Danish Braid... the parchment makes all the difference

My first ever challenge for the Daring Bakers Club was this month's Danish Braid. This is something that I would have NEVER attempted to bake on my own without prompting from the Daring Bakers group. It was certainly a challenge! :) Here is my journey...

It started off with making the dough. I didn't have any fresh cardamom but I used dried and along with the rind from an entire orange and the orange juice in the dough it made my hands, kitchen, refrigerator, EVERYTHING smell wonderful. The smell of this dough actually reminded me of Paska, a Mennonite Easter bread from my heritage that is near and dear to my heart. I love the orange flecks of zest that you can see in the dough in the picture below.

So, I mixed the dough at 5pm on Friday evening and for the next 4 hours tended to it by chilling it, rolling it out, spreading it with butter, folding it back up, refrigerating it again, rolling it out, folding it up... etc. Wow, were my arms ever tired by the end of the night... its a darn good work out & lesson in patience!

The butter block

Ok, so the rest of the pictures were taken the next morning (I woke up at 8 am on my Saturday morning to construct these monstrosities/masterpieces) So, the dough had been tended to so carefully and then chilled all night, I watched the Julia Child's video on constructing these braids, read over the instructions numerous times, thought I had it all down pat but I managed to forget a MAJOR detail while putting the danishes together... I FORGOT TO CONSTRUCT THE BRAID ON THE PARCHMENT... ahhhhhhhhhh. This was SO frustrating... My first braid was a blueberry ricotta filled danish... I started braiding at the end which you can see didn't turn out very well but towards the middle of the first braid and towards the end I managed to get the hang of things... only problem was that at this point I realized that I forgot to do all of this on parchment... this is a vital detail in the danish making process because moving the raw, filled, constructed braid onto parchment is HARD... see for yourself below

trying desperatly to move the braid onto the parchment... common braid!

Success! Below is a picture of the braid moved onto parchment... looking a tad scary though if I do say so myself... at this point I was almost crying... all of that hard work and elbow grease creating this amazing dough for the final product to look like THIS. BAH! I just kept telling myself 'It'll still taste good and I have a second braid to redeem myself with'

The scary end of the braid- eek... oh well...there is always round two right?

So, after a coffee and calming myself down I made the second braid... This one was a Peach Passion fruit Ricotta filled braid. Other than the uneven widths of the strips that I cut (as you can see below) I think it looked pretty darn good... nicely tucked in ends, beautiful braiding... oh, but do you notice something VITAL missing?! A vital DETAIL?!?! AHHHHHHHHHHH I DID IT AGAIN!!! I forgot to make it on the parchment paper... AGAIN. Can you believe it?! Ok, so if anything I believe that this proves that on Saturday mornings I NEED to sleep in till noon. I just dont function well early in the mornings on weekends... its just not in me! :)

Carefully moving the braid on to the parchment. The reason why the parchment is so vital is because the braid is like 15" long and when its on the nice parchment paper its so easy to move from the counter to the baking pan & oven ... when its not on the parchment paper its nearly impossible.
Got the braids onto the parchment and letting them proof for a couple of hours I decided to make a thin, drizzly icing to top them after they were baked along with a sprinkling of sliced almonds and an egg wash to coat them with before the were popped into the oven to make them shiny and pretty.
I actually didn't have a pan long enough to bake these babies on so I just put another big piece of parchment on the rack in the oven and slid them on there... it worked well!
Baking... Still baking...
I was so nervous- this is where I was pretty much the entire time that they were in that oven!

And the final product!!!
TA-DAAAAAAA!

Peach Passion fruit & Ricotta Danish Braid drzzled with classic Icing & sprinkled with sliced Almonds.

Blueberry & Ricotta Danish Braid drizzled with classic Icing & sprinkled with sliced Almonds.

this is the good half...






I would say that, although difficult, this challenge was a success!! I was VERY happy with the end results (as were various friends and family who sampled the finished product) I wish I had pictures of them all sliced up but they went from the oven into peoples mouths litterally within 10 mins. Ive never had a Danish hot out of the oven and it was amazing... mmmmm I'm salavating just thinking about it. I would have never made this on my own but I am VERY glad that I was challenged to do so because it felt so great to conquer this and, despite my setbacks, it turned out beautifully. Can't wait for next months challenge!

FOOOOOOOOD

So, since I have started this new food blog I figured that I should post some foodie type previous posts from my old blog onto my new food blog... it just felt a little naked. Enjoy!

Paska

Ok, so I made Paska for the first time ever in my life last night/today and it turned out GLORIOUSLY! I used the recipe from Lovella's blog (on my sidebar, click on her name and then click on the link on her sidebar that is marked Paska... I HIGHLY recomend this recipe- thanks Lovella!) It turned out very moist and light and delicous. I am very proud to be carring out my favorite Menno tradition so I am going to post some pics to show you all my acomplishments :) I brought some to the work site for the guys to have and they loved it expecially this guy that works for us doing finishing carpentry, his name is Menno and hes an older guy whos like so hardcore Mennonite... my parents knew him in Abbotsford like 20 years ago so its a coinsidence that I am working with him now but anyways, I think he really appreciated it (and it was cool to have an experienced Paska eater tell me that mine was really good!) Jo-Ben likes it too-hmmmmmm Jo-Ben and Amanda Thiessen... has a good ring to it, think he'll change his name? hahah j/k. Anyhow, I am proud to carry on the traditions of my heritage, just wish my Mom and Dad were around to try my Paska (it just might be better than hers) Oh well, maybe next year!

Pumpkin ginger muffins with cream cheese icing

The making of Pumpkin Ginger Muffins in no particular order...

Peach coffee cake

I was browsing foodie blogs this afternoon and on one of my faves, Everybody Likes Sandwiches, I saw a yummy coffee cake which she found on anther blog, La Vie Cerise, where I proceeded to and her coffee cake looked just as yummy and I thought to myself "what a coincidence, a delicious looking coffee cake recipe and Jo-Ben is coming home tonight and guess what his fave cake is?!" So, I made my own version of the oh so popular coffee cake but I took the suggestion of the original coffee cake producer/blogger, La Vie Cerise and substituted peaches in for the apples and added a touch of nutmeg to the batter... it turned out beautifully but next time I would add a couple of more table spoons of flour to the batter because the peaches are so juicy it makes the cake quite wet. Anyways, I highly recommend this recipe and you can find if on both Everybody Likes Sandwiches and La Vie Cerise. My favorite part of this cake is the ratio of topping to cake... its pretty much half and half which I LOVE. Along with this cake I also highly recommend listening to Colbie Caillat really really loud while baking... the coffee cake and Colbie Caillat make everything brighter!

Corn Chowder

So , I basically felt like laying on the couch for the entirety of the evening as soon as I got home from work but when Jo-Ben said that he was going to pull out a can of clam chowder for dinner I knew I couldn't let that happen... I had just spoken to my mum and she was watching some cooking show and they were making corn chowder which made me think of last months Real Simple magazine cover which featured a big steaming bowl of corn chowder and wouldn't ya know it- I put those thoughts together and basically the only ingredients we had in our fridge/freezer and whipped up a beautiful bowl of smokey corn chowder and cheddar buttermilk biscuits (biscuit recipe out of Betty Crocker cook book- tried and true.) Much better than a boring old can of clam chowder I think... It was fresh, spicy and comforting. I basically made up the recipe myself and here is how it went down:

1) Cut up a bunch of bacon and fry it up in a big pot on med heat, take it out to drain on a paper towel when its all crispy and leave the drippings in the pot.
2) Lower the heat and cook some finely chopped onion and garlic. Add in some smoked paprika and red pepper flakes to taste (for me that's a whole lot)
3) Add a bag of frozen corn and about 3 cups of milk with a few teaspoons of corn starch whisked in & turn up heat to bring soup to a boil. Once it bubbles bring it back down to low to keep soup nice and hot. I also took half the soup out and pureed it in the blender to make it a bit smoother and then put it back in the pot.
4) Serve with bacon pieces, sliced scallions, cheddar cheese and salt & pepper to taste. Oh- and some delish biscuits with butta.

It turned out quite well but next time I would probably add some little red potatos halved and more bacon... left over rotisserie chicken shredded up and thrown on top would be pretty swell too. I might just have to do that with the leftovers.

Dins!

mmmmmm mmmmm smokey corn chowder

The steaminess fogged up my lens!

Jo-Ben digging for some butter for his biscuit.
Was a pretty good dinner for a pretty drizzly day, glad I got off the couch!

Coconut pancakes and Molecular cooking

I have noticed that lately lots of the foodie blogs that I have been snooping on have been featuring some variation on Coconut Pancakes so this morning I decided to make an adaptation of my own. Here is how my recipe went down:

Amanda's Coconut Pancakes
1 can coconut milk
2 Tsp honey
1 1/2 C flour (all purpose or whole wheat)
1 C shredded, sweetened coconut
3 Tsp BP
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
3 L eggs

-In a small pot heat the coconut milk and honey until it barely comes to a simmer.
-Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
-In a small bowl whisk the eggs together.
-Add the coconut milk to the large bowl of dry ingredients & mix till combined.
-Add about 1/3 of the pancake mixture to the whisked eggs & then add the egg mixture back into the pancake mixture and mix quickly together.
-Cook pancakes on about M heat being very careful to watch them as the coconut burns quickly, a 1/4 cup measure makes a good sized pancake.
-Serve with sweetened whipped cream, butter, warmed maple syrup or brown sugar.

Makes about a dozen 1/4 C sized pancakes.

Wish I had pictures but I ate these suckers pretty quickly... I reserved some batter to make for Jo-Ben tomorrow morning so we will see what my "food critic" says about them tomorrow but I think they are pretty darn good.

I have been watching episodes of Top Chef and a new type of cooking that is very hip these days is called molecular gastronomy, and, though not my style of cooking, seems really interesting. Its a movement to introduce new techniques and sciences in the preparation and delivery of food... When you get down to it cooking and definitely baking are a science but molecular gastronomy is taking it to an extreme and cooking VERY scientifically. here is a link to a page of a molecular gastronamist who has some really cool videos of some examples of molecular cooking for example beet root vapor. http://www.youtube.com/user/oliverlicuisine . On top chef already on the first two episodes of the third season they have mentioned this style of cooking and have used variations including aromas of eucalyptus and spices.

Here are two pages dedicated to this style of cooking, the first one features a flicker album of molecularily cooked food and the pictures look AMAZING. My style of cooking would probably be more simple and home cooked but I really like a simple and clean looking plate and these pictures depict just that.
http://www.alacuisine.org/alacuisine/2004/11/molecular_gastr.html
http://khymos.org/

I was looking on one molecular gastronomy site and they featured bread in an aerosol can... not too sure how excited I am about that one considering what a carb lush I am but its all a really interesting concept- it kinda reminds me of the Jetsons with the tablets that would come out of that machine and would taste like a roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and veggies or whatever... I think Ill stick to good ol down home cooking.