Tuile cookies for The Daring Bakers

Here we are for the start of 2009's Daring Baker Challenge. The first challenge of the year, Tuile cookies. I had a little trouble with these little babies, but I was at fault. The recipe clearly states to let the butter soften, I did not do this, so my dough was lumpy and runny. Because of this, I couldn't use a stencil, but it worked out just spooning the dough on my baking stone. Once they baked up in about 8 minutes, they wanted to stick. I let them cool a minute or two and then with a cake decorating spatula, using a sawing motion, I got them off in one piece. Thank Goodness!!



This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.



We were also to pair this with a light dipper. I used my sweet potato butter for my dipper. The cookies were really sweet and I actually liked them by themselves. I could see these used as a little bowl filled with a fruit salad, but after finally getting them off the baking stone, all my creativity was gone.


Following is a recipe taken from a book called “The Chocolate Book”, written by female Dutch Master chef Angélique Schmeinck.



Recipe:

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)

60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar

1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)

2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)

65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour

1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice

Butter/spray to grease baking sheet



Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not over mix.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a baking sheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….



Sweet potato butter

4 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into slices
2 cups apples, peeled, cored and chopped
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp cinnamon, or to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg, optional
1/2 cup water

Combine all ingredients in crock pot and stir. Cook on high heat until sweet potatoes are fully cooked. Mash or beat with an electric hand mixer until well blended. Pour into jars and can as normal. This mixture will be a little thicker than apple butter.

Rice Krispie Treats

I love these, I crave them and have had this craving for a while now. So when I looked at the recipe and tried to convert this to WW points, I figured out that a batch in a 9x13 inch pan makes 24 treats, and that would equal 1 point per treat. Now, my rule is, if I make something and the point value is a little over, I still go with the lower point. These treats came out to 1.33 point, so I am going with 1. Now on to these things...

These are always a kid favorite and I think that there are somethings that make the kid in us show. These are one of them. I will always pick these and now that I know that they are really low fat, I will probably start making them more. I am also wanting to put some add ins on these babies. I am wanting to add dried cranberries to them, or any type of dried fruit for that matter. It can only make it better!

Rice Krispie Treats

1/4 cup butter or margarine

10 oz bag of marshmallows

6 cups rice krispie cereal

Melt the butter over low heat in a large pot. Once melted add the marshmallows and stir until melted together. Remove from the heat and mix in the cereal. Add until combined. Immediately pour into a buttered 9x13 inch pan and spread until even. Let cool and cut into squares.

Pineapple Right Side Up Cake

If you are looking for the buttery, gooey pineapple upside down cake, it is not here. But, if you are looking for a variation of it that is healthy and counts as 2 WW points per serving, you have found it. While visiting a forum that I am a member of, I clicked on the healthy recipes and found this one from Bunny. Everything that she makes comes out wonderful, so I knew that I wanted to try it.

The verdict of this cake? It was actually ok. It is healthier than the normal cake, so don't expect it to taste just like it, but it was good.

Pineapple Right Side Up Cake

from: Bunny

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drain and reserve juice

1/3 cup skim milk

1/3 cup egg substitute, or 4 egg whites

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch square pan with cooking spray. Stir together the applesauce, reserved pineapple juice, milk, egg substitute, and vanilla. Combine flour, white sugar and baking powder. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Spread batter into the pan. Sprinkle the top of the batter with crushed pineapple. Sprinkle brown sugar over the pineapple. Bake for 30 minutes until a toothpick tests clean. Cool 10 minutes and serve warm.

I like cherries in my pineapple cake, so I topped each serving with a cherry and it sank to the middle of the cake. So, it is like you get a surprise with every serving! :)

Peanut Butter Cookies

If you are trying to watch your sugar intake or trying to be a little healthier, these cookies are for you. They are made with Splenda and if I calculated right, they are 1.5 Weight Watcher points per cookie. This recipe came from Paula Deen and they really are good. Peanut Butter cookies are my favorite, and these are soft and chewy and very peanut buttery...is that even a word?! You could probably get away with a low fat peanut butter, but I have to admit, I am a peanut butter snob. Only Peter Pan Creamy for me. The recipe said that Paula got 18 cookies out of the batch, I used my cookie scoop and got 22 cookies. They are a perfect 2 or 3 bite cookie, not too big or not too small.

This is the first of my healthy baking, and I was not disappointed. I hope the others turn out as good!

Peanut Butter Cookies with Splenda
By: Paula Deen

1 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
1 cup Splenda
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat your cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Mix together all the ingredients until they are combined. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Press criss crosses on the top of the cookies with a fork, because really, what is a peanut butter cookie without the criss crosses? Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Rice Pudding

Here we are again for my choice of the cookbook challenge with Megan of Megan's Cookin and I chose Rich Risotta Rice Pudding from Jill O'Connor's Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. If I haven't said it before, I really like this book. It is really a girly book, dressed in pink, blue and brown, and it is full of great looking recipes.

Megan made this pudding before I got around to making it and she had trouble with it thickening. She described hers as a sweet rice pudding soup, so that had me a little discouraged. So, I made a couple of changes. I used just a plain long grain rice, used 2 percent milk and I halved the recipe and it came out just fine. It thickened up nicely. Now, that could be because I let alot of the liquid boil over and out of the pot, and down into the eyes of my stove. Not a pretty sight, but at least the pudding thickened!

Don't forget to check out Megan's adventure with this pudding and I can't wait to see her choice for the next round.


Rich Risotto Rice Pudding
By: Jill O'Connor

1/2 cup arborio rice
8 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
Freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

Combine the rice, milk, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and salt in a large heavy bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring every 5 minutes as the mixture starts to thicken, for about 30 minutes. Continue cooking until the rice is tender but not too mushy, about 15 minutes longer. The milk will be thick and the rice tender, but the mixture will still be a little soupy, which is what you want. (As the pudding cools, it thickens, and if it is too thick while still hot, it will firm up into a thick, stodgy lump without the unctuous creaminess of a great rice pudding.)

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and cream together and stir into the rice pudding. Continue cooking the pudding over medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, until the eggs are cooked through and pudding is creamy and glossy, but still fairly soupy. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Grate a little nutmeg (if using) into the pudding. Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the pudding into a serving bowl and press plastic wrap over the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until cold, at least 2 to 3 hours. Serve cold.

Baked Doughnuts

So for the new year, I too am trying to eat healthier, and drop some pounds. As a diabetic, I am trying to watch the sugar intake as well. The trouble with that is that I have a desserts blog. I haven't quite figured out how I am going to work it all out, seeing this is a desserts blog. Maybe I can come up with a way to make them with less sugar but still taste good.

I ran across these baked doughnuts a while back on Tartelette's blog and knew that I wanted to try them. I envisioned them to be nice and fluffy like a Krispy Kreme doughnut, but healthier since they were baked, not fried. The recipe also called to dip them into melted butter immediately after they baked and then rolled into cinnamon and sugar. I chose to dip them into a buttery glaze, so that they would be like a glazed Krispy Kreme. These did not turn out that way. They tasted fine, but the texture of them reminded me of a sweet thick pizza crust.
Maybe I didn't let them rise long enough on the second rising. I may try these again, but if I do it will be with whole wheat flour. The wheat flour is a new thing to me too. I have never used it.

Baked Doughnuts

1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95-105 degrees (divided)
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 Tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all purpose flour
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 tsp salt

optional topping:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and sugar and set aside for five minutes or so to let it proof. Stir the butter into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt-just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. Adjust the dough texture by adding flour a few tablespoons at a time or more milk. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.

Transfer the dough into a buttered or oiled bowl, cover, put in a warm place, and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2 inch thick on your floured counter top. With a 2-3 inch cookie cutter, stamp out circles in the dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes-start checking around 8 minutes. While the doughnuts are baking, place butter in a medium bowl. Placed the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl.

Or...dip the tops in this glaze..

Creamy Butter Glaze

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4-6 Tbsp hot water

Melt butter and then whisk it in a medium bowl with confectioners sugar, vanilla, and hot water. Dip tops of doughnuts and let set.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I have learned by doing this blog that I have tried and made so many things that I would have never just picked up and made. This Flourless Chocolate Cake is one of those. I have seen them in magazines, cookbooks, on other blogs and on Food Tv, but have never made one....until now. And I have no idea on what I have been waiting on or afraid of. This cake has got to be moistest chocolate cake that I have ever made.

For New Year's Eve we had friends over for an Italian night and I had planned on tiramisu, but time got away from me. While watching Tyler Florence, he made this and it looked quick and simple. This was perfect. This will be made again and again.

Flourless Chocolate Cake
By: Tyler Florence

1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces (I used semi-sweet)
1 stick unsalted butter
9 large eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar, plus 1 Tbsp

Confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch springform pan.

Put the chocolate and butter into the top of a double boiler (or in a heatproof bowl) and heat over (but not touching) about 1 inch of simmering water until melted. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until light and pale in color. Whisk a little of the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture to temper the eggs-this will keep the eggs from scrambling from the heat of the chocolate-then whisk in the rest of the chocolate mixture.

Beat the egg whites in a mixing bowl until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until the cake is set, the top starts to crack and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with moist crumbs clinging to it, 20-25 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes, then remove sides of pan.

Serve at room temperature dusted with confectioner's sugar.