Time to make candy Daring Bakers!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

First off i made a chocolate peanut butter fudge to get started. It didnt set as well as id hoped it would but it was still deliciously tasty!

Next i tried my hand at honeycomb. I was quite nervous about this as id heard horror stories! But my honeycomb turned out delicious, next time id take it off the heat a  bit earlier but otherwise i was pretty happy with the result.

The last candy i tried was a white chocolate truffle with rosewater, pistachio & cranberries. This was so yummy! Really different to any truffle id ever had before but it was really nice.

Thanks ladies for such a great challenge, you kept my sweet tooth happy for days!!

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 make Fresh Fraisiers!

Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

A fraisier cake is basically two layers of sponge cake filled with pastry cream topped with a glaze and decorated around the exterior of the cake with beautiful fresh strawberries, not being a great fan of either sponge or cream i decided to experiment a little and to see what i could come up with to satisfy my sweet tooth! Instead of doing a traditional chiffon cake i made a coffee-flavoured Baileys sponge which i filled with a cinnamon cheesecake-like filling to substitute pastry cream. I used blueberries as my fruit and made a coffee glaze which i topped with walnut struesel. It actually turned out pretty yummy :D

Thanks Jana for a great challenge for July!!

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!!

Daring Cooks first challenge - Healthy Potato Salad!

I used to be a spud girl. I absolutely adored potatoes in any form - baked potato, mashed potato, boiled potatoes, jacket potatoes, potato bake, potato gems, potato chips, i could go on and on! But in recent years ive totally gone off the potato and become obsessed with sweet potato and pumpkin. I now love it in every single form, especially sweet potato mash & pumpkin pie ;)

So i finally got my act together and did my daring cooks challenge, deciding to make a sweet potato salad with baby spinach, grilled capsicum, walnuts and craisins with a dressing of wholegrain mustard, lemon olive oil & red wine vinegar. I think it turned out pretty tasty :)

medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A

Daring Bakers First Challenge!! Marquise on Meringue!

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

As it was my first Daring Bakers challenge, i was a little nervous. Seeing the quality of other members' creations was quite intimidating, but i had fun :D  My Variation to the recipe was I made a dark choc marquise with a touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and brandy, a vanilla bean meringue, brandy caramel(which was too delicious for words!), cinnamon and nutmeg toasted macadamia's and added some chunks of roast pumpkin tossed in cinnamon and nutmeg to give it a pumpkin pie type flavour. All in all it was pretty tasty and i was happy with my first challenge :D

the oven roasted macadamias

dee-licious!!



using a lighter to caramelise my meringue, the lengths you go to when you cant be bothered to buy a blowtorch!


 

my finished product :)