The Daring Bakers Challenge - April 2011 - Maple Mousse in Bacon & Chocolate Bowls

Well, another month has passed by and its already time for another Daring Bakers' post. This month we weren't up to anything technically difficult, but it was definitely a crazy combination that not many of us had ever attempted (in a dessert any way). Funny how maple syrup with pancakes and bacon is a perfectly acceptable breakfast food (at least in Canada) yet the thought of pairing bacon with maple flavoured mousse seems weird! I will admit that the bacon bowls weren't my favorite and given the chance to make this dessert again I would likely opt for a different edible vessle, but I would definitely incorporate the bacon somehow. The rich saltiness of the bacon really offset the sweetness of the maple mousse.


The April 2011 challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded for the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at the Daring Kitchen.

This month's challenge was really interesting and really showed how creative the Daring Bakers' can be!


I'm not going to share the bacon bowl technique with you because I wasn't overly impressed with the results, but the maple mousse was so decadent that I must share that recipe. It is super easy so I hope if you're a maple lover that you will give it a try. Be sure to use a high quality maple syrup in this recipe (not maple-flavoured syrup) or you won't have the same results. One other tip I have for you: the maple mousse is very sweet so serve it in small portions (think shot glass size) with something a little salty on top. The salty will counter the sweet to balance out the flavours so perfectly.

Maple Mousse

Recipe provided by Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pure maple syrup


• 4 large egg yolks


• 1 pkg unflavoured gelatin


• 1 1/2 cups whipping cream

Method:

1. Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat.


2. In a large bowl whisk the egg yolks and pour a little of the maple syrup in while whisking to temper your egg yolks.


3. Add warmed egg yolks to the maple syrup and mix well.


4. Measure 1/4 cup of the whipping cream into a bowl and sprinkle with the gelatin. Let stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin. Place bowl in the microwave and microwave for 45 seconds (taking out and stirring every 10 seconds). Whisk the gelatin mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.


5. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten raw egg white.


6. Whip the remaining cream. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the maple syrup mixture. Fold in the remaining whipped cream and refrigerate for at least one hour.


7. Remove from fridge and divide equally among any edible (or non edible) containers of your choice.

I can't believe thats another Daring Bakers challenge all finished! Thank you Evelyne for the very interesting and inspiring challenge! I can't wait to see what next month has in store. :)

Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars

What a great long weekend! So relaxing and enjoyable... almost a shame to have to head back to work tomorrow! Oh well, I must have this income to support my cooking and baking addiction... so its a vicious cycle! :)

I made these squares (along with the cupcakes in my last post) for my "treat day" at work. Treat day happens every Thursday in my office and staff members below manager level are required to bring in goodies for everyone. As this day is much anticipated each week, its important to have super yummy goodies for everyone to choose from. I added these Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars to the mix on my last treat day and my co-workers were really excited. I was repeatedly asked for the recipe and there were none left by lunch time.

To top off the great taste of these bars, they're so easy. You can literally whip them up in under 10 minutes (put them together while your oven preheats) and then throw them in the oven for half an hour. Check out the recipe below to see how easy these bars really are! The biggest challenge in making this dish is waiting for the bars to chill enough to slice them into nice squares!! :)

Chocolate Almond Toffee Bars
Recipe from In the Kitchen with Anna by Anna Olson

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats


• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs


• 1/4 tsp fine salt


• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted


• 1 cup skor toffee bits


• 1 cup chocolate chips


• 1 cup sliced almonds


• 1 can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper so that the paper hangs over the sides of the pan.


2. Stir the oats, graham cracker crumbs and salt in a bowl to combine, then stir in the melted butter. Pres the crumbly oat mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle skor bits evenly on top, followed by chocolate chips and sliced almonds. Pour the sweetened condensed milk evenly over pan (it will sink in as it bakes) and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the edges are bubbling. Cool to room temperature in the pan, then chill for at least 4 hours before slicing into bars.


3. Store toffee bars in the refrigerator for up to one week. Makes about 25 squares.

Happy Easter to all of you & Happy Baking my Friends!

Amazing Cupcake Icing!

Woooohoooo for a long weekend! Happy Easter to all of you. I was looking back over my blog posts the last couple of weeks and realized I haven't posted many sweets lately... I've just been posting a lot about my cooking escapades. So here is a little something to satisfy your sweet tooth! I made these cute cupcakes a few weeks ago for treat day at our office. The cupcakes, particularly the icing on the cupcakes received rave reviews! I wasn't entirely impressed with the cupcakes themselves; I found them to be a little too eggy. But the icing, well that was another story! This is by far the most delicious and perfect tasting icing I've ever made. If you have a better recipe, please send it my way, but until then, I dub this the best icing recipe ever!


Very Vanilla Icing
Recipe adapted from Anna Olson's cookbook Fresh

Ingredients:

• 4 oz cream cheese, at room temperature


• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature


• 3 cups icing sugar, sifted


• seeds from one vanilla bean


• 1-2 tbsp milk


• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Using a stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy and smooth. On low speed, add the icing sugar, 1 cup at a time until blended. Beat in the vanilla bean seeds and the vanilla extract. Add the milk one 1 tbsp at a time until the desired consistency is achieved. Colour the icing as desired. Ice cupcakes liberally wth icing.

I hope you enjoy this icing a lot! Tint it with an Easter hue and serve it to your guests this weekend (not by its self, though you will be tempted... please put it on some cupcakes!!).

Happy Baking my Friends!

Spinach & Date Filo Triangles

Whew! This week has just flown by! I just realized that its Thursday already and I haven't posted a single thing all week. Sorry about that! I've been meaning to share these with you for a while... they were so delicious that my sister and I ate the whole batch in one sitting. Add a little tzatziki for dipping and you're set with a lovely little appy that your guests will gobble up in no time! Be sure to double or triple the batch so you don't run out too fast.

Don't shy away from filo pastry either! Honestly, its easy to make these little packages (even if they don't turn out like perfect triangles). Follow the instructions and be sure to keep the filo you're not using under a damp tea towel to keep it moist and pliable. Filo has a bad reputation of being too finicky to work with, but I don't find it difficult at all! Brushing with butter can fix a multitude of sins! Plus, they look super ugly til you start baking them... once they start baking they take on a beautiful golden brown colour and puff up nicely. You won't regret making this appetizer!

Spinach & Date Filo Triangles

Recipe from Meals in Heels

Ingredients:

• 100g english spinach leaves, rinsed


• 2 tbsp olive oil


• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced


• 2 small garlic cloves, finely chopped


• 1/2 tsp smoked sweet paprika


• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds, toasted


• 1 1/2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted (I omitted these because I didn't have them on hand, but I'm sure they add a delicious texture element to this recipe)


• 3 medjool dates, pitted and chopped


• 4 sheets filo pastry, each sheet halved widthways


• 1 oz melted butter for brushing

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400F and place baking tray inside.


2. Place the spinach and a pinch of salt in a large frying pan over high heat and cook, tossing frequently, for 1-2 minutes or until wilted. Drain, refresh in cold water and use your hands to squeeze out all the liquid. Chop and set aside.


3. Heat the oil in frying pan over low heat. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and cook another 2-3 minutes. Add the spinach, paprika, cumin and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the pine nuts and dates, then transfer to a bowl to cool.


4. Take a sheet of filo pastry and brush with melted butter. Keep the remaining pastry covered with a slightly damp tea towel to prevent it from drying out. Slice the pastry into 3 long strips. Place a heaped teaspoon of the filling in the lower corner. Fold over and up and keep repeating until you have a tight little triangle. Brush again with butter and place, seam side down, on a baking tray. Repeat with the remaining pastry, butter and filling. Place on the preheated aking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until golden. There is no need to flip them. Serve warm.

I hope you enjoy these yummy little bites! They are so delicious I can't even begin to describe the amazing flavour to you. Do try out the recipe!!

Have a wonderful Easter weekend! I hope you get to enjoy some well deserved time off to hang out with friends and family. I'm sure if your family is anything like mine, that Easter weekend is always an excuse to get together and have a great time with each other eating great food and playing fun games.

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Chiang Mai Chicken Jungle Curry

Wow! It is such a beautiful day here! Definitely a nice break from the dreary overcast days that we have seen so much of here in the Southern part of British Columbia. If you saw my post from a couple days ago about the Green Beans with Sticky Soy Cashews, then you'll be excited for this post. This curry goes so great with those green beans, so be sure to make them together and you'll have a divine meal for you and your friends and family. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for me! I've got to be up bright and early so that I can make the trek to downtown Vancouver to participate in the Vancouver Sun Run. The Sun Run is a 10km run that brings out over 50,000 participants! It is quite the event and the downtown area of Vancouver is just packed full of people of all kinds. Since tomorrow is going to be so busy, I got some cookies baked today and have planned out my dinner menu for tomorrow so that I don't have much left to do tomorrow other than enjoy the run. Hopefully this beautiful weather carries over to tomorrow so that the run will be enjoyable too. :) Do you have anything exciting planned for the remainder of this weekend? Chiang Mai Chicken Jungle Curry Adapted from Meals in Heels by Jennifer Joyce Ingredients:

• 2 tsp vegetable oil


• 2 tbsp soft brown sugar


• 100g tamarind puree (or you can mix equal parts of lime juice, soy sauce and brown sugar and add that instead)


• 2 tbsp fish sauce


• zest and juice of two limes


• 800 ml coconut milk


• a coupe chicken breasts cut into bite size pieces


• toasted coconut shavings and cilantro leaves for garnish


• 2 long red chillies, seeds removed and chopped


• 1 1/2 inch knob of ginger, peeled and chopped


• 2 garlic cloves


• 6 lemongrass stalks, bottom inner third only, finely chopped


• 1 tbsp curry powder


• one bunch cilantro stems roughly chopped

Method:

1. Place the red chillies, ginger, garlic cloves, lemongrass stalks, curry powder and cilantro in a blender (or food processor) and blend until a smooth paste forms.


2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the chicken and brown until almost cooked through. Add the curry paste and stir continuously for 5 minutes or until fragrant. Add the sugar, tamarind, fish sauce, lime zest and juice and coconut milk and simmer for 15 minutes or until thickened. Scatter over the toasted coconut and cilantro leaves and serve with rice & Green Beans with Sticky Soy Cashews.

I hope you enjoy this one! It really was delicious and authentic tasting. I think the key is making the homemade curry paste. It was so aromatic and flavourful. The original recipe calls for using prawns instead of chicken, but hubby is allergic to prawns so I sadly could not make it with the prawns. :( Oh well, I usually get my fix of prawns when I go out of town! Feel free to try it with whichever you prefer. I'm sure with chicken or prawns it will turn out delicious.

Happy Cooking my Friends! I hope you enjoy this recipe & the rest of the weekend.

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!

Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!!

I think homemade pizza is one of the most scrumptious and easy things to make! You can whip it up so fast especially when you're strategic about the order you do things in! For example, whip up the dough in your food processor, while the dough rises for about 15 minutes, mix up your pizza sauce (you wouldn't put processed store bought pizza sauce on a perfectly otherwise homemade pizza would you???), preheat your oven and prep your toppings. Bake your prepared pizza til golden and cooked through and voila, you have a home made pizza that tops anything you could order from your local pizza joint! And as a bonus this homemade pizza is way healthier for you because you control the type of flour you put in, the amount of fat, and the toppings (which by the way, there are practically a million and one choices for toppings so you can never get bored of this stuff!!).

Here is a great healthy recipe for pizza crust that will leave you wanting to make this all the time!

Spelt Pizza Crust

Recipe adapted from The Girl Can't Cook by Cinda Chavich

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour


• 1 cup spelt flour


• 2 tsp instant yeast


• 1 tsp salt


• 1 tbsp olive oil (you think Pizza Hut puts that little oil in their dough? think again - try about 2 cups of oil per pizza + toppings!!!)


• 1 cup warm water


• 1 tsp sugar


• cornmeal for dusting


• pizza stone is optional, but not required

Method:

1. Place the flour, yeast and salt in the food processor and whirl briefly. Combine the olive oil, warm water, and sugar. With the machine running, slowly add the liquid, until the dough comes together in a ball. You can add up to 1/4 cup more warm water if you need - the dough should be smooth but soft.


2. Set dough aside in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap while you whip up the sauce and prep the toppings.


3. Preheat the oven to 500F.


4. Divide dough in two and roll out each piece of dough to fit on your baking sheet. Top liberally with pizza sauce and desired toppings. Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until the bottoms of the pizzas are golden and crisp and the cheese is melted.


5. Let pizza stand on cutting board for two minutes prior to cutting (if you can bear to wait that long!!!)

*note this amount of dough makes enough for two rectangular thin crust pizzas.

*Topping ideas: I did two pizzas - one had mexican salami, capacolla, mozzarella cheese, and roasted red pepper. The other had sauteed garlic mushrooms, roasted garlic pieces, goat cheese and roasted red pepper.

Happy Cooking my Friends!