Daring Bakers Challenge - Feb 2009

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The recipe chosen was a great selection for the month of February. The recipe called for just three ingredients - chocolate, butter and eggs. It was up to us to interpret it as we wanted it. The type of chocolate was also left to us. Since DH is not a bittersweet chocolate person, I almost exclusively used milk chocolate. Since I was in an sneaky mood, I sneaked in some bitter chocolate with chili. The recipe promised that the cake will taste exactly like the chocolate which was chose. But the cake was pure chocolate heaven!!! It was the most amazing chocolate cake I have ever had. I loved it. Making was really easy. This is the easiest challenge I have had so far.

This month's challenge also included a second part to it. Since this was an easy challenge, we were also asked to make ice cream to go with this delicious challenge. I chose to make Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream Recipe by David Lebovitz. It came out really well. The combination was just perfect.

Daring Bakers - Jan 2009 Tuiles

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda 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.

I was very disappointed when I was not able to participate in the December challenge. I was really looking forward to it since it was a really challenging. The Flu season took a toll on my family and so I was not able to participate.


So, What are Tuiles, you ask? Tuiles are thin, crisp almond cookies that are gently molded over a rolling pin or arched form while they are still warm. We were allowed to make the cookies in any shape we wanted as long as we stayed true to the recipe and technique. And that was my issue, my friends, because I have no power of imagination and creativity what-so-ever.





I decided to stay simple and make a very simple design. The plan was to make a cookie bowl and serve something sweet inside it for a dinner party for our friends. By now, everybody knows my obsession with mango. So, the lucky filling was going to be mango kesari. I found the yummiest recipe online. I could make it in the microwave and it was so easy.... But I digress..

How hard can it be to make a thin almond cookie and shape it. I mean, seriously, this was the smallest recipe we have ever been presented with and since I have been doing this for sometime...... I had a stencil ready to make the cookie. The batter was a breeze to make. The oven was preheated. Everything was ready to go.

You know what they say about Pride that it goes before a fall.And that what this challenge was for me.. It was huge but gradual fall!!!! I had a tough time spreading the batter thin. I tried leaving it in the fridge longer. Still no luck. Anyway, I forged ahead. I got ONE.. count ONE bowl out of the whole batch. The trick was in making it thin and shape it as soon as it came out of the oven. All the my cookies turned out too thick and it broke when I tried to shape it. At least I was able to get one bowl to serve my yummy kesari :) I drizzled little rose syrup for interest. In spite of the 'fall', we liked the taste of the almond cookie. It was pretty mild. I would definitely try again. These would make very elegant dessert cups.

Now, don't let my story stop you from visiting my fellow bakers creations. They are just amazing. You can find the recipe for the tuiles at hostess site. I'll post the kesari recipe soon. It absolutely deserves its own post.