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!

Lime & Blackberry Italian Meringue Pie



Always Competitive - I had to put my pie beside the picture on the magazine cover just to see how it compared!



I'm so excited to share this pie with you! It tastes so amazing and just screams summer what with the beautiful fresh blackberries and the tart burst of lime that offsets the blackberries so nicely. This is like a traditional lemon meringue pie gone rogue! If you love summer desserts, you must try this one before the summer's beautiful bounty has disappeared from the market.

Blackberry compote placed in crust waiting to be covered over by creamy lime curd.

 This pie is a bit involved, but you can cut down on the effort by purchasing the pie crust if you want. I am a bit of a baking snob, so I wouldn't buy the crust, but don't worry, I won't judge if you decide to. :) There are four parts to this pie: the pastry crust, the lime curd, the blackberry compote and the italian meringue topping. In addition to being quite involved, you don't want to make this pie too long before you serve it - it is best served within three hours of making! But don't let that stop you - this pie is well worth the effort. It looks so impressive and artistic once it is put together and it tastes amazing!



The blackberry compote has been covered by delicious, creamy lime curd.



 So lets get started with the recipe. For the pastry I'm going to direct you to Anna Olson's pie crust recipe which I posted in my Cherry Pie blog post. This is my absolute favorite pie crust recipe and it is super easy to whip up in the food processor. Once you've whipped up your pastry - chill for one hour in the fridge, then roll out and fit into your pie dish and then chill for another half an hour. Next blind bake the crust. Here are the blind baking instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Prick chilled pie crust in pie dish all over with a fork. Line crust with parchment paper and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven; lift out parchment and weights. Reduce oven temperature to 350F. Return to oven and bake, using fork to prick any bubbles that have formed and pressing down on them with back of fork, until crust is light golden brown, 20-25 minutes longer. Let crust cool completely. I made mine the night before and it worked out beautifully.

Artfully swirled italian meringue prior to browning to give it some colour.

The next component to make is the lime curd. This curd is so delicious you're just going to want to eat it by itself, but do try to save some because it does go really nicely with the blackberry compote!!

Lime Curd

Recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine - August 2011 Issue

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fresh lime juice - juicing a bunch of limes can be a pain, but do use fresh lime juice because taste really matters here and bottled lime juice will not cut it.
• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks (save the whites - you can use them for the meringue)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin
• 3/4 cup chilled heavy cream

Method:

1. Set a strainer over a medium bowl and set aside. Stir the lime juice, eggs, egg yolks, and sugar together in another medium bowl. Set bowl over a large saucepan of gently simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). Whisk until the mixture has thickened, the whisk will leave a path when lifted from curd, and thermometer will register 175F (approximately 15 minutes).
2. Add butter to curd, one tbsp at a time, whisking to blend between additions. Strain curd into prepared bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of curd. Chill until cold, about 2 hours. This part can be done up to two days ahead. Refrigerate curd.
3. Sprinkle gelatin over 2 tbsp water in a small bowl; let stand until gelatin is soft, about 10 minutes. Using an electric mixer, beat cream until soft peaks form. Add gelatin mixture; continue beating cream until just before firm peaks form. Fold whipped cream into lime curd. Cover and chill until ready to use.



Fresh blackberries nestled around creamy, light italian merinuge.



 Next up, make the blackberry compote. When I make this recipe again, I will likely reduce the amount of liquid in the compote - I found it to be quite runny in the bottom of the pie. The other option is to reduce the compote quite a lot until very syrupy  prior to folding in the blackberries. Either way, the taste is great, it just didn't set up as nicely as I had hoped.

Blackberry Compote

Recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine - August 2011 Issue

Ingredients:

• 1 cup fruity red wine, such as Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 cups blackberries (about 1 1/2 pints)

Method:

1. Bring red wine, sugar, and 1/2 cup water to a simmer in a medium saucepan over high heat; reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 20-25 minutes (mine took considerably longer). Let cool.
2. Add three cups berries; fold gently to coat.
3. Spread compote in an even layer over baked crust. Spoon lime curd over berries, smooth top and chill for one hour.

Beautiful toastey meringue topping.

 Are you tired yet? You're in the home stretch - you just need to make the meringue and assemble the pie now. You can do it!! Its worth it. :)

Italian Meringue

Recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine, August 2011 Issue

Ingredients:

• 3 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp corn syrup
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup blackberries (1/2 a pint)

Method:

1. If toasting the meringue in the oven, preheat the oven to 450F (I toasted mine in the oven to get a beautiful light brown colour on the meringue, then removed from the meringue and torched areas of the meringue to give it additional colour and depth to the toastiness!!).
2. Place egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat whites in mixer until soft peaks form. Set aside. Stir sugar, corn syrup and 1/4 cup water in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until sugar has dissolved. Attach a candy thermometer to side of pan. Increase heat to medium-high and boil without stirring, occasionally swirling pan and brushing down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush, until thermometer registers 238F, 6-8 minutes. Remove pan from heat.
3. Meanwhile, beat whites in mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in salt.
4. Slowly pour hot sugar syrup down side of bowl into whites and beat until meringue is firm and glossy. Continue beating until cool, about 4 minutes. Spoon meringue over curd, leaving a 1" plain border, and sculpt/ swirl decoratively. Tuck 1 cup berries in and around meringue.
5. Bake pie until meringue is toasted in spots, 3-5 minutes. Watch it carefully because it can burn very quickly. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

 Whew! What a lot of work! I brought it to a summer bbq and it was very well received. I hope you enjoy it too. Do you have some exciting plans for the last weekend of summer? Hubby & I are heading kayaking tomorrow and keeping our fingers crossed for another beautiful day of sunshine.

 Happy Baking my Friends!

The Daring Bakers Challenge - May 2011 - Marquise on Meringue

Is it just me or do these months seem to fly by faster and faster? Things here are busy... so busy I almost forgot to post about my DB challenge until my friend reminded me yesterday!! Its so weird that I almost forgot because I am super duper excited about how this challenge turned out. It was so perfect and looked really pretty plated too.

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 dessert comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

What a challenge! Some of the components were familiar, but the marquise was not. For those of you wondering what chocolate marquise is, it is pretty much the best thing ever. For those of you who would like more of a description than the best thing ever, it is cube of spicy, creamy chocolate that you serve up on a beautiful pillow of sweet meringue. Then drizzle with salted caramel sauce and crisp candied pecans (with a hint of spice). Its absolutely lovely! It is a bit of work - there are many components, but all can be made up separately so you don't feel like you're going crazy trying to do 50 things in your kitchen at once!!!

You can find the recipes here. I would recommend using the 1/2 or 1/4 batches because this makes a huge portion of Marquise that I would not recommend consuming in one sitting. ;)

Please note that I didn't enjoy the tequila caramel sauce at all. I used a recipe for salted caramel sauce from a blog I have mentioned a time or two - Tracey's Culinary Adventures. She used the caramel sauce to fill brownies with and also to make salted caramel cheesecake bars. Both recipes looked super delicious! If you have a chance, do drop by her blog to check out the never-ending stream of deliciousness that she tends to post!

I would definitely recommend taking on this dessert one weekend when you need something exciting to do! Thats what I do when I need some excitement - I try out a recipe that will dirty every dish in my kitchen and that will really challenge my culinary skills. My hubby's verdict on the dessert was that it was delicious and I was "allowed" to make it again (despite the dirty dishes he had to clean up the next day on his day off!!!)!

So thank you Emma & Jenny for a fantastic challenge this month! It was great to have some fresh and new ideas come to the DB challenges, particularly a dessert that so many members had never heard of, let alone attempted. I learned a lot this month and had a great time doing it!

Stay tuned for some great posts this weekend!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Lemon Meringue Dessert

Ok, I've been procrastinating about writing this blog post ALL day. Now the day is nearly finished and I haven't blogged yet. :( So since I have nothing to do while my latest batch of bread dough rises, I will blog! I don't have any wine to tell you about today, so I'll tell you about an easy dessert to make this weekend. My inspiration comes from Jamie Oliver's TV show - Jamie at Home. He made his with lovely pears, chocolate, orange and hazelnut... but I didn't have that stuff on hand, so I made mine a little differently (and far more simple). There are three parts to this recipe - the meringue, lemon curd, and whipped cream.

First up - the meringue! I took this recipe from the Joy of Cooking cookbook. It's easy, but be sure you have the time to to allow them to bake and dry out sufficiently.

Meringue

Recipe from Joy of Cooking p. 741

Ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 cup sugar

Method:

1. Beat egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat on high until meringue holds very stiff peaks.
2. Preheat oven to 225F.
3. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Turn out meringue onto the lined tray and smooth it out into a rough rectangle shape. Leave it a little uneven so it looks rustic.
4. Bake in preheated oven for about 1 1/2 hours. Turn oven off and open door a crack and leave meringue sit in oven while it cools - for about one hour until its sufficiently dry.

Now that the meringue has been baked, make the lemon curd topping. Or, if you are really efficient, make the lemon curd while your meringue bakes!!

Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• juice from 2-3 lemons
• 3-4 tbsp butter

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 inch of water to a simmer. In a heat-proof medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar for about 2 minutes or until smooth. Whisk in the lemon juice until combined.
2. Place the mixing bowl on top of the pot of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir the mixture constantly, scraping with a spatula, until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat when it coats the back of the spoon.
3. Whisk in the butter, one tablespoon at a time, adding the next tablespoon when the piece before just about disappears into the mixture. Place in clean glass container with plastic wrap laid on top. This will prevent skin from forming. Store in refridgerator until ready to use.

Whip about 1 cup of whipping cream with vanilla and sugar to taste.

Now you're ready to assemble your dessert! Place the meringue (careful - its delicate and will break easily) on a wooden cutting board (remember we're going for the rustic look here!). Spoon the lemon curd over top and smooth out in a layer on top of the meringue. Sprinkle with graham crumbs (however may or few you like!). Then spoon the whipped cream over top. Garnish with more graham crumbs and grated lemon zest. Enjoy!

Remember not to assemble this dessert until right before you're ready to serve (you don't want the meringue to get soggy as the moisture is allowed back into it!) I hope you enjoy this dessert as much as we did. It is a rustic, casual dessert that is just fantastic following a family dinner. :) Happy Baking my Friends!