Dobos Torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.


A side profile of one of my mini dobos. We were supposed to take the time to evenly cut out all the sponge cake layers, coat everything in the chocolate buttercream after stacking and garnish with hazelnuts or some other nut...but I took the busy mother's route instead. The taste is still impossibly good. There is so much butter in the buttercream but yet it doesn't taste that way at all. Very rich and creamy and worth repeating on its own.

The caramel-coated sponge cake pieces on the top were a mild failure for me but I included them in the pictures nevertheless. The torte tastes delicious but, like many of the challenges, it involves so many steps and so much time that it makes it impractical for a casual gathering. But that's my thought being now almost 9 months pregnant and having to take care of my almost 1-year-old on top of it. Simple, quick and delicious would be really nice!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Since we had a choice between the two items, I decided to go with the item that required me to make my own marshmallows - something I had never attempted! The somewhat time consuming process to make these little numbers was worth it. They were great! Thank you, Gale Gand, for the recipe and Nicole, this month's DB host, for the idea.

For the first step, you make the cookie base. The dough is chilled after mixing it up but you will need to let it set after you take it out of the fridge. I chilled mine overnight and found it nearly unworkable until it had warmed back up a little. As you can see, this makes a ton of cookies! If you're going to go with this one, plan on having some people over to help you eat them. I'm sure they won't mind.


After the cookies have cooled is when you put together your marshmallow concoction and pipe it out over all the cookies. Although the recipe says that the marshmallow will be "stiff", it certainly doesn't have the traditional stiff peaks that egg white will produce. I basically just beat the heck out of it and went from there. Work quickly though as the gelatin involved WILL start setting whether you're ready for it to or not.


After you let all the little marshmallow clouds firm up it's time for the chocolate. I love this part! I had to melt down about twice the amount of chocolate chips suggested to get all of my cookies well dipped. I also think that it would probably work better to use shortening, not vegetable oil, with the chocolate chips. The chocolate wouldn't harden until I actually refrigerated it and even then, it was kinda soft. Maybe adding some paraffin would help as well. You'll also want to watch out because anything and everything that touches the marshmallow sticks to it!


I'm ready to make these again but probably only for a special occasion. All the time required to harden, set or chill makes this impractical for a busy mom!

Strawberry Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

Just posting some pictures of my completed work with a few notes. I'm not going to repost the different recipes needed because, unfortunately, I wasn't too impressed with the product! The crust is basically made of a shortbread dough. We had our pick of fillings so I just used some of the strawberry freezer jam I had just put up. Then the frangipane seals it all in. I don't believe I've had frangipane before but that's probably because I'm not a fan of almond and it has both almond extract and ground almonds in it. There's also a lot of egg involved so it's rather "squidgy", as the DB website puts it.

Pear & Walnut Strudel

I'm now a member of the Daring Bakers! If you're not familiar with this group, you can read more about it on their website but the short story is that it's a group of people who bake a "challenge recipe" every month in order to increase their baking skills. We all make the same recipe but whomever is "hosting" that month can also allow some leeway in how we go about doing it. For the month of May, the theme was strudel. I had certainly never made anything like it before so I knew it'd be a new experience! The basic dough recipe came from the book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest and Prague but the filling was my choice.

• strudel dough
• 6-8 firm pears (not too ripe), peeled, cored and sliced about a 1/4" thick
• 1 orange, juiced
• 3 T. agave nectar
  
• 1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1-2 T. cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Pour the juice and agave nectar over the pears and mix it together well enough to coat all the pear slices. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon together and set that aside also.
3. After mixing the strudel dough ingredients and letting it set for the recommended time, you go through the somewhat time-consuming step of rolling it out. I followed the directions by laying out a tablecloth on a large table, rubbing flour into it and setting my dough in the middle. (I made a double batch of the dough so that I would be sure to have plenty. I knew I could always just cut off the extra.) I rolled it out as far as I could make it go with the rolling pin. Then I gently worked my hands underneath it to stretch it out even further. It was sort of reminiscent of the pizza chefs except that the dough didn't fly into the air...thankfully! The finished size was probably around the expected 24"x36" but I did make sure to get rid of all the thickness along the edge. The goal is to have it turn out as flaky and pastry-like as possible, after all.
   
4. Brush a thin layer of melted butter on the dough at this point. I almost missed this part!
5. Just inside of the shorter edge of the rectangle I layered the walnuts, the marinated pears and the cinnamon & sugar mix, leaving a bit of room on either end to seal off the finished product.
6. Use the tablecloth to start rolling the dough over the ingredients. At this point, the dough is far too thin and fragile to manipulate excessively. Keep rolling the strudel up until you get to the end. Cut off any extra dough, especially on either end, and fold under each end to help seal in the filling.
7. Transfer to a greased baking sheet, molding it into more of a round shape, if desired. Brush the top with melted butter and bake until dark golden brown.
8. Let the strudel cool for at least a half hour before slicing but eat it as soon as you're able since it doesn't keep forever. A serrated knife works best to cut through the pastry without damaging it. I would recommend serving the strudel with vanilla bean ice cream or whipped topping as it tastes very much like an apple pie.

It may look somewhat diseased but I'm not 100% sure why!

























The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.