Layered Vanilla Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies!

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Unfortunately my computer broke recently (initially thought to be a virus but now it looks like a problem with the hard disk) and I dont have a quick access to any of my pictures! I am just heartbroken because I had put in a lot of effort into these layered pannacotta!! I am trying really hard to recover atleast some of my pictures! Lesson learned for not backing up stuff! Stay tuned and I will post them asap, if I am able to recover them!

UPDATE: I was able to get the pictures that I had posted on Daring Baker's forum. There were a lot of other pictures on my computer. I will try to recover them as soon as I get a chance.

VERDICT: This recipe for pannacotta is simply awesome!! I was not too excited when I first knew of the challenge, but this challenge resulted in such an awesome creamy smooth dessert, I fell in love with pannacotta all over again! The gelee that I made was using Pom Pomegranate-Blueberry juice and the tart gelee worked magic with the smooth creamy and dreamy pannacotta. You can work wonders with the presentation and will leave you satisfied with the results!

The florentine cookies were also amazing! Again, I was not too thrilled about oat cookies, but these were really delicious crisp cookies! The ease of prep work is also something to be mentioned! I will definitely make them again!

Giada's Vanilla Panna Cotta


Ingredients

1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (one packet) (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
3 cups (720 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
1/3 cup (80 ml) honey
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) granulated sugar
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Pour the milk into a bowl or pot and sprinkle gelatin evenly and thinly over the milk (make sure the bowl/pot is
cold by placing the bowl/pot in the refrigerator for a few minutes before you start making the Panna Cotta). Let
stand for 5 minutes to soften the gelatin.
2. Pour the milk into the saucepan/pot and place over medium heat on the stove. Heat this mixture until it is hot,
but not boiling, about five minutes. (I whisk it a few times at this stage).
3. Next, add the cream, honey, sugar, and pinch of salt. Making sure the mixture doesn't boil, continue to heat and
stir occasionally until the sugar and honey have dissolved 5-7 minutes.
4. Remove from heat, allow it to sit for a few minutes to cool slightly. Then pour into the glass or ramekin.
5. Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight. Add garnishes and serve.


Chocolate Panna Cotta:

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml) whole milk

1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin

2 cups (480 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)

½ cup (115 gm) (4 oz) sugar

¾ cup (145 gm)(5 oz) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

½ teaspoon (2½ ml) vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over the top, set aside for 2-5 minutes.

2. Place a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, sugar and vanilla. Bring to a low boil.

3. Add chocolate and whisk until melted. Whisk the milk/gelatin mixture into chocolate cream mixture. Whisk until gelatin has dissolved.

4. Transfer to ramekins, or nice glasses for serving.

5. Cover and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight.

Nestle Florentine Cookies:

Recipe from the cookbook “Nestle Classic Recipes”, and their website.

Ingredients:

2/3 cup (160 ml) (150 gm) (5.3 oz) unsalted butter

2 cups (480 ml) (160 gm) (5 2/3 oz) quick oats

1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) (8 oz) granulated sugar

2/3 cup (160 ml) (95 gm) (3⅓ oz) plain (all purpose) flour

1/3 cup (60 ml) dark corn syrup

1/4 cup (60 ml) whole milk

1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1½ cups (360 ml) (250 gm) (9 oz) dark or milk chocolate

Directions:

Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F (190°C) (gas mark 5). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.

1. Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat.

2. To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well.

Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.

4. While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).

5. Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).

6. Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate.

This recipe will make about 2 1/2 - 3 dozen sandwiched Florentine cookies. You can also choose not to sandwich yours, in which case, drizzle the tops with chocolate (over your wax paper).

Coffee Gelée:

Adapted from this recipe in Gourmet Magazine

Ingredients:

2 cups (480 ml) good quality brewed coffee

1/4 cup (60 ml) hot water + 2 tablespoons (30 ml) cold water

1/2 cup (120 ml) (115 gm) (4 oz) granulated sugar

1½ teaspoons (7½ ml) (3½ gm) (1/8 oz) unflavored powdered gelatin

2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Place granulated sugar and 1/4 c. hot water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, stir until the sugar has dissolved.

2. Sprinkle gelatin over 2 Tablespoons cold water and let it soften 2 minutes or so.

3. Stir the coffee, sugar, hot water, and vanilla into a small metal bowl, add gelatin mixture and stir well until gelatin has dissolved. If pouring over Panna Cotta, be sure that this mixture is no longer hot, it will melt Panna Cotta if it is, let it come to room temperature.

Fruit Gelée:

Recipe by Mallory

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml) (230 gm) (8 oz) fruit (strawberries, raspberries, mango, blackberry, etc.)

*Note: Certain fruits interact with gelatin and stop it gelling like pineapple and kiwi etc.

3 tablespoons (45 ml) water

1/4 cup (60 ml) (60 gm) (2 oz) granulated sugar

1½ teaspoons (7½ ml) (3½ gm) (1/8 oz) unflavored powdered gelatin

Directions:

1. Sprinkle gelatin over water.

2. Place fruit and sugar in a small saucepan and simmer until sugar has dissolved. Now mix the gelatin into the strawberry mixture and stir until gelatin has dissolved.

3. Remove from heat and allow to cool (close to room temp, again, if you're planning on layering on pouring on top of your Panna Cotta, a hot mixture will also heat up your chilled Panna Cotta).

Croquembouche - revisited!!

Remember this, everybody!? Croquembouche was the DB challenge for the month of June, 2010. It was such fun making it the first time and sharing it with a bunch of friends! I decided to make it again during the holidays last year as a thankyou gift when we went over to a friend's for a dinner party!

I thought I would post the new pictures that we took of my second successful try and inspire those who haven't tried this before! Hope the pictures are tempting enough to give them a try!

Unadorned, but I still think they are super pretty!

Stay tuned for the DB challenge for this month! Have a great week!

Appetizers galore - 3 different appetizers to spice up your party!

Good morning everyone!

I would like to share with you a few appetizers that I had tried for a couple of parties around my daughter's birthday time and Christmas! I came across these recipes on allrecipes.com and kraftrecipes.com and decided to give them a try since they had very high ratings and awesome reviews! I first made them for my lil one's birthday party! Eventhough we had a whole Indian dinner planned afterwards, I had to have a lot of appetizers for our guests (I love trying out new ones!)! So I chose the 7-layer dip, bacon wrapped smokies and cheesy spinach-artichoke dip as my three new try-outs, along with others like meatballs, peanuts, chips and salsa and so on! They were simple, easy and had our guests rave about how awesome they were! I had recipe requests from our guests!

The preparation of 7-layer dip went without a hitch, eventhough mine was more like a 4-layer dip! I did the taco seasoning-refried beans layer. the cream cheese-sour cream layer, a thin salsa layer and then the cheese layer with a few sliced olives on top. It tasted superb! Pair it with Tostitos Hint of Lime chips and mmmwah! One of the top favorites especially among our vegetarian friends!

The bacon-wrapped smokies needed a bit more effort - wrapping each cocktail sausage with a slice of bacon. I cut each strip of bacon into three so that I could wrap three sausages with one bacon strip. The first time I made them, I did the mistake of keeping them on flat sheets for baking. Of course, the bacon fat and sugar dripped down onto the oven base (which I actually didn't notice until later), and when I tried to bake my cheesy spinach artichoke dip, it starting smoking and the fire alarm went off! Our fire alarm says "FIRE FIRE!" when its beeping and after the nerve-wracking episode of calming my lil one and her friend down, I decided I would use slow cooker for my next try, whenever it is!

It wasnt long after, when I made it again for our Christmas party! I used a slow cooker and cooked it over 4 hours or so, but the liquid that came out was too much, and so my smokies were not as coated as when I made them in the ove. So word of advice, use a pan with sides and bake the smokies to perfection, definitely use foil to line the pan! Eventhough it was a bit messy, we all enjoyed it so much, it was the star appetizer of the party!

Because of my oven mishap with the smokies, I couldnt bake the cheesy spinach artichoke dip. I microwaved it for 10 minutes or so, but was never the same as if I had baked it. And it cooled down pretty quickly, so it didn't have the pulled cheese look, when dipped into! But other than that it was also pretty tasty!

So try these out and I am sure you wont be disappointed! Please do leave your comments and/or suggestions about the blog or the post or just say hi when you drop by!

Biscuit Joconde Imprime for Daring Bakers- My 25th Challenge!!

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Here it is! My attempt at the Joconde imprime filled to make an entremet! This challenge was really exciting since this was something I've never done before! The patterns that I came across on the net were amazing and eventhough mine didnt turn out as good as I had hoped, I am still happy with my attempt. The whole process went fine, but what I learned is that if we are making a pattern with chocolate paste and plain cake mix, the chocolate paste has to be really dark to give stunning patterns. I just eyeballed the recipe and so ended up with light chocolate paste, which still gave good patterns. I made swirls, dots and stripes, both with brown and pink tinted paste, but the chocolate striped one turned out the best.

I loved learning the technique and am proud to have completed another daring challenge! :-)I filled the biscuit joconde with chocolate mousse and decorated it with chocolate whipped cream and chocolate art as garnishes!

Joconde Sponge

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan

Ingredients:
¾ cup/ 180 ml/ 3oz/ 85g almond flour/meal - *You can also use hazelnut flour, just omit the butter
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons/ 150 ml/ 2⅔ oz/ 75g confectioners' (icing) sugar
¼ cup/ 60 ml/ 1 oz/ 25g cake flour *See note below
3 large eggs - about 5⅓ oz/ 150g
3 large egg whites - about 3 oz/ 90g
2½ teaspoons/ 12½ ml/ ⅓ oz/ 10g white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
2 tablespoons/ 30 ml/ 1oz / 30g unsalted butter, melted

*Note: How to make cake flour: http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/09/how-to-make-cake-flour/

Directions:

1. In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later.
2. Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. (This can be done into your dirty egg white bowl)
3. On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand. )
4. Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix.
5. Fold in melted butter.
6. Reserve batter to be used later.

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste

YIELD: Two ½ size sheet pans or a 13” x 18” (33 x 46 cm) jelly roll pan

Ingredients
14 tablespoons/ 210ml/ 7oz/ 200g unsalted butter, softened
1½ cups plus1½ tablespoons/ 385ml/ 7oz/ 200g Confectioners' (icing) sugar
7 large egg whites - about 7 oz / 200g
1¾ cup/ 420ml/ 7¾ oz/ 220g cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid

COCOA Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 6 oz / 170g. Add 2 oz/ 60 g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand)
2. Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.
3. Fold in sifted flour.
4. Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.

Preparing the Joconde- How to make the pattern:

1. Spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 1/4 inch (5 millimeter) thick onto silicone baking mat with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan.
2. Pattern the décor paste – Here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal /vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. Be creative whatever you have at home to make a design can be used. OR use a piping bag. Pipe letters, or polka dots, or a piped design. If you do not have a piping bag. Fill a ziplock bag and snip off corner for a homemade version of one.
   1. 2. Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 15 minutes.
      3. Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the Décor paste.
      4. Bake at 475ºF /250ºC until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approx. 15 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully.
      5. Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from mat.
      6. Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat. Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! (The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting.)
      
      
      
      

      Preparing the MOLD for entremets:

      You can use any type of mold. I would suggest:

      7. Start with a large piece of parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping top edge by ½ inch. CUT the parchment paper to the TOP OF THE MOLD. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake.
      8. A biscuit cutter/ cookie cutter- using cling wrap pulled tightly as the base and the cling covering the outside of the mold, placed on a parchment lined very flat baking sheet. Line the inside with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping.
      9. Cut PVC pipe from your local hardware store. Very cheap! These can be cut into any height you wish to make a mold. 2 to 3 inches is good. My store will cut them for me, ask an employee at your store. You can get several for matching individual desserts. Cling wrap and parchment line, as outlined above.

Check out all my previous Daring Baker challenges here. I am proud to have completed my 25th Daring Baker Challenge successfully!

Go DBers! Have a great day!

Jalapeno poppers

Hope you all had a great Christmas with your family and friends! Holiday season is the time to remember your loved ones and the blessings that you are thankful for. I am thankful for my husband, my little girl, my family, my home, and all the happiness that surrounds me! I was particularly ecstatic about Christmas this year because it was the first in our new home and I wanted it to be special! We exchanged gifts in the morning with my daughter being super excited about the gifts she got (ofcourse!!)! We sure did have a wonderful Christmas morning!

Since all our close family members are back in India, we had a great gathering with our friends! We had a such an amazing time together with them who generously showered my little girl with gifts. We had a traditional Kerala Christmas lunch with all the trimmings, I should say! But I did try out a few new appetizers which turned out awesome! We finished off our meal with traditional Christmas Fruit Cake and a Berry Black Forest trifle.

Jalapeno Poppers

I found this recipe on youtube for some wonderful jalapeno poppers and I definitely wanted to try them out. Check out the video where the presenter explains the technique beautifully. The jalapenos that I used were a bit thicker than what she used, so I had to bake them a bit longer. Other than that I would say this is a fool-proof recipe which would be well received especially among crowds who would love food with a kick to it!! Since we were entertaining and I was running around with last minute "things-to-do" we couldn't take a lot of pictures.

I made some modifications to the recipe in the amounts used and here is what I did.. You might still have some stuffing left over which I think makes for a good topping for chips!

Recipe (Makes 24 servings):

Jalapenos -12
Cream cheese - 6 oz
Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup
Mild cheddar cheese - 1/2 cup
Beef lil smokies - 6-8 chopped finely
Onion - 1/2 cup, chopped finely
Bacon - 2 strips, cut into small pieces

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Cut the jalapenos lengthwise into halves. Remove the seeds and membranes using a knife or a melon baller.

Cook the bacon so that they are nicely brown and crisp, drain on paper towels.

Remove the bacon grease and in the same pan, add some more oil and saute the finely chopped onions.

Once the onions are cooked, add the finely chopped sausage and cook until heated through.

In a bowl, combine the onion-sausage mix, crumbled bacon and cream cheese well.

Add the shredded mozzarella and mild cheddar cheeses and mix well.

Fill each of the jalapeno halves with the cheese-sausage-bacon mix to the height of the pepper half.

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes or longer until the peppers are cooked through.

Serve the poppers on a platter with some sour cream to cool down the heat, if any!

VERDICT: I just loved loved loved these!!! Once they are cooked through they just have the wonderful flavor of the cheeses, the peppers and the bacon, but I did come across a few raw tips of peppers which gave us (and some guests) a bit of a trouble! Nevertheless, this is a wonderful recipe which will be made again in my house soon!!


NOTES:

1. Check out the video for the actual recipe.
2. If the peppers arent cooked through, they will have some heat, so make sure there aren't any raw ones.

Thanks again for visiting Tasty treats! Have a wonderful week ahead!

Happy Holidays!