Marquise on Meringue - Daring Bakers' Challenge May 2011

Wow - even the spelling of the dish was challenging this month. I can't seem to get the hang of spelling meringue.

The May 2011 Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

The challenge had four separate components – spicy chocolate marquise, torched meringue, tequila caramel sauce and spicy toasted almonds. All up it took me 6 hours to prepare. At the end it was utter chaos in my kitchen as I tried to "plate" everything before the sun went down so I could get a picture.

The whole process was fun and educational, and the end result was impressive. The texture of the marquise was amazing and unlike anything I have made before. I made the recipe exactly as suggested and sadly I didn't greatly enjoy the overall flavour profile. I usually like chilli and chocolate together, but this didn’t work for me and I also didn’t enjoy the tequila flavour in the caramel. I would definitely make each of the components again, but with different flavours added.

I have a lot of observations about this challenge, which probably won’t be of interest to anyone except a few hardcore DBs, but I feel it is therapeutic to share them.

Firstly, thanks to Audax Artifex for posting the half and quarter variations. The half version was enough for 16 mega-rich servings, which I used over 3 separate occasions. It was very nice, but I am awfully glad there are not another 16 portions in my freezer.

The marquise and chocolate base were fairly simple to prepare, with the invaluable help of a stand mixer. The only issue I had was with the direction to mix until the bowl was cool after adding the sugar syrup. My bowl didn’t get hot in the first place, so I just went with 10 minutes.

The meringue was fun to make. I have never before been directed to mix something with my hand and was slightly taken aback, but I loved it - you could really feel how it was supposed to feel. I don't have a blowtorch and ran out of time to buy one, so I used the grill. This was easy enough not ideal as the meringue was very tricky to move and collapsed when I tried.

The tequila caramel should have been simple to make, but stupidly I turned my back on the syrup (to look at the forums!) at the wrong moment. Of course it burned and I had to start again. The eventual finished product was wonderful, with a beautiful caramel colour and luscious thick texture.

The nuts were also simple to make, apart from the fact that I decided to blanch my own almonds, which added a good half an hour to the job! However, the proportions seemed a bit out, I think the amount of egg/sugar/spice mixture could have coated another cup of almonds and then there would have been less mixture burned onto the baking sheet.

I found the directions for cutting and plating the marquise confusing. As it read, I think you were supposed to remove the marquise from the freezer, cut the squares, roll them in the cocoa, then let them thaw fully in the fridge while you plated the other components. But it was awkward to move the marquise to the plate once it was coated. I think it would make more sense to plate the marquise, let it thaw, then pipe your meringue and torch it on the plate and lastly add the caramel and nuts. (Of course you would need a blowtorch for that which I don't have.)

Thank you to the hosts for bringing us a truly daring challenge.

Chocolate Marquise

Ingredients

6 large egg yolks at room temperature

2 large eggs

1/3 cup (75 grams/ 2⅔ oz) sugar

2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons (1⅓ fluid oz/ 40 ml.) water

Chocolate Base, barely warm (recipe follows)

1 cup (8 fluid oz./ 250 ml.) heavy cream

1 cup Dutch process cocoa powder

Torched meringue (recipe follows)

Spiced almonds (recipe follows)

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the egg yolks and whole eggs. Whip on high speed until very thick and pale, about 10 - 15 minutes.

2. When the eggs are getting close to finishing, make a sugar syrup by combining the sugar and water in a small saucepan.

3. Bring the syrup to a boil and then cook to softball stage (235F/115C). If you have a cake tester with a metal loop for a handle, the right stage for the syrup is reached when you can blow a bubble through the loop.

4. With the mixer running on low speed, drizzle the sugar syrup into the fluffy eggs, trying to hit that magic spot between the mixing bowl and the whisk.

5. When all of the syrup has been added (do it fairly quickly), turn the mixer back on high and whip until the bowl is cool to the touch. This will take at least 10 minutes.

6. In a separate mixing bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks. Set aside.

7. When the egg mixture has cooled, add the chocolate base to the egg mixture and whisk to combine. Try to get it as consistent as possible without losing all of the air you've whipped into the eggs. We used the stand mixer for this, and it took about 1 minute.

8. Fold 1/3 of the reserved whipped cream into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, and then fold in the remaining whipped cream.

9. Pour into the prepared pans and cover with plastic wrap (directly touching the mixture so it doesn't allow in any air).

10. Freeze until very firm, at least 2 - 4 hours (preferably 6 – 8 hours).

11. When you're ready to plate, remove the marquise from the freezer at least 15 minutes before serving. While it's still hard, remove it from the pan by pulling on the parchment 'handles' or by flipping it over onto another piece of parchment. Cut it into cubes and roll the cubes in cocoa powder. These will start to melt almost immediately, so don't do this step until all of your other plating components (meringue, caramel, spiced nuts, cocoa nibs) are ready.

12. The cubes need to sit in the fridge to slowly thaw so plating components can be done during that time. They don’t need to be ready before the cubes are rolled in the cocoa powder.

13. Plate with the torched meringue and drizzled caramel sauce, and toss spiced almonds and cocoa nibs around for garnish. You want to handle the cubes as little as possible because they get messy quickly and are difficult to move. However, you want to wait to serve them until they've softened completely. The soft pillows of chocolate are what make this dessert so unusual and when combined with the other elements, you'll get creamy and crunchy textures with cool, spicy, salty, bitter, and sweet sensations on your palate.

Chocolate Base

Ingredients

6 oz (170 grams/ ¾ cups) bittersweet chocolate (about 70% cocoa)

¾ cups (180 ml/6 fluid oz.) heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1/8 cup (30 ml/ 1 fluid oz.) tequila

1/8 cup (30 ml/ 1 fluid oz.) light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/8 cup (2 tablespoons/less than 1/2 ounce) cocoa powder

1/16 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 oz unsalted butter (1 tablespoon/15 grams), softened

Directions:

1. Place the chocolate in a small mixing bowl.

2. In a double-boiler, warm the cream until it is hot to the touch (but is not boiling). Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate.

3. Allow it to sit for a minute or two before stirring. Stir until the chocolate is melted completely and is smooth throughout.

4. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

5. Set aside until cooled to room temperature. Do not refrigerate, as the base needs to be soft when added to the marquise mixture. If you make it the day before, you may need to warm it slightly. Whisk it until it is smooth again before using it in the marquise recipe.

Torched Meringue

Makes about 2 – 2½ cups of meringue. If you aren't planning on serving *all* of the marquise at once, you might want to scale this recipe back a bit.

Ingredients

6 large egg whites

¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (210 ml) (7 oz or 200 gms) sugar

Splash of apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Combine the egg whites, sugar and vinegar in the bowl of a stand mixer.

2. Using your (clean, washed) hand, reach in the bowl and stir the three together, making sure the sugar is moistened evenly by the egg whites and they make a homogeneous liquid. Over a saucepan of simmering water, warm the egg white mixture. Use one hand to stir the mixture continuously, feeling for grains of sugar in the egg whites. As the liquid heats up, the sugar will slowly dissolve and the egg whites will thicken. This step is complete when you don't feel any more sugar crystals in the liquid and it is uniformly warm, nearly hot. Remove the mixing bowl from the saucepan and return it to the stand mixer with the whisk attachment.

3. Whisk until you reach soft peaks. In the last 10 seconds of mixing, add the vanilla to the meringue and mix thoroughly.

4. When you're ready to plate the dessert, spoon the meringue onto a plate (or use a piping bag) and use a blowtorch to broil.

Tequila Caramel Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup (120 ml/4 fluid oz) (4 oz/115 gm) sugar

1/4 cup (2 fluid oz./60 ml) water

1/2 cup (4 fluid oz./120 ml) heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon tequila

Directions

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water on medium-high heat. Boil until the water completely evaporates and the sugar caramelizes to a dark mahogany colour.

2. Working quickly, add the cream to the darkened caramel. It will bubble and pop vigorously, so add only as much cream as you can without overflowing the pot.

3. Return the pot to the stove on low heat and whisk gently to break up any hardened sugar. Add any remaining cream and continue stirring. Gradually, the hard sugar will dissolve and the caramel sauce will continue to darken. When the caramel has darkened to the point you want it, remove it from the heat.

4. Add the salt and tequila and stir to combine. Set aside until ready to serve.

Spiced Almonds

Ingredients

1/2 cup (4 oz.) sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg white 1 cup (145 grams/ 5 oz.) blanched whole almonds

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or foil.

2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, cayenne, and salt.

3. In a larger mixing bowl whisk the egg white until it's frothy and thick.

4. Add the spice mix to the egg white and whisk to combine completely.

5. Add the nuts to the egg white mixture and toss with a spoon.

6. Spoon the coated nuts onto the parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

7. Bake the nuts for 30 minutes, or until they turn light brown.

8. Allow the nuts to cool completely and they will get very crunchy. Set aside until ready to serve.

Gumbo - Daring Cooks' Challenge May 2011

As may be apparent, I have lost my cooking mojo a little in the past few months. Shamefully, I missed both last month's Daring Cook and Daring Baker challenges. But I am back and determined not to let things slip again.

Our May hostess, Denise, of There’s a Newf in My Soup!, challenged The Daring Cooks to make Gumbo! She provided us with all the recipes we’d need, from creole spices, homemade stock, and Louisiana white rice, to Drew’s Chicken & Smoked Sausage Gumbo and Seafood Gumbo from My New Orleans: The Cookbook, by John Besh.

I have never made gumbo and thought it looked delicious. And bonus, it is seasonally appropriate for the cold Sydney autumn we are experiencing. As a gumbo virgin, and feeling nervous about the roux component, I decided to follow one of the suggested recipes, for a smoked sausage and chicken gumbo, as closely as possible. I couldn't find either of the specified sausages so I opted for just a hot smoked sausage from the local Italian deli and it was great. I couldn't find celery salt for the Creole spice mix, so I substituted celery seed. And I couldn't find file powder so I left that out.

I took the host's advice and chopped everything before I started. I was glad I did as the roux did need constant attention.

I was very nervous about the roux but it worked out perfectly. These pictures shows the development of the color from the start, after 5 minutes, after 10 minutes and after 15 minutes – just as the recipe said.

Once the onion was added to the roux it started to smell amazing. Then as each new ingredient was added, it just got better and better. The finished product was really, truly delicious and more than worth the effort. Tom declared it the tastiest thing he had ever eaten – though I should add that he had run a half-marathon earlier in the day and that I don't cook him two-meat treats very often.

Thank you so much to the host for introducing us to this classic dish in such an accessible way. I will absolutely be making gumbo again and again.

Drew's Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo

Adapted from My New Orleans: The Cookbook by John Besh

Ingredients

1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) rendered chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil

1 cup (240 ml) (140 gm) (5 oz) flour

2 large onions, diced

1 chicken (3 ½ to 4 lbs.), cut into 10 pieces

2 tablespoons (30 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) Basic Creole Spices (recipe follows), or store-bought Creole spice blend

2 pounds (2 kilograms) spicy smoked sausage, sliced ½ inch (15mm) thick

2 stalks celery, diced

2 green bell peppers (capsicum), seeded and diced

1 tomato, seeded and chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Leaves from 2 sprigs of fresh thyme

3 quarts (3 liters) Basic Chicken Stock (recipe follows), or canned chicken stock

2 bay leaves

6 ounces (175 gm) andouille sausage, chopped

2 cups (480 ml) (320 gm) (11 oz) sliced fresh okra, ½ -inch (15mm) thick slices (or frozen, if fresh is not available)

1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce

Salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Filé powder, to taste

Tabasco, to taste

4-6 cups (1 – 1½ liters) (650 gm – 950 gm) cooked Basic Louisiana White Rice (recipe follows)

Directions

1. Prepare homemade chicken stock, if using (recipe below).

2. Prepare homemade Basic Creole Spices, if using (recipe below).

3. Season the chicken pieces with about 2 tablespoons of the Creole Spices while you prepare the vegetables.

4. Make sure all of your vegetables are cut, diced, chopped, minced and ready to go before beginning the roux. You must stand at the stove and stir the roux continuously to prevent it from burning.

5. In a large cast-iron or heavy-bottomed pan, heat the chicken fat, duck fat, or canola oil over high heat. Whisk the flour into the hot oil – it will start to sizzle. Reduce the heat to moderate, and continue whisking until the roux becomes deep brown in color, about 15 minutes.

6. Add the onions. Switch to a wooden spoon and stir the onions into the roux. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue stirring until the roux becomes a glossy dark brown, about 10 minutes.

7. Add the chicken to the pot; raise the heat to moderate, and cook, turning the pieces until slightly browned, about 10 minutes.8. Add the sliced smoked sausage and stir for about a minute.

9. Add the celery, bell peppers, tomato, and garlic, and continue stirring for about 3 minutes.

10. Add the thyme, chicken stock, and bay leaves. Bring the gumbo to a boil, stirring occasionally.

11. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, skimming off the fat from the surface of the gumbo every so often.

12. Add the chopped andouille, okra, and Worcestershire. Season with salt and pepper, several dashes of filé powder, and Tabasco, all to taste.

13. Simmer for another 45 minutes, continuing to skim the fat from the surface of the gumbo. Remove the bay leaves and serve in bowls over rice. Pass more filé powder at the table if desired.

Basic Creole Spices

Ingredients

2 tablespoons (30 ml) (33 gm) celery salt

1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) sweet paprika

1 tablespoon (15 ml) (18 gm) coarse sea salt

1 tablespoon (15 ml) (6 gm) freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) garlic powder

1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) onion powder

2 teaspoons (10 ml) (4 gm) cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (1½ gm) ground allspice

Directions:

Mix together all spices in a bowl. Transfer the spices to a clean container with a tight-fitting lid. Store up to six months.

Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake - Daring Bakers March 2011

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

I loved the recipe source for this one: "Jamie found this recipe on a piece of yellowed paper in her dad’s collection of clipped out and hand-written recipes from the 1970’s, no source, no date, and she tried the recipe and it was brilliant!" This reminded me of my late Gram's recipe box. My mum is now the custodian and she has photocopied some of them for me, and I hope I'll inherit the originals one day.

The recipe calls for a sweet, buttery, yeast-risen dough, which is filled with meringue and assorted fillings and then rolled and formed into a wreath. The recipe makes 2 cakes and the hosts said we could easily halve it, but I decided to divide the dough in half and make a sweet version and a savoury version.

For the sweet one I used Jamie's filling of pecan, cinnamon and chocolate. The dough was simple to make and rose nicely. I found it tricky to roll and shape the meringue-filled dough, so my wreath was somewhat misshapen.

I also made the mistake of following the recipe literally and "rolling" the dough with a rolling pin. As I should know from making pizza, that is no way to love your dough. The end result was a cake that was a little drier and chewier than it should have been.

When it came time for the savory version, I carefully and gently stretched the dough rather than rolling it and the difference was amazing. The savory scrolls were perfectly light, moist and soft. I could hardly believe that they each came from the same batch of dough.

I made two different savory fillings, just using what I had on hand. One filling was olive and tomato, the other was pesto, potato and haloumi. I also went with "cinnamon-roll" style, which I much preferred to the wreath. Obviously there was no meringue in the savory version so it was easier to work with. I also wonder if this affected the texture in a positive way?

Thank you Ria and Jamie for sharing this interesting and versatile recipe with us. I can't wait to see what all the clever Daring Bakers came up with.

Ceviche and Papa Rellenas - Daring Cook March 2011

Kathlyn of Bake Like a Ninja was our Daring Cooks’ March 2011 hostess. Kathlyn challenges us to make two classic Peruvian dishes: Ceviche de Pescado from “Peruvian Cooking – Basic Recipes” by Annik Franco Barreau. And Papas Rellenas adapted from a home recipe by Kathlyn’s Spanish teacher, Mayra.

I made this challenge when we had friends over for dinner. These friends in fact gave me my first ever taste of ceviche many years ago, so I knew they would not baulk at the raw fish. Also as a half-Chilean family, they were good critics of the papas rellenas, which seem to be common in a number of South American countries.

I followed the challenge recipes to the letter, and also made the suggested accompaniment, salsa criolla. You can find the recipes in the Daring Kitchen archives here.

The papas rellenas took me a long time to make. So many steps, so many pans, so much mess! I had particular trouble putting the potato through my mouli and I may have taken the name of the Daring Kitchen in vain at one point. But all was forgiven when the lovely golden orbs came out of the frying pan. They simply delicious. Our guests gave them the thumbs up, but suggested they could be improved with a slightly more saucy filling.

After my adventures with the papas, I was relieved that the ceviche was so quick and easy to make. Unfortunately it came out a bit tasteless and the texture was a little rubbery. I am clueless when it comes to buying fish, so I probably didn't make a good choice there.

I was sceptical about the salsa crilloa, but it was delicious and matched perfectly with the papas.

Thank you to our host Kathlyn - I really enjoyed this challenge and I hope I will get to sample more Peruvian delicacies in the future.

It was lovely to share this meal with friends, but it did mean that any hope of decent food photography went out the window. The picture above is the best I got and it doesn't even show the lovely interior of the papa! So to make up for that I will share a picture of the cutest of our dinner guests. She ate a whole papa, what a star.

Panna Cotta - Daring Baker February 2011

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.

I have never made panna cotta before, but I made up for lost time this month by making 3 versions. And while all of them were good, none of them came out quite right. Gelatin is a challenging ingredient.

I started with the basic recipe for vanilla panna cotta provided by the host, but decided to add vanilla (crazy huh) and use leatherwood honey. Leatherwood honey has a strong flavour that is not to everyone's taste, but I thought it worked very well here. I served it with a simple blackberry coulis and the Florentine biscuits.

Sadly my Florentines were a flop. As a number of posters in the forum mentioned the recipe was too sweet, I reduced the sugar by half. This is very out of character for me and was a mistake. Instead of being crispy and crunchy, my biscuits were dry and bland. But all together the panna cotta, coulis and biscuit were perfectly nice and got lots of compliments from friends at a dinner party. Disclaimer: the friends were drunk and we had just been for a late night skinny dip.

The next version was a coconut milk panna cotta, adapted from a recipe in Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, to which I added kaffir lime leaves. I served this one with toasted coconut and beautiful tropical fruit , according to Heidi's suggestion. I admit that on the day I took the photo I ate this for breakfast and it was so good. The different flavours and textures together were amazing.

But I was not satisfied. In both versions the texture was overly firm. Too jelly-like, not enough jiggle. And though you can't really tell from the pictures, in both attempts the mixture had separated into two distinct layers as it cooled. So I did some googling and found a great post on the blog Tasting Menu. The author suggested heating the gelatin with only a small portion of the cream and favoured leaf gelatin over powdered.

The only leaf gelatin I could find was titanium strength and several sources said that is standard in the US. The recipe called for 4 sheets and I was halving it, so I used 2. And guess what - too firm again. Really seriously yummy again, but still not right. It is probably a good thing that the month is nearly over and the challenge is due, or I might be tempted to try just one more.

Thank you very much to the host Mallory for this terrific challenge. When I first saw it I thought panna cotta was a little dull and that it would be easy, but I was wrong on both counts.

Reece's Icecream

Ever since I was little I have loved peanut butter and chocolate together. These days it could be considered an almost sophisticated flavour combination, something in the realm of salted butter caramel or Lindt with sea salt. But for me it has always been about that most unsophisticated American chocolate bar, the Reece's Peanut Butter Cup. I discovered them on family trips to the States and would bring big bags back home with me. I remember being very excited when they started selling them in Australia.

My love for PB&C later collided with my love for icecream, when I was introduced to the Baskin-Robbins Peanut Butter N' Chocolate flavour. I can recall that moment exactly. I was in Port Macquarie to watch the Ironman triathlon and couldn't believe I had gone so long without knowing this icecream existed.

Now that I have an icecream maker I can make my own chocolate and peanut icecream - or Reece's Icecream, as I like to call it. The photo is not great as you can't see the big salty homemade-peanut-buttery chunks. But trust me, they are there. And they make this icecream completely irresistible.

I adapted the idea for the peanut butter chunks from a David Lebovitz recipe which is mentioned in many blogs, but is not on his site. I used homemade peanut butter but anything would work. I went super simple for the icecream because I am lazy and cheap, but you could use any chocolate icecream recipe as a base.

Reece's Icecream

Ingredients:

1 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa

1 Tbs icing sugar

3 Tbs peanut butter

Method:

1. Mix the peanut butter and icing sugar until well-combined. Use a melon baller or small spoon to form little nuggets of peanut butter, about the size of a small marble. Place nuggets in a container in the freezer.

2. Gently heat the milk and cream, bring to a simmer but do not boil. Whisk in the cocoa and sugar and keep whisking until the mixture is completely smooth. Remove from heat and cool.

3. Depending on the ambient temperature and the power of your icecream maker, it can help to chill your mixture before you churn it - up to you.

4. Churn your ice-cream, adding the frozen peanut butter chunks for the last few minutes.

Soba noodles and tempura - Daring Cook February 2011

The February 2001 Daring Cook challenge was hosted by Lisa of Blueberry Girl. She challenged the Daring Cooks to make Hiyashi Soba and Tempura. She had various sources for her challenge including including japanesefood.about.com, pinkbites.com and itsybitsyfoodies.com

Horray for a challenge where the host lives in the same hemisphere as me! After cassoulet last month and some very hot weather in Australia, I was more than ready for a challenge recipe that did not require the oven to be turned on and even included an ice bath.

I liked the idea of making my own soba noodles and looked around for a recipe. The internet is so cool. Within seconds I was watching a soba master preparing the noodles in a wonderfully traditional way. This involved 100 per cent buckwheat flour, a giant rolling stick and a special cutter. But a soba master I am not, so I decided to use an 80:20 buckwheat:wheat ratio and a pasta maker to cut the noodles. I did try some that were hand-cut but they came out very much like wet cardboard.

The other component of the challenge was tempura. I had never made it before and was nervous but it was fantastic! I followed the challenge recipe exactly, including ice water, extra ice in the batter and an ice bath. I don't have a deep fryer so I used a wok and a candy thermometer to monitor the temperature.

I "tempura-ed" zucchini and sweet potato - both lightly steamed in the microwave, and firm tofu - well pressed and carefully dried. I took heed of the advice to flour the pieces before dipping them in the matter and that did help the batter to stick. I was also glad of the advice not to let the batter color too much as I think this helped it not taste overly oily.

I served the noodles cold with the traditional Mentsuyu dipping sauce. I topped them with sliced spring onion and some sushi sprinkles.

Thank you to Lisa for the excellent challenge. I had fun making my noodles, I was very proud of my tempura and the meal was super yummy.