Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies & Milan Cookies. The Daring baker's Challenge, July 2009

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Milan cookie (recipe here) was fairly easy to make, but piping was not my specialty. So, my cookies was not perfectly shape as the original look. Taste was good, crisp, and buttery. Will make this again for sure.

I never made Marshmallows (recipe here) before, so this was a good challenge for me. Although I don't really fancy marshmallow myself, I must admit that this homemade version was better then the one you get from the package.

Oh, one last thing about this challenge:

• I enjoy the process of making the challenge for this month, since one of my sister actually visited me and accompany me while I was making the marshmallow. Which made the process took longer, because we were talking and giggling about silly thing, and I am definitely a person who is very easily to get distracted. I was surprise that even with the distraction from my sister, I was able to finish the process.

Thank you Nicole, I had so much fun making this cookies, they were delicious!. Thank you to Lisa and Ivonne who created the fabulous Daring Baker's challenge.

Yoğurt Tatlisi

A simple delightful, and light cake from Turkey. I know my two sisters will like this, especially my brother in law. 

Adapted from:

The Food and Cooking From TURKEY

by: Ghillie Başan

Ingredients:

4 eggs

½ cups (115 g) sugar

115 g self-raising flour (I used regular all-purpose flour)

14 oz thick and creamy natural yogurt ( I used non fat Greek yogurt, and it was 16 oz)

grated rind of  1 lemon (I used orange)

juice of 1 lemon (I used orange)

For the syrup:

1 cup (225 g) sugar

½ cup (120 ml)  water 

Juice of 1 orange

grated rind of 1 orange

I added 1 tablespoon Orange blossom water to this recipe

• First make the syrup: Heat sugar and water in a heavy pan over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add orange juice and grated orange - stir. Bring it back to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, add the orange blossom water if using - stir. Continue to simmer for 15 minutes or until it becomes syrupy. Turn off the heat, and let the syrup cool at room temperature. 

To make the cake:

• Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Grease a 9 inches cake pan - set aside.
  
• Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour, mix on low just to combine. Mix in the yogurt, lemon rind, and lemon juice. Mix well, but not over beat.
• Transfer the mixture onto prepared cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes until the top is completely darken (deep golden color). Cool on a wire rack.
• Transfer the cake onto serving plate, pour the syrup over the cake. Serve with kaymak (cloted cream) if you wish, I didn't. 

Really, REALLY Fudgy BROWNIES!!!!!!

No kidding, the title says it all! 

I made this brownies  using the recipe from a book that my son gave me for my birthday years back. This thick (692 pages) book with very little photographs (I think it has only 14 photographs) called " in the Sweet Kitchen, The Definitive Baker's Companion" by Regan Daley. I  asked my son  why he chose this book, considering he was merely 14 years old (now 19), his answer was very sweet too. It was the title, he liked the title "In The Sweet Kitchen" , oh very sweet indeed my little plum!  

Recipe from: 

In The Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley

Ingredients:

7  ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

3  ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup plus 2 tbs unsalted butter, in small pieces

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2⅓ cups granulated sugar 

1½ tsp vanilla extract (I used dark rum)

1¼ cup all-purpose flour

3 tbs good quality unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa

¹⁄₈ tsp salt

additional unsalted butter for greasing the pan

a 9 x 13-inch aluminum baking pan (I half the recipe and used 8 inches aluminum square cake pan).

parchment paper

• Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Grease the pan with butter, line the bottom and up to two sides with parchment paper, letting the paper overhang the two long sides by an inch or so. 

• In a small bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, and the salt together. Set aside.

• Fill a  large skillet with  about one inch of water. Set the skillet over low heat, and bring the water to a gentle simmer. 

• Place the unsweetened chocolate, the bittersweet chocolate and the butter in a heat proof bowl. Set the bowl over the skillet. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from the skillet, let the chocolate mixture cool slightly.

• In large bowl, beat the eggs slightly just to mix the yolks and the whites. Whisk in the sugar until the mixture is pale, about 2 minutes by hand. Stir in the vanilla. 

• Pour the slightly cooled chocolate into the eggs-sugar mixture, stir just enough to blend them together. Add flour mixture in three addition, using  rubber spatula to gently fold in each addition before adding the next one.

• Scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the brownie comes out with a few moist crumb cling to it. The surface should be set and shiny with a slightly crack at the edge. Do not overcook! 
  (What I did was, baked it for for 20 minutes, checked, then I added the time for another 5 minutes - checked, it was already done. So the  time will range between 20 to 30 minutes depending on the temperature of your oven and the pan  you are using. I used aluminum pan. If you are using the dark/nonstick pan, I believe it will cook faster. So keep checking).

• Transfer the pan onto wire rack, and let cool completely before cutting it into bars. 

Note: 

Wrap the bars in plastic, and store at room temperature for gooier brownies, or in the refrigerator for denser, fudgier brownies  for up to five days. The author was right when she said:  "I doubt it's going to stay that long" Mine was petty much gone that day. 

44

Today is my birthday! 

Still healthy, still happy. Have all the love from my family. Couldn't ask for more, and I am truly greatfull!!!!!!!!

CANNELÉS De Bordeaux

I would like  to share my first trial with these delicious little treats. It was not a successful trial, so I will try it again, once successful, I'll post about it along with the recipe. Some recipe mention that I should put wax for the moulds, but I felt reluctant to do it. I knew how messy it would be. So I skipped the waxing process. As result, most of the Cannéles stuck in the moulds and I had to soaked them for days. Anyway, I could only salvage a few for photograph. Taste wise was delicious, and I'll be using the same recipe for my second try. 

Does anyone knows the trick to make Cannéles without waxing the mould? Would you share the secret, please? Thank you...

KOUIGN AMANN

Haven't tried to eat Kouign Amann before? I encourage you to try it at least once in your life time. It's very rich, loaded with butter and sugar, tastes insanely good, and it seems like heaven is within your reach. If you are on diet, you can just enjoy the photo, k?!

This is the second Kouign Amann I made using the same recipe. The instruction was pretty clear, so most likely you will be successful at first try. Although, I must add that, he had a few people said it was difficult and had no luck with it. I think if you follow his instruction carefully, you will be fine.

This is for Yeast Spotting event created by Susan. There will be many delicious sweet and savory bread recipes to enjoy, so make sure to visit her blog. To join this event is very easy, here is how:

• Bake with yeast (wild or baker's) or make a dish starring bread.
  
• Post about it. Please include a recipe/formula, or a link to one, or some indication of how the bread was made. Also please include the word "YeastSpotting", with a link to this page.
• Submit your post here. Please submit it during the same week it was posted.