November 2011 Daring Bakers' Challenge - Filipino Desserts!

I'm on a roll! I've completed two Daring Bakers' Challenges in a row!! October's challenge was to make Povitica and it was a great success.  This month was equally successful! Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers' host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert - the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert (not me unfortunately - ran out of time!!), Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-Blog.

 This was probably the quickest and easiest DB challenge I've participated in since I started the club back in August of 2010. While being quite easy and not really containing any new techniques, the end result was absolutely delicious and I got to experience a desert from a different culture that I've never had the privilege of tasting. This is something that is easily achievable in an evening (I started at 8pm and finished by 10:30) and uses pretty basic ingredients.

The recipe has two main components: baked meringue layers (four of them), and french buttercream. Both recipes can be found on the Daring Kitchen website.  I'm not going to reproduce it here. I omitted the cocoa powder in the meringue and flavoured the buttercream with vanilla extract. If I was going to make this recipe again (which I think I will!!), I would bake the meringue layers longer to crisp them up a little bit more, but either way, this dessert was delish. Even hubby enjoyed it thoroughly!

 Hope you enjoy the pics!! I certainly had a great evening making this last night and I wasn't exhausted by the time I was finished, so that is always a nice thing. :)

 Thanks Catherine for a wonderful challenge! I love the creativity of this challenge and the lovely flavours. I have just one regret: that I didn't have time to try both dessert recipes!! Eventually I will get around to it. :)

Happy Baking my Friends!

Green Beans with Sticky Soy Cashews

I don't know about you, but I am pretty excited for spring & summer to hurry up and get here. I love the long days, the warmer weather, the sunshine and best of all, I love the spring and summer produce that comes with the warm weather. Around here we also get some pretty awesome farmers markets such as the White Rock Farmers Market. It hasn't started up yet, but it will probably start up some time in May and I can't wait!! The reasons I'm talking about spring, summer and farmer's markets is because you can find such great produce there. My favorite produce is fresh green beans. I absolutely love them! You can do so many things with them and they never fail to make me feel like its spring/summer time. I made these green beans with sticky soy cashews a few weeks ago and they were absolutely delicious. You simply must try out the recipe! Green Beans with Sticky Soy Cashews Recipe from Meals in Heels by Jennifer Joyce

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp sesame oil


• 80g (1/2 cup) unsalted cashews, roasted


• 1 tbsp honey


• 1 tbsp soy sauce


• 300 g green beans, trimmed


• 1 tsp black or white sesame seeds, toasted

Method:

1. Heat half of the oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add the cashews, honey and soy sauce and toss for 30 seconds or until all the liquid has evaporated. Pour onto a baking tray to cool.


2. Bring a saucepan of salted water to a boil, add the green beans and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh in cold water. Drain again and pat dry with a tea towel.


3. Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the green beans and over medium heat. Add the green beans and warm through. Add the sesame seeds and sticky cashews to the pan and mix through.

Pretty easy huh? I hope you enjoy these as much as we did! Spring & Summer are just around the corner and these green beans will make you feel like they're already here.

Happy Cooking my Friends!