please let me know if you have any super tips.

Onto less piggy issues, the muffins.....yum! I made these this morning while The Boss was snoozing, they took me about 10 minutes to put together, and about 25 minutes to cook. I found the recipe on another blog Blisstree. The recipe included a streusel topping which I didn't do, I wanted to be quick before the beast arose.

BLUEBERRY AND WHITE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

makes 12 good sized muffins

2 cups FLOUR

2 1/2 tspn BAKING POWDER

1/2 cup GRANULAR SUGAR

1/4 cup BROWN SUGAR, packed

1/4 tsp SALT

1 large EGG, beaten (I used 2 small eggs)

1/4 cup melted BUTTER

1 tspn VANILLA extract
1/2 tspn LEMON zest

1 cup WHITE CHOCOLATE, either use chips or buttons chopped up

2 cups BLUEBERRIES, should have been fresh, but the frozen ones I used worked great.

Set oven temp to 190C (375F)

Sieve together the flour and baking powder and stir in the sugars and salt.

Mix together the beaten egg, melted butter, milk, vanilla and lemon zest.

Fold the wet and dry ingredients together, adding the blueberries and white chocolate while you mix.

Spoon into the muffin tray. I used cupcake cases, but if you don't have them make sure you grease and flour the tray well, the chocolate and berries can get a bit sticky. Instead of the struesel I popped a white chocolate button on top before they went in the oven. They are done when a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool and then turn out of the tray, you might need to get a knife to help release them from the tray.

These are such a great way to start the week, and so fast and easy, enjoy!

Fat Free Apricot Bran Loaf

I stewed beetroot last night...it was weird. I am not sure what compelled me to give it a go, but before I knew it I was peeling and dicing. Mr Hooper detests beetroot, and picks it out at every given opportunity. There is something about this that inspires me to cook with beetroot as often as possible, I am determined to try and convert Mr Hooper into a lover of all things vegetable related. Unfortunately what started out as a delicious beef stew, turned a sharp corner into yuckville! Even after 4 hours in the oven, the beetroot still held onto its crunchy texture which I didn't really like and it went a strange pale pink, which wasn't very pleasant either. I tried stirring some sour cream into the stew in an effort to improve things, which helped to provide a moderate improvement. So the morale of that story.......don't stew beetroot!

So on to more interesting things, a recipe that will please both your taste buds and your bowels (sorry that's really gross, but it is true!). This recipe contains All Bran which is high in fibre, and also provides a good source of B vitamins, Folate and Iron. There is no fat, and it still tastes pretty good....can you imagine such a thing!!

APRICOT BRAN LOAF (make a day in advance as there is soaking required, don't be put off as it is still super dupa easy)

1 cup packed ALL BRAN (care of Kellogg's)

1 cup firmly packed BROWN SUGAR

1 tbspn HONEY

1 cup FLOUR

1 tspn BAKING POWDER

200g DRIED APRICOTS, chopped

1 cup MILK

pinch of SALT

Oven temp 180C.

Mix thoroughly together the All Bran, brown sugar, honey, apricots, milk and salt. Cover and leave to sit for several hours or overnight. I left it on the bench because it is damn cold here at the moment, but best it goes in the fridge for really warm climates.

Stir in the flour and baking powder. Stir well.

I used three mini-loaf tins. But you could also use a small circular cake tin or loaf tin. Be careful when using a loaf tin as this can take a while to cook in the middle, so you can get a bit of burning on the top.

Grease the tin well, and shake a little flours all over, or use baking paper.

A full sized loaf will take about 1 hour. My little tins took about 35-40 minutes. So depending on what tin you use, you will need to keep an eye for the first time you make it.

I like slices of this loaf served warm with low fat margarine (well to be honest I like it with butter, but as I have already mentioned, I jiggle). It is dense and chewy and helps to fight those chocolate urges come 3pm!

Blue Cheese and Mushroom Tart

Its Monday morning, Mr Hooper is back at school, The Boss is in bed, and I am at a loose end. I have tried distracting myself with housekeeping duties, but I am not feeling it. I have pureed some food for The Boss, which I have to say is rather tasty. A delicious combo of broccoli, cauliflower and sweet potato all cooked in a yummy vege stock I made on the weekend. I am tempted to put the whole family on the 'puree' diet, I love that there is no chewing required, and the tasty goodness just slides down your throat. I feel quite militant as I wield my electric hand mixer as if it is some kind of weapon, not a scrap of broccoli floret remains intact! I have also spent some time 'working out' this morning, while I huff and puff my way through squats, kick-thrusts and lunges I can still feel the central area of my torso jiggling...will the jiggling ever cease!

Anyway onto what we had for dinner last night, it was delish! I had a couple of lonely looking big mushrooms in the vege draw, and decided to try out a pastry tart. Teamed with some caramelised onions, this was just a perfect Sunday supper.

BLUE CHEESE AND MUSHROOM TART with caramelised onions (serves 2)

CARAMELISED ONIONS

1 large ONION sliced

1 tbspn BUTTER

2 tbspn SUGAR (I used white but I think brown sugar would improve the flavour)

a generous splash of BALSAMIC VINEGAR

SALT and PEPPER to season

a little water if too thick

Melt butter in a small frying pan, add onions and fry gently for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the sugar and stir until onions are well covered. Add the splash of Balsamic Vinegar and stir. Lower the heat right down and cook very gently until the onions are well cooked and sticky, allow about 20 minutes. Season. Add a little water if too sticky.

THE TART

1 sheet of ready rolled PUFF PASTRY (I used one block from a twin pack, and rolled out to the same thickness as a ready rolled sheet, about 35cm x 25cm, give or take)

2 big brown MUSHROOMS sliced thinly

a good handful of dry SPINACH leaves

the CARAMELISED ONIONS
30g-40g BLUE CHEESE




Using a blunt knife mark a border around the pastry, not cutting all the way through. The border should be about 3cm from the edge of the pastry. Smear the onions all over the pastry (within the border). Sprinkle the spinach leaves across the top. Layer the mushrooms ontop, so they cover the entire area. Drop nuggets of the cheese randomly across the top. Brush the pastry edge with some milk.


Pop in the oven at about 180C and cook for approx 10minutes. The edges should puff up, and the cheese should be bubbling. The pastry was quite soft on the bottom, but it didn't bother me, so keep that in mind if soft pastry offends you!



We had squares of this with some diced ripe tomatoes and a few slices of spicy sausage. The sweetness of the onions was just perfect with the strong flavour of the cheese, yum! I think these will make an appearance next time I need a super quick entree, they would be great made individually.