The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Daring Bakers! How are you?! It has been awhile, my goodness.

I am attempting to correct my wayward Daring Baker ways in 2011 and I begin with this lovely panna cotta from Mallory.

Over the years, Daring Baker’s challenges have spanned a wide variety of difficulty levels. Some challenges have been complex and others have been more straightforward.

Straightforward or not, it’s always fun to try a challenge that you haven’t made at all or perhaps have not made very often.

This would be the case with panna cotta. While I’ve made panna cotta a few times, I haven’t made it often and I can’t say that I’ve ever made it particularly well.

Mallory’s challenge has changed that. She used a panna cotta recipe from Giada De Laurentiis as the base for the challenge and added a twist by asking people to make florentine cookies to accompany the panna cotta. While I didn’t get to the florentines, I did make the panna cotta and my goodness was it delicious.

It’s sweetened with honey and sugar and I loved the flavour of the cream and honey.

I went with a very simple panna cotta so as to increase my chances of success with this one.
I made a quick strawberry-cranberry jam to use as a colourful (and delicious) layer.

I’d like to thank Mallory for being such a great hostess and for helping me to make my first DB challenge of 2011 a success!

Ciao!

February 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge recipe.

For the Strawberry-Cranberry Jam:

1 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup frozen cranberries
1/4 cup water
2 tbsps. sugar
1 tsp. grated orange zest

Place the strawberries and cranberries in a saucepan. Add the water and heat over medium heat until boiling.

Add the sugar and orange zest and stir.

Lower the heat but be sure to keep the fruit at a steady simmer.

The fruit will slowly cook down and form a thick jam. This could take 15 to 20 minutes.

Remove the jam from the heat and let cool completely.

Note: To use this as a layer in a panna cotta, fill your container partway with the panna cotta mixer and then place it in the freezer until it’s set enough to hold a layer of fruit (20 to 30 minutes). Spoon on a layer of jam and then return to the freezer for 15 minutes to help set the jam. Top the jam layer with the remainder of the panna cotta liquid and then refrigerate as indicated in your recipe.

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

This month’s challenge for the Daring Bakers is one that’s near and dear to my heart: crostata.

Simona, our hostess, was truly dedicated to this challenge and went to great lengths to create a truly memorable crostata recipe. Thank you, Simona!

I’m lucky I managed to find the time to do this one so I kept it very simple with a raspberry jam filling. I did take some liberties with the crostata top by twirling some of the dough ribbons and cutting out some stars with the leftover dough.

I found this crostata to be more tart-like than what the crostata from my father’s family looks and tastes like. It was still very delicious, though.

Visit The Daring Kitchen for the recipe and to see what other Daring Bakers produced!

Ciao!

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.

You might as well just declare October 2010 the month of doughnuts. Between my birthday, Lara Ferroni and The Daring Bakers, it’s doughnut central here.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

I’m especially not complaining about the amazing challenge that Lori put before us. Between birthday celebrations and family stuff, I only got to try one recipe but it was the one that I most wanted to try: Bomboloni.

Bomboloni are basically the Italian version of doughnut holes. They’re rolled in sugar and often filled with a pastry cream, or other delicious filling like jam or chocolate.

Almost as soon as the bomboloni were fried I was pumping them full of Nutella like you wouldn’t believe.

Not only were these doughnuts plump, soft and tasty, they were filled with Nutella.

What more do you want?!

Thanks to Lori for a great challenge! Check out what all the other Daring Bakers did!

Ciao!

Just a reminder that it’s the 27 of the month, which means it’s the Daring Bakers’ reveal day for July! As you can see I have nothing to reveal … my DB challenge is a bit late. But don’t miss out on what all the other great Daring Bakers did!

Ciao!

All you Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks, that’s who!!!

Check it out … The Independent published a piece on The Daring Kitchen.

Take a bow!

Ciao!

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 Tavernas the challenge recipe.

Today, in case you haven’t noticed, is Daring Bakers’ reveal day.

This month’s challenge was to bake the ever-elusive and oh-so-popular macarons.

I would hazard a guess that next to the ubiquitous cupcake, the macarons is probably one of the most popular blog subjects among foodbloggers, especially those that specialize in baking. There’s something about these little treats that is so captivating. Made up of just a few ingredients, they are probably one of the most difficult cookies/pastries to master.

Our host for this month is the gracious LAmonkeygirl. She’s a non-blogger so you can read her challenge post here.

You’re probably wondering where the picture of my macarons is … well … there isn’t one. Not really, anyway.

I did make the macarons as part of the desserts that I prepared for a recent baptism I attended (more on that in another post). I made mini macarons and used blue food colouring to create a marbled effect on top (it was a baby boy being baptized). I filled the macarons with chocolate ganache, but I’ll be honest, while they tasted good, I was not impressed with the end result.

I found that the macarons turned out flat and didn’t have the smooth top that is key when it comes to successful macarons. I’m not completely sure what I did wrong. I’ve had similar problems with another macarons recipes and I’m beginning to suspect two things.

First of all, most macarons recipes ask you to sift the almond flour and icing but I always have difficulty with this step. My almond flour never makes it through the sieve. I’m not sure if I’m using too fine of a sieve or if my almond flour hasn’t been ground enough.

Secondly, when it comes time to fold the almond flour and icing sugar into the egg whites, I think I’m overfolding. I have a feeling that the mixture is too deflated and that might explain why the macarons tend to come out flat.

Of course this is all speculation on my part. To be honest, I think I give up when it comes to macarons. I know that there are many bloggers out there who are brilliant at these little pastries, many of them having turned macarons into a business. Maybe you have to make literally thousands of them before you get the hang of it. I’m not sure. All I know is that I don’t have the touch for them. And to be honest, I’d rather buy them from someone who really knows what they’re doing because nothing is as disappointing as a disappointing macaron.

I want to thank LAmonkeygirl, though. The whole point of The Daring Kitchen is challenge … go try something you normally wouldn’t. While my macarons weren’t the greatest, I’m very glad I tried them.

Ciao!