Daring Bakers October Challenge in memory of Sherry “Sher” Cermak

This month's challenge has a little bit of sadness attached to it... we lost a Daring Baker... but wherever you are Sher, thank you so much for leaving us with this amazing challenge and thank you Rosa for making everything possible, this has been an amazing challenge!!

By now... you are probably asking yourself well.. what is this challenge you keep talking about?!!... WELL... BAKE YOUR PIZZA LIKE A REAL PIZZAIOLO.. and I did like a real pizzaiolo!!!

The dough is not hard at all to make, you can visit Rosa's Yummy Yums for the recipe... you start it one day ahead and then you get this amazing wonderfully malleable dough, I had no trouble with it whatsoever it was just delightful to work with ( I did make a little adjustment though, I traded one cup of all purpose flour for 1 cup of whole wheat flour).

When the time came to stretch the pizza... I was a little bit nervous but got the hang of it pretty quickly and had a lot of fun with it ^_^ ... although I might have ended with a lot of flour over me




One pizza was a bruschettta pizza with pesto as a base, tomatoes, red onions, fresh basil, oregano, feta cheese and mozzarella and the second one was pesto base, prosciutto, red onion, tomatoes, feta, fontina and mozzarella cheese.. they were both incredibly gooood!!!






Oh once again... belonging to the Daring Bakers pays off.. looove making my own pizza like a real pizzaiolo... maybe I missed my calling have you? you can visit all the other Daring Bakers and find out what they did

Daring Bakers June challenge - a very fragant one

This month's Daring Bakers challenge is Danish Braid.. the challenge here really is the danish pastry.. but trust me this CHALLENGE is worth challenging yourself because oh!! the results are sooo good ....ooooh soo good!!!

I would like to thank Kelly and Ben for this month's challenge because I learned a lot and I got to use cardamom (something I've always wanted to use.. but I've never had the chance and it is awesome!!) and I would like to thank them also because this challenge has left my hands smelling like orange, vanilla and cardamom.

I thought I was going to have a lot of trouble with the dough.. but it handled like a beauty and when it came to do the turns.. it was quite exciting and fun!!! and let me tell you that when I was cooking the filling the smell was also DIVINE!!! this whole thing is amazing.. trust me.. you want to make it or at least eat lots of it.

Here are the braids after they've been proofed, I added some pecans to the filling and also put some on top of one of the braids.. it made them even yummier!! I should also mention that I added some pears to the filling .. I enjoy so much the grainy feel that pears have mmm



And they looked like this after being in the oven!



With some of the dough I also made some croissants that had goat cheese in them... yummy right??



Are you drooling yet?? well if you haven't decided whether or not you would like to make a Danish Braid visit the other Daring Bakers blogs for more convincing proof... in the meantime I'll enjoy a piece of mine *winks*

February's Daring Bakers challenge

Finally I get to post the results of February's challenge.. yay!!!! I've just been so busy with school that I didn't have time to do it at the appropiate time, and that made me feel really sad, however I am a DARING baker so I made time this weekend to do my challenge and I was really happy.
When I first learned how to make bread my objective was to one day be able to make baguettes without a problem, well this is the beginning of that... so I was really excited when they announced that the challenge for February was FRENCH BREAD!!!! Thanks Mary and Sara

As always, I assembled all the ingredients



And then the adventure began, it was challenging this time... I had to go over the instructions a couple of times, and waiting for the bread to rise was torturous (but not as torturous as waiting for the bread to cool so I could take a bite) because I just wanted to taste the end result and I really wanted to try my hand at slashing the dough. It was challenging to make this bread, but then again that is WHY I am a daring baker, however I enjoyed every single bit of it... and...
THIS IS THE END RESULT!!!



Will I try this recipe again? DEFINITELY... I'll keep trying it until I perfect it for sure.... I love the taste of French bread, if I had it my way I would eat it everyday, so I'll keep trying this recipe and eating some awesome bread!!!
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU DARING BAKERS OUT THERE, who can make amazing bread out of FOUR ingredients!!! YOU ARE MY HEROES!!!

Daring Bakers + lemons + meringue = lemon meringue PIE challenge

This month's DB challenge ... LEMON MERINGUE PIE or Free-style LEMON TARTLETS

When I first heard about the challenge I must admit I did not get too excited, but after thinking about it for a while and discussing it with my Bad Monsieur Josh (a.k.a The Pie Maker)



I decided to give it a go and make it the BEST Lemon Meringue Pie, I've ever had... (secret confession.. I am not a lemon meringue pie connoisseur), I began to think what could I do with the recipe and I prepared all of my ingredients



On Saturday afternoon the neighbours of the 9th floor were unsuspecting of the fact that they would wake up to a sea of Lemon Curd, seriously.. this was MY favourite part of the challenge, mixing in the corn starch and the sugar and waiting for it to thicken.. you get this goooey fun to work with and watch lemony curd, I just wanted to keep making more and more, but the more I thought about my plan of flooding the 9th floor of my building with lemon curd.. I realized that perhaps my neighbours would not appreciate it as much as my fellow Daring Bakers would.. so /sigh .. no lemon curd flood.

The only change that I made to the recipe was that I added some lemon zest to my pastry dough, you really couldn't feel it but I liked the idea of hiding something in the crust mwahahahaha!!! And.. I decided to make tartlets instead of ONE BIG pie, I really liked them.. mmmm sooo yummy ^_^

and for your delight.. a lovely picture of the tarts .. oh and thank you to Jenn from The Canadian Baker for this month's challenge

Tender Potatoe Bread!

This month's challenge for the Daring Bakers was a beautiful Potato Bread for which you need:




Making the Dough (Directions will be for making by hand):

Put the potatoes and 4 cups water in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt and cook, half covered, until the potatoes are very tender.

Drain the potatoes, SAVE THE POTATO WATER, and mash the potatoes well. Tanna Note: I have a food mill I will run my potatoes through to mash them.

Measure out 3 cups(750ml) of the reserved potato water. Add extra water if needed to make 3 cups. Place the water and mashed potatoes in the bowl you plan to mix the bread dough in. Let cool to lukewarm (70-80°F/21 - 29°C) – stir well before testing the temperature – it should feel barely warm to your hand. You should be able to submerge you hand in the mix and not be uncomfortable.

Add yeast to 2 cups all-purpose flour and whisk. Add yeast and flour to the cooled mashed potatoes & water and mix well. Allow to rest/sit 5 minutes.

Note about Adding Yeast: If using Active Dry Yeast or Fresh yeast, mix & stir yeast into cooled water and mashed potatoes & water and let stand 5 minutes. Then add 2 cups of flour to the yeast mix and allow to rest several minutes. If using Instant Dry Yeast, add yeast to 2 cups all-purpose flour and whisk. Add yeast and flour to the cooled mashed potatoes & water and mix well. Allow to rest/sit 5 minutes.

Sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon salt and the softened butter; mix well. Add the 1 cup whole wheat flour, stir briefly.

Add 2 cups of the unbleached all-purpose flour and stir until all the flour has been incorporated.
Tanna Note: At this point you have used 4 cups of the possible 8 ½ cups suggested by the recipe.

Turn the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes, incorporating flour as needed to prevent sticking. The dough will be very sticky to begin with, but as it takes up more flour from the kneading surface, it will become easier to handle; use a dough scraper to keep your surface clean. The kneaded dough will still be very soft. Place the dough in a large clean bowl or your rising container of choice, cover with plastic wrap or lid, and let rise about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead gently several minutes. It will be moist and a little sticky.

Forming the Bread:
Since I made rolls, I divided the dough into 16 parts, and then I put cubes of cream cheese (or feta cheese) inside the rolls and wrap the cheese with the dough.
I let the rolls rest for another 35 minutes.
Finally I brushed the tops with butter and I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top of each roll.

Baking the bread:
I preheated the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and then I put the rolls in for 10 minutes after which I lowered the heat to 375 degrees for another 20 minutes.

AND VOILA! you have amazing rolls filled with cheese!!
I am so glad I joined the daring bakers and now that I've finished my first challenge I must go and enjoy my reward.. AWESOME BREAD yay!!!