Black Chocolate Party Cake - Rose Levy Beranbaum Bake-off

German Chocolate Roulande

Rose released the BLAD of her new cookbook and our challenge for Father's Day was to cook one of her new recipes using it, the recipes from Marie's Blog, or the Angle food cake .

Many from the group were planning on making the Chocolate Party Cake so I decided I'd do something different with mine. I've never made a cake roll or a roulande so I decided to try it with this cake. This was all about learning after all. (The original cake is supposed to be baked in a bundt pan)

I collected all my ingredients and mixed them together and baked it in a 17 x 12 x 1 inch pan for 14 minutes.

I let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes then rolled it up in a silpat. While the roll was cooling I made Rose's German Chocolate Cake Filling
Then I unrolled the cake... uh, oh. I guess not all recipes are meant to be rolled. Or perhaps I should have used the chocolate syrup on the cake before rolling it up. I wasn't deterred. I spread the still warm filling on the cake, rolled it back up and placed it in the refrigerator overnight.

Hard to believe this was salvageable, eh?



I sliced the roll and syruped each side. It was a good cake before the syrup but the chocolate syrup really set the cake off.


I'll definitely make this cake again.. but maybe in the bundt pan as directed. :-)



This cake's taste is amazing as is the German chocolate filling. Definitely a winner.

Casatiello - BBA Challenge #5

My original plan was to have this bread baked and delivered to my husband's team for an afternoon snack yesterday. But with all the issues I ran into while making the Casatiello, it wasn't ready until lunch time today.

The first issue: the sponge was not real bubbly after the first hour. I waited another hour then proceeded mixing the bread.

Below is the dough after I kneaded in 5 oz of fried prosciutto and 8 oz of provolone cheese.
The second issue: the dough did not increase in size by 1 1/2 times. It was 2 inches short of the mark. I waited another 20 minutes, didn't detect any change, so I shaped the dough and put it in an 8"x3" spring form pan. Since I was running out of time, I placed it in the refrigerator to bake the following day.

Here the dough is ready for it's final rise. You can tell by the height of the collar, I was expecting a big rise. (the idea for using a collar came from At the Very Yeast)

I woke up at 2AM, took the dough out of the refrigerator and went back to bed.

Here it is at 6AM. It rose to the rim of the pan. Not what I would consider 1 1/2 times size increase but I baked it anyway.

I spritzed the top of the dough with water, placed 6 ice cubes in the iron skillet at the bottom of the oven, placed the pan on the pizza stone and closed the door.

The oven spring added another inch or so to the bread.

The last issue: It took 75 minutes to bake! The minimum cook time was 40 minutes and the center was only 90 degrees. After 50 minutes it was at 107, at 60 minutes it was at 136, and at 70 minutes it was at 167. (I tented the bread for the last 5 minutes.)

While delivering the bread to Rick's office today, something strange, sad, yet rewarding happened. As soon as I pulled up in front of Rick's office building, an old noisy car pulled up next to mine. Behind the wheel of the old car was a woman who appeared to be in her early to mid 30s. Children occupied the other seats of her old jalopy. She said they were living in the car and that she just needed something to feed her kids. She wasn't asking for money or for anything for herself but she needed to feed her babies. By the time she finished her story, my husband had stepped out of his office building. I quickly related her story to him. We both exchanged a knowing look, I handed him the bread and he gave it to her. You would have thought we gave her a million bucks. I am still in awe at God's timing. Had things gone as I had planned I would have missed it all. God knew what this lady needed and when she needed it. He took care of her immediate need and he allowed us to be a part of it. Rick returned to the office building empty handed but with a full heart and I smiled all the way home at God's perfect timing. I hope you'll join me in praying for this woman and the many others in her situation.

I have no idea how this tasted but I hope it was grand and that it blesses that woman and her children.

Making Your Own Vanilla Extract

Do you make your own vanilla? I didn't until last year. And WOW, is it ever good!


Most of the recipes I've found for making Vanilla use vodka or rum. When using a light colored alcohol, you get the satisfaction of watching the color change as it is transformed into vanilla extract. That's all fun and good but if you want truly awesome vanilla extract, use bourbon. It adds wonderful flavor to your recipes.

1. Use six vanilla beans* per cup/8oz alcohol.
   
2. Cut the vanilla beans in half lengthwise, leaving about 1 inch connected at one end.
3. Put the beans into the bottle of alcohol and shake gently.
   
4. Cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place for about 8 weeks, giving it a gentle shake about once a week.

*Using a variety of vanilla pods (Madagascar, Indonesia, Tahitian, Mexican) will produce a vanilla extract with a much more complex flavor and aroma. Try using Madagascar pods as a base, adding Tahitian and Mexican pods for additional flavor/fragrance notes.

Vanilla extract matures with age. I waited 5 or 6 months before I started using the bottle below.

**Shake vanilla bottle before each use. Small flecks of the vanilla pods will be in the vanilla extract - they provide additional flavor. They also appear as dark flecks in light-colored food, don’t shake the bottle if you don’t want the flecks to appear.

Other blog sites on making Vanilla Extract:

http://ayankeeinasouthernkitchen.com/2008/08/04/homemade-bourbon-vanilla/ http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_vanilla_extract/ http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1713,146191-251198,00.html

Brioche Cinnamon Rolls - BBA challenge #4

Week #4 in the BBA challenge and we are on page 123 of The Bread Baker's Apprentice, Brioche.
We had three choices Rich man's (87% butter to flour ratio), middle-class (50% butter to flour ration) and poor man's (23.5% butter to flour ratio) I chose the middle-class because in the commentary he states it's perfect for cinnamon rolls. Say no more. I LOVE cinnamon rolls.
The only problem I had with the dough is it kept climbing up the paddle trying to escape during the last 6 minutes of mixing.
I found it helpful to roll the dough out on parchment paper because I could use it to help roll the dough into a log after sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar.


Cinnamon-Sugar Filling

3/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed, 5 1/4 ounces)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (1 3/4 ounces)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter , melted

Combine sugars, spices, and salt in small bowl. Add 1 tablespoon melted butter and stir with fork or fingers until mixture resembles wet sand.


I baked these at 375 for 20 minutes and frosted them with poured fondant.

Croissants - Rose Levy Beranbaum Bake-off

I love the forum bake-offs on RLB's site. We are given a category and each baker gets to choose a recipe under that category that is new to them. We post pictures on RLB's site and share the lessons learned along the way. With her busy schedule, Rose still finds time to give us supporting comments and praise. How sweet is she?

The first time I thumbed through"The Bread Bible" (Christmas 2007), the Croissants caught my attention and I knew that I would make them one day. Rose's writing style takes the most complicated recipe, breaks it down into do-able steps, sprinkles in a little food science and with each step she builds your confidence to try and succeed .

After mixing the dough and chilling it overnight, I squared the dough and rolled the corners out to create flaps.

I placed 8 oz of Plugra butter in the center and pulled the flaps over the butter, sealing it well. I wrapped this in plastic wrap and placed it back in the refrigerator for a 30 minute rest.

The first turn went very well. It took only a little time and coaxing to roll the dough/butter to a 16 x 7 rectangle. I gave it a business letter fold, wrapped it in plastic wrap, then put it back in the refrigerator for 40 minutes. So far, so good.

By the end of turn two, I was sure I was a natural croissant maker. I didn't have any of the horrible butter break throughs I have read about. I was feeling pretty darn smug with myself.

Then reality kicked in at turn 3.
After turns 1 and 2, I threw away a lot of flour so I decided I didn't need to use as much (I am, after all, a natural croissant maker by now. ...plus I was running low on flour)

You guessed it, I had butter break-through a third of the way through rolling the dough out. I also ran out of flour covering up the butter break-throughs so I grabbed the white whole wheat flour I had in the freezer. Big mistake. It's coarse texture set me up for a real mess in turn 4.

While I waiting for the dough to rest between turns, I checked RLB's site. She had made a comment that we could use unbleached bread flour. I wished I had read that before I grabbed the jagged wheat flour.
I used the bread flour for turn 4 but it was too late. The dough was harder to roll out and the wheat flour I used during turn 3 was cutting through the layers. (and my heart). I heard squishing noise with each roll of the pin. At this point I just kept dumping flour on it and hoping for the best. I wrapped in back up in plastic and let it rest in the refrigerator for 5 hours.

I rolled the dough out for the final time and cut it into triangles.

I shaped them and let them rise.

Then baked them until they were golden brown, cooled for 20 minutes and took my first bite. My husband and I were pleasantly surprised by the splintering crisp crust as we bit into them. Obviously, Rose’s recipe is fool proof because these came out a lot better than they should have considering all the extra flour I used. I really didn't expect these to be edible.

Lessons learned:

1. Shape the dough into a square after the first rise before refrigerating it overnight.


2. Don't use wheat flour to roll out your dough. The sharp edges breaks the glutton strands and causes butter break-through.


3. Be patient. The dough is harder to roll out in turns 3 and 4. Don't be too aggressive or use downward pressure.


4. With Rose's recipe, you can't go wrong no matter how hard you try. :-)

Here's a video of Pino Ficara making croissants. I found it very helpful to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxCE963K-FY

Things I'm going to try next time I make them:

I'll use bread flour in place of the all-purpose; I heard the higher gluten content allows the layers to rise higher.

I'll mix the butter with some flour and chill it. I heard it really helps keep it malleable but manageable.

How Do You separate Eggs?

Crack open all the eggs into a bowl (using cold eggs straight from the refrigerator)


With clean hands, fish out the yolks and place them in another bowl
Violia! Fast and easy
Where did I learn this? DyannBakes

Bagels - BBA challenge #3

I couldn't wait to get to week 3....bagels! These were very easy to make.

I expected the sponge to be thinner and used a whisk. It took a bit of work to get the thick gloppy sponge out of the tines.


I was feeling domestic, so I opted to hand-knead the last 3/4 cup of flour in. I was questioning my sanity after the first 1/4 cup and almost threw it back in the KitchenAid. It took me a total of 10 minutes to work in the rest of the flour.
Surely he didn't expect us to knead for another 10 minutes after that last 3/4 cup of flour was worked in. I consulted the recipe. Oh yes he did! There was a sense of accomplishment when I finished the final kneading. (and a sense of tingling in my arms, neck and back. lol)
At this point I divided the dough in half so I could make half cinnamon-raisin and half plain bagels.

We had two options for shaping the bagels. Poke holes in the rolls we shaped or create a rope and wrap them around our hands to shape. I chose to do both.
The bagel on the left was shaped with the rope method, the bagel on the right with the poke method. I like the wonkiness of the rope method.
The cooked bagel on the left is with the poke method, the ones on the right the rope method. Next time I'll stretch the holes out a little more for the rope method.
Sliced Raisin bagel.
Sliced plain bagel topped with kosher salt and sesame seeds

Lessons learned:

1. Don't use a whisk on the sponge
2. Use my KitchenAid mixer to work in the last 3/4 cup of flour before hand kneading.
3. When boiling, boil the tops first then flip over and boil the bottoms. (they came out prettier this way)

Our next recipe in the book: Brioche