Daring to bake..Povitica!

　

Traditonal walnut and cocoa filling.



Povitica (also known as Nutroll, Potica, Kalachi, Strudia) is traditionally served during the holiday season. It is traditionally made with an English walnut filling but as a whole batch of dough makes 4 separate loaves i decided to try out some different fillings. Firstly i started with the traditional walnut filling.

Pumpkin pie & white chocolate Povitica.

The next loaf i made was a pumpkin pie and white chocolate filling. Unfortunately i had a bit of an issue, the filling wasnt thick enough & started spilling out when i put the dough in the pan & sinking to the bottom whilst cooking. This didnt matter at all though as it was extremely delicious & has been gobbled up faster then i could get it out of the pan!!

Another i did was a cream cheese, cinnamon and honey filling with pecan chunks & chopped prunes. It tasted quite nice but i didnt make enough filling so it was probably my least favourite out of the 4 loaves.

Finally my last loaf was a savoury Povitica. This had a basil pesto, sundried tomato and a herby cheddar cheese filling. This was quite delicious!

All in all a very enjoyable challenge with some very popular finished products! Thanks Jenni :D

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

Time to make Moo Shu - Daring Cooks

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

 

Moo Shu is generally made with pork for the protein along with cabbage, green onions, bamboo shoots and wood ears(fungus).
I made Moo Shu prawns for the challenge and it was delicious! The whole family loved it and we ate all the pancakes! I didnt get the best pictures because they were messy & hard to photograph but i think the proof is in tasting them!

I added red capsicum along with carrot , zucchini and red cabbage to the mixture for a bit of colour and added nutrition. The hoisin sauce i made with peanut butter but i think next time id try it with the black bean paste as i didnt particularly like it on its own, it tasted fine all together though.

I also loved the pancake cooking process, which involved rolling 2 balls of the dough out on top of each other, cooking them & then separating them - i was truly amazed at how well it worked!

Thanks so much for a really fun challenge!!

Daring to bake.. Croissants!

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

 

This challenge took a long time as i had to do it over a period of 3 days due to work and other commitments. There are many rising periods and rolling and folding of the dough which makes it quite time consuming.

Straight away i could tell me dough wasn't exactly perfect and it seemed to get worse as time went on with the addition of the butter to the pastry. I wasnt sure they'd actually rise and i couldn't start again as id left the challenge til the last minute. The dough wasnt thick enough of solid enough to keep proper definition between the layers when rolling but i chucked them in the oven anyhow.

After about 5 minutes in the oven a wonderful aroma wafted out from the oven and i knew that if all else failed, at least i had a nice smelling house! Haha :P But amazingly enough my dough rose, and while not traditional looking, i produced some pretty darn tasty croissants!

Buttery and moist, and oh so delicious ;) a perfect afternoon snack fresh out of the oven with some strawberry jam!

Thanks Sarah for what proved to be a tough but fun challenge for me, im definitely planning on trying this recipe again to try perfect my croissant-making skills!

Daring Cooks - Appams and South-Indian Curries!

All in all a successful challenge with yummy results, my fussy sister in particular couldn't get enough! Thanks Mary!!

Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.

Appams are made from rice, yeast and coconut milk and sort of resemble a crepe. Id never heard of them before the challenge so it was quite interesting a challenge as i had no expectations of what they would taste like or how they would turn out. The batter ferments for 8-12 hours before cooking the appams individually.

The finished product should be slightly crispier on the edges and spongy in the centre. You need to have a covering over the pan when cooking otherwise the appam does not cook correctly.

I made the appams with a vegetable and chickpea south indian spiced curry,

a cucumber raita(pictured below in green bowl) & butter chicken -i know its not south indian or sri-lankan but my sister could fathom the idea of 'indian' food without butter chicken! haha.

Daring Bakers Pasta Challenge!

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks. July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spatzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

 

I had never cooked my own pasta before so i was a bit apprehensive, but now that i have i will continue doing it myself as it is so much fun!

I decided to make a mixture of fettucini and tagliatelle, doing some by hand and some using my pasta maker.

I made a chilli lemon and garlic dressing and tossed it with king prawns. Served with a side salad of baby spinach, roast pumpkin, semi-dried tomatoes, cucumber and pine nuts, it was the perfect mid night meal. So much so that i got distracted while cooking and almost forgot to take a photo of the finished result!

Bon Appetit!

Daring Bakers Baklava Challenge!

Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

 

I decided to use a bread maker to mix the dough

This was an interesting challenge for me as id never made my own pastry before, let alone 18 incredibly thin layers of filo(as we call it in Australia) pastry and id never attempted making baklava either! But it was definitely an enjoyable challenge and worked out pretty well, and by the limited pieces of baklava remaining im fairly sure my family enjoyed it too!



I made a filling of brown sugar, pistachios, almonds, walnuts, dates, cranberries and all spice



My syrup was a combination of golden syrup, maple syrup, all spice, a cinnamon stick, lemon juice and water.

Warm out of the oven!

 

Thanks Erica for a great challenge!!