Daring Baker Challenge | Challah Y'all!

In a "celebration" of past Daring Baker and Daring Cook challenges, Lisa challenged all of us to search through the Daring Kitchen archives and pick any one we'd like! The REAL challenge was picking which delicious recipe(s) to try!

And guess what  I tried making...

This beauty called Challah!

Challah is a bread of celebration in Jewish tradition. At a time when white flour was considered a luxury, its use was reserved for either the wealthy or for festive events. In Judaism, the Sabbath is a weekly holiday and therefore is a festive occasion. It was around the 15th century when Jews in parts of Austria and Germany adopted an oval braided loaf from their neighbors to make the Sabbath special. These fancy shaped loaves made with white flour were seen as a fitting way to honor the Shabbat (Sabbath), symbolized in Jewish culture as a queen, therefore deserving of the finest one can achieve. In honoring the Sabbath as a day of rest, two loaves are traditionally put on the table. This is generally seen as a representation of the double portion of manna provided to the Children of Israel on Fridays during their wandering in the desert after fleeing from Egypt. This double portion allowed them to maintain the commandment to not do “work” on the Sabbath.

Ok, enough history and general knowledge. When the daring baker challenge was revealed I was so excited with the choice available for this month. I then quickly picked this bread challenge because I was planning to bake bread for a long time and somehow wasn't finding time to do that. I decided to take half the measurements in the recipe given. Didn't want to churn out huge loaves of Challah that no one wanted to eat you know! So decided to play safe and started the process just to find out that the yeast had expired. After 3 iterations, I just chucked it (almost half kg :-( ) and bought new yeast from the nearest supermarket and got cracking.

Before Proofing

After Proofing

Yummy crusty Challah

Easy Challah Recipe

(from templedavid.org)

Ingredients

4 cups (360 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour

1 cup (240 ml) warm water

1 package (2¼ teaspoons) package rapid rise yeast

½ (115 gm) cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. (6 gm) salt

1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water

Directions:

1. Measure flour, sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl.

2. In a separate bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer) combine water and yeast, allow to sit 5 minutes until foamy.

3. Add 1 ½ cups of the flour mixture to the water and yeast mixture, beat until well combined. Cover with a dishtowel, let stand 30 min.

4. Add two eggs to the dough, beat again.

5. By hand or with your dough hook knead in the remaining flour mixture. Knead approximately 10 minutes.

6. Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover, let rise one hour.

7. Punch down dough, knead approximately 3 minutes.

8. Divide dough in two. Shape each half as desired (3, 4, or 6 strand braid).

9. Place loaves on parchment covered or greased cookie sheets, cover with a towel, allow to rise one hour.

10. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

11. Brush loaves with egg wash.

12. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees, bake until golden crust forms (about 25-30 minutes).

13. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Daring Bakers Challenge | Life of Pie - Classic Apple Pie

 Rachael from pizzarossa was our lovely June 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she had us whipping up delicious pies in our kitchens! Cream pies, fruit pies, chocolate pies, even crack pies! There’s nothing like pie! :)

Ingredients   
3 to 4 medium cooking apples
110 grams Cooking margarine /butter   
220 grams Plain flour
90 grams Normal sugar (amount depends on how sweet the apples are)   

Cooking Method

First, you need to make the pastry which will form the base and the top of the apple pie. 

Put the margarine/butter in a mixing bowl and pour in the flour.

Mix it all together with your hands until you have a crumbly texture.
This stage should only take a minute or so but it's one of the joys of making apple pie.   

Add 3 tablespoons of cold  water to the pastry and mix it. Then use your hands to mould the pastry mix into a ball (see picture). You can tell the mix is correct because the pastry ball will collect all the bits of pastry from the edge of the bowl leaving it almost clean!
Wrap the pastry ball in cling film and put it in the fridge to 'rest' for half an hour.
 
After half an hour, take the pastry from the fridge, and separate roughly two thirds of it. Roll the pastry out with a rolling pin so that it is large enough to line the base and sides of the pie dish. Use several sprinklings of flour on the rolling pin and the surface used for rolling the pastry.
Put the dish over the rolled pastry to make sure it is about the correct size (see picture).   

Now for a slightly complicated bit,
The idea is to pick up the rolled out pastry and put it in the dish to form the base of the apple pie.
First, lightly roll 50% or so of the flattened pastry over the rolling pin. Then support the rest with your hand and transfer it to top of the  dish.
Gently ease into the base of the  dish and firm it round the sides.   

If the pastry does break at all, it's not a disaster, just do your best to cover the base and sides. 
Then trim off the excess pastry from the top. Do this with the 'blunt' side of a knife - the blunt side is far less likely to tear the pastry.  
Turn your oven on now so that it's pre-heated ready to cook later on. Heat settings are 220°C / 425°F.
 
Now is the time to peel the cooking apples, cut them into quarters and then slice them. See the picture on the right for how fine to slice the apples.
Each quarter should produce roughly 8 to 10 slices. Accuracy is not so important. The thicker the slices, the more firm the apple mixture will be when it has been cooked.   

Place the apple slices into the pie bowl on top of the base pastry. 
Do this in three layers, scattering a one third of the sugar on each layer.
Using water and a pastry brush (or your wet fingers) dampen the top edge of the pastry. This will help the top pastry to attach firmly to it better.      

Take the remaining third of the pastry and roll it out with the rolling pin into a circle that is a little bit bigger than the top of the dish.

Transfer the rolled out pastry to the top of the pie using the rolling pin in the same way described for the base pastry.
Tuck the pastry down at the edge and remove the excess pastry using the blunt edge of a knife (see first picture which can be enlarged by clicking on it).
Using both hands, 'crimp' the pastry round the edge of the pie to obtain an attractive finish - enlarge photos 2 and 3 to see more clearly how we did it. 
Finally make 2 holes in the top of the pastry (see picture 3) to allow the steam to come out during cooking and prevent the top going soggy.
Lightly brush the top with a little milk to give it a light brown colour when cooked.
 
Put the apple pie in the pre-heated oven (220°C / 425°F) and leave it cooking at that temperature for 10 minutes. Then turn down the heat to 190C / 375F and cook for a further 40 minutes.
When it is cooked, leave to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving
Beware, apple pie can stay really hot for an hour or so.
Serve hot or cold with ice cream, cream or custard.

Daring Baker Challenge | Savarin

Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are

- Brillat-Savarin

Every last day of the month, I eagerly wait for one thing. No, not for my salary, silly! For the first of the month to begin so I can find out the month's Daring Baker challenge. This time it was Savarin. Wow, one more new thing to learn and savour.. I was excited.

Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina challenges us to make a traditional Savarin, complete with soaking syrup and cream filling! We were to follow the Savarin recipe but were allowed to be creative with the soaking syrup and filling, allowing us to come up with some very delicious cakes!

 

Savarin is a French cake named after Brillat-Savarin, the famous 18th century gastronome and writer. It is a light ring-shaped cake made with yeast and soaked in liqueur-flavored syrup. The syrup usually includes some type of alcohol, often rum. I soaked my savarin with vanilla caramel flavoured syrup and left it in fridge for a couple of days. I thought it might turn out a bit eggy, but it was delicious! I could have added some more syrup though..

Oh! and I was itching to bake my new fluted 12-cup silicon bundt pan. The savarin didn't stick to the silicon pan. Cleaning up was a breeze. After labouring for hours on the savarin, this was a welcome change.

Savarin Recipe

Ingredients
2½ cups (350 gm) bread flour
2 tablespoons (30 ml) water, lukewarm
6 (320 gm) large eggs at room temperature, separated
1½ teaspoons (4 gm) instant yeast or 15gm fresh yeast
4 teaspoons (20 ml) (20 gm) sugar
1/3 cup (75 gm) butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) orange and lemon zest (optional)
1 teaspoon (6 gm) salt
¼ cup (55 gm) butter for greasing the work surface, hands, dough scraper & baking pan

Directions:
Sponge
In a small bowl mix 2 tablespoons (30 ml) lukewarm water, 3 tablespoons (25 gm) flour and yeast , cover with cling film and let rise 60 minutes.

Dough
1. After 30 minutes put the egg whites in the mixer bowl and start working with the paddle at low speed adding flour until you have a soft dough that sticks to the bowl (about 2 cups or 270gm) and work until it comes together , cover with cling film and let rest 30 min
2. Add the sponge to the mixer bowl along with a tablespoon of flour and start mixing at lowspeed (if you wish to add the zests do it now)
3. When it starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl add one yolk and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
4. Add the second yolk , the sugar and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
5. Raise the speed a little
6. Add the third yolk and the salt and as soon as the yolk is absorbed add one tablespoon of flour
7. Keep on adding one yolk at the time and the flour saving a tablespoon of flour for later
8. Mix the dough until is elastic and makes “threads”
9. Add the butter at room temperature and as soon as the butter is adsorbed add the last tablespoon of flour
10. Keep on mixing till the dough passes the “window pane test”
11. Cover the dough with cling film and let it proof until it has tripled in volume (2 to 3 hours)
12. You can prepare the Pastry cream now if you chose to use it, and refrigerate it
13. While you wait prepare your baking pan buttering it very carefully not leaving too much butter on it
14. Grease your dough scraper, your hands and your work surface and put the dough on it and fold with the Dough Package Fold two or three times around (5 folds twice or three times). Cover with cling foil and let it rest 15 minutes on the counter
15.Turn the dough upside down and with the help of your buttered dough scraper shape your dough in a rounded bun
16. Make a hole in the center with your thumb and put it in the prepared pan
17. Cover with cling film and let rise in a warm spot until the dough reaches the top of the pan(about 1 hour)
18. Pre-heat oven to moderate 340°F/170°C.
19. Bake the Savarin for about 40 minutes until the top is golden brown
20. Meanwhile prepare the Syrup
21. When the Savarin is done take it out of the oven and let it cool.
22. You have two choices now : you can immerse it in syrup right now or you can let it dry out (so
it will lose some of his moisture that will be replaced by the syrup) and soak it later on.
23. To immerse it in syrup it is a good idea to place it in the mold you baked it in (I’m afraid a spring- form one wouldn’t work for this) and keep adding ladles of syrup until you see it along the rim of the pan. Or you can just soak it in a big bowl keeping your ladle on top of it so it doesn’t float.

Caramel Vanilla Flavored Syrup:
Servings: 1 savarin
Ingredients

1½ cups (350 ml) water
½ cup caramel flavour
1 cup (240 ml) (125 gm) sugar
one cinnamon stick
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions:
1. Combine water, sugar and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil.
2. Let boil 5 minutes and remove from the stove. Add vanilla extract, add caramel flavour.
3. When cooled a bit, pour it over the savarin.

Daring Baker Challenge | Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Orange Chocolate Frosting | Hidden Veggies

I HATE beetroots. This is the only one vegetable that doesn't feature in any of the dishes at home. Because all of us except mom went to hostels at some time in our lives, me being in a hostel the longest, we have had more than our fair share of beetroots. Don't mistake me. It tastes good when prepared well. I agree. Because mom has seen our collective grimaces over time, it is inconspicuously absent from our lives and we couldn't be happier.

Then March's Daring Bakers happened. Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!

Guess what I wanted to use for the theme. Yes, you figured it out. BEET.

But this one was beyond my imagination. Chocolate and beetroot make for an amazing combination. This cake was moist and sticky. I had a block of orange flavoured chocolate handy. So instead of the traditional chocolate ganache, I made the orange chocolate ganache and it complemented the cake so well that I couldn't stop with just one.. And I asked everyone who tasted it to guess what was in it. Chocolate was easy to guess, but beet was a pleasant surprise for everyone. When people want second helping, you know you have a winner of a recipe! And when your one year plus old niece fights with her mom for more, you are mighty pleased!!

If you think I am fooling you (after all, today is April Fool's Day, right?), let me put your mind at ease. See it for yourself..

Hah, now that you are sure that I REALLY added beetroots to the cake, shall we see the recipe?

I am in love with the colour of the frosting. Couldn't resist posting one more pretty pic! Now the recipe. I promise.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Orange Chocolate Frosting Recipe:

Ingredients:

Chocolate beetroot Cake

200g vanilla sugar

125g neutral oil

2 eggs

 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

120g plain flour

 1/2 tsp baking soda

 1/2 tsp baking powder

35g cup cocoa

 1/2 tsp salt

 125g peeled and grated raw beetroot

 75g dark chocolate chips

 Chocolate Ganache Topping                     

 100g orange flavoured chocolate (You can use dark chocolate or semi sweet chocolate as well)

100g low fat cream

Method:

1.    Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line the base and sides of a 7″ round baking tin.

2.    Place the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract in a large bowl and whisk well with a balloon whisk.

3.    Sift the dry ingredients together.

4.    Mix the grated beetroot and chocolate chips.

5.    Alternatively add the flour mix and grated beetroot in 3 lots.

6.    Mix together lightly and place in the tin. Bake for an hour/ until a tester comes out clean.

 Chocolate Ganache Topping

Place the orange flavoured chocolate, cream in a heat proof bowl. Microwave 1 minute at a time until

the chocolate has melted, stirring well each time. Whisk until glossy and cool a little. Pour over the

cake.

Daring Baker Challenge | Crisp Crackers

As part of daring bakers challenge, I made healthy whole-wheat crackers. Turned out very good. It was the first time I had attempted crisp crackers. Now, instead of buying multigrain crackers, I can make them right at home.

The original recipe mentions 280 gms of plain all purpose flour. I used whole wheat flour (atta) and all purpose flour in equal measure to make it healthy. You can use rye (raagi) as well instead of whole wheat flour.

These crisp crackers are perfect snacks with your evening tea. The mild aroma of pureed onion lends a subtle hint of the onions in taste and a great smell too. The original recipe uses 2tbsp of poppy seeds (gasagase, khous khous) as well. I didn't have any at home, so just left it out. 

Healthy whole wheat and Onion Crackers

Minimally adapted from “Menus from an Orchard Table” by Heidi Noble featured
on Sarah’s blog.

Ingredients:

1 medium onion

1 large egg

1/3 cup (80 ml) vegetable oil

2 teaspoons (12 gm) salt

2 cups (280 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup all purpose flour)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, puree the onion. One medium onion will yield approximately 1 cup puree. Measure 1 cup puree and liquid from the onion and return to the food processor. Add the egg, oil and salt and blend until well incorporated.

In another bowl, measure the dry ingredients. Mix lightly to combine. Make a well in the center and add the liquids in this well. Mix in one direction until the dough is fully combined. Lightly knead the dough, flouring as needed, for 2 minutes. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C.

This is a very soft dough and you may find it best to roll it between two sheets of parchment paper.

Roll as thinly as possible. In fact, it is best if rolled as thinly as a strudel dough. But don't worry if you can't get it that thin. The crackers will still be fine. Cut into desired shapes.

Bake until evenly golden. The time required will depend upon thickness but anywhere from 5 - 15 minutes. If they are thicker, the crackers will puff up like little pitas. Cool thoroughly before storing in air tight container.

Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie was our February 2013 Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges

us to use our creativity in making our own Crisp Flatbreads and Crackers! 

Daring Bakers Challenge | Gevulde Speculaas from scratch

Francijn of Koken in de Brouwerij was our January 2013 Daring Bakers’ Hostess and she challenged us to make the traditional Dutch pastry, Gevulde Speculaas from scratch! That includes making our own spice mix, almond paste and dough! Delicious!

The sepculaas spice required mixing of some exotic spices so aromatic that the overwhelming smell of raw spices itself filled the house. The speculaas spice mandatorily includes cinnamon, ground cloves, mace and ginger and white pepper,cardamom, coriander,anise, nutmeg are the optional spices. Wow, so many spices in one place? I had never heard of mace before and never used nutmeg before in my baking. I found nutmeg (Jaai kaai in Kannada) near my place but it was exciting to figure out which place could be selling mace (jaa patre in Kannada) and I got it in a small store in Jayanagar 9th block. Ooh, it was heady stuff indeed.

I assembled all the spices, even the optional ones, and then ground them each one by one and finally made the spice mix. The final spice mix looked like this:

The recipe for speculaas dough indicated that the dough had to be made in advance and chilled before use. The dough gets better over time so I chilled for a week and made the almond paste just the day before. The dough was too crumbly for me to roll, maybe because I thawed it for a while. So I just patted the dough onto the baking tray and followed the rest of the recipe.

Speculaas Dough Ingredients

Speculaas Dough

Perhaps I should have basted less on the top of the speculaas, because the top browned more than I had expected. But the smell that wafted through the house while this pastry got baked was other-wordly and we could not wait to taste it!

Speculaas Spice:

Mandatory:

cinnamon 40 to 60 % of the total amount

ground cloves 1 or 2 parts

mace ½ or 1 part

ginger ½ or 1 part

Optional:

white pepper ½ or 1 part

cardamom ½ or 1 part

coriander ½ or 1 part

anise ½ or 1 part

nutmeg 1 or 2 parts

A convenient way to mix the spices is as follows:

Take at least 1 or 2 teaspoons of ground cloves, ½ or 1 teaspoon of mace and ½ or 1 teaspoon of ginger.

Add to taste ½ or 1 teaspoon of white pepper, ½ or 1 teaspoon of cardamom, ½ or 1 teaspoon of coriander, ½ or 1 teaspoon of anise, and 1 or 2 teaspoons of nutmeg.

Measure or weigh the amount of spices you have now, and add an equal amount of cinnamon.

This method yields at least 4 and at most 18 teaspoons of spices, so if you plan to mix just a few spices, use bigger or more spoons to get a reasonable amount.

Take your time to smell the ingredients individually before you decide how much to add.

Store the spices airtight, dry and dark, they will not spoil for a long time.

Almond Paste:

Ingredients:

7/8 cup (125 gm) raw almonds (or 1-1/3 cups (125 gm)  ground almonds)

5/8 cup (125 grams)  granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon (3 gm) lemon zest

Directions:

If the raw almonds still have their brown skins, remove them as follows. Bring water to a boil, add the

almonds, cook them for one minute, drain immediately and let cool for a few minutes. Rub them between

your fingers to remove the skins.

Grind the almonds for one or two minutes in a food processor, until you see nothing but very small pieces.

(Or skip this step if you use ground almonds.)

Add the sugar, and grind for another one or two minutes. It must be very fine after this step.

Add the egg and let the food processor combine it - if it is powerful enough. Otherwise you will have to

combine it with your fingers.

Store the almond paste in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Although the flavor gets better as days

pass by, it is not wise to store the paste for too long, as it contains a raw egg. For the same reason you

should not eat the paste unbaked.

Speculaas Dough

Ingredients:

1¾ cups (250 gm) all purpose (plain) flour

1 teaspoon (5 gm) baking powder

¾ cup (150 grams) brown sugar, firmly packed

a pinch salt

2 tablespoons (15 gm) speculaas spices

3/4 cup (175 gm) unsalted butter

Directions:

Put flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices in a bowl.

Cut the butter in dices and add.

Knead until smooth.

Feel free to add a little milk if the dough is too dry.

Wrap in clingfoil and put in the refrigerator for two hours.

You can choose to make the dough a few days in advance, just like the almond paste, that will benefit the

flavor. Freezing is no problem.

Assembling and baking the Gevulde Speculaas

Ingredients:

speculaas dough

almond paste

whole almonds without skins for decoration

1 large egg

shallow baking pan, 8x10 inch (20x26 cm) or, round with of diameter 10 inch (26 cm)

Directions:

1. Grease the pan.

2. Preheat the oven to moderate 350°F/180°C.

3. Divide the dough into two portions.

4. Roll out both portions on a lightly floured surface, until they are exactly as big as the baking pan.

5. Put one of the layers in the pan and press it lightly to fill the bottom.

6. Lightly beat the egg with a teaspoon cold water.

7. Smear 1/3 of the egg over the dough in the pan.

8. Roll out the almond paste between two sheets of cling foil, until it is exactly as big as the pan, and

put it on the dough in the pan. (If you chose to make the paste soft, you can smear the paste instead

of rolling it.)

9. Press the paste lightly down to fit in the pan, and smear the next 1/3 of the egg over it.

10. Now put the second layer of dough on top of the paste, press it lightly, and make as smooth as

possible.

11. Smear the last 1/3 of the egg over the dough.

12. Decorate the pastry with the almonds.

13. Bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven.

14. Let cool completely in the pan, then cut it in portions as you like.

15. If you wrap the stuffed speculaas in cling foil, after it has cooled completely, you can store it a few

days at room temperature.