Daring Bakers' Challenge - October 2010: Doughnuts

I have never been comfortable with making breads at all, and this month's DB challenge got me facing my fear. Our challenge this month - doughnuts! Yes, doughnuts are delicious; one of the best comfort foods ever, but I would rather buy from a shop than make it myself because I'm not confident in the arena of any yeast product.

However, there's a reason why I joined DB. It's to push my boundaries in baking, and face making pastries, desserts or bread that I wouldn't normally do. So here I am... baker!

Blog-checking lines: The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Since our host provided four recipes to choose from, I've decided to choose Kate Neumann's bomboloni recipe. Bomboloni is a Tuscan version of filled doughnuts, except that the filling is piped on the top of the doughnuts instead of the sides, which we normally see with filled doughnuts.

I've psyched myself for this challenge; I wasn't anxious at all when I was making the dough for the bomboloni. I was also following the recipe down to a tee. I guess even if I was mentally ready to face the doughnut challenge, I was subconsciously nervous. Hence, it showed on my doughnuts. When I bake, I normally use my instinct to see if things are going smoothly, but in this case, I was so glued in with the recipe. I didnt' trust my judgement when I saw that my yeast might not have foamed up the way it should. I just continued following the recipe.

As a result, my doughnut was a flop. I was only able to make half of what the actual yield for the recipe should produce. My doughnuts came out really dense and heavy, but the taste was still good. So I decided to still continue filling and glazing my bombolonis.

So for my bomboloni, I dusted their top with powdered sugar, then filled them with pastry cream. For the glaze, I piped alternate circles of dark chocolate and white chocolate ganache. The taste of the final bomboloni was really really good! The only down side was how heavy the actual doughnut was. I guess practice makes perfect; I would definitely be making another batch at some point. This time, I'll trust myself when I think something is not right before it becomes too late.

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Apricot Almond Galette

I was at the local grocery to buy some veg, then at the corner of my eye I saw some orange colored stone fruits. I figured it was apricots, so I got my kor-eng dictionary feature out my phone for translation of the label, and indeed it was! I've only seen / taste apricots in jam or dried form, but never the fresh fruit. So I was really ecstatic to do some sort of dessert with it.

Think, think, think... a pie! But a part of me didn't want to make a traditional looking pie, so I thought a galette (a French free form pie), an apricot almond galette. Sounds good? I thought it was, until I tasted it! It was absolutely horrible; the only thing delicious with the pie was the dollop of whipped cream on the side and the pie crust. The fresh fruit tasted fine, but after baking, it was so sour! I'm not sure if that's a trait of an apricot, but I sure now have a bad impression on baked apricots. Has anyone out there tasted a good apricot pie before? Enlighten me please. I still got a couple of apricots left; they'll just probably end up into jam.

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Macaron de Paris...Still a Mystery

The result of my sixth try... almost made it :p

Couple of the macarons managed to form incy wincy legs... :p

I was pleased, and wished I had more ingredients to spare for another go. So this morning, I measured the ingredients I have left, and luckily it was just enough. I managed to scrape off enough ingredients for another batch of macarons. :)

I thought it was all going to fall into place until this came out of the oven...

sigh... oh macarons! What is it that I'm not doing right... sigh...

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Macaron de Paris...

I'm just here to say attempt numbers 3, 4 and 5... FAIL. sigh...

As of now, attempt number 6 is in it's resting stage. I'm sad to say this would be my last try for the mean time. (Funds for ingredients running low)

But, I'm not raising my white flags yet :p batch number 6 has yet to be baked :p so cross fingers...

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Macaron de Paris... Attempt # 2

So as for my second attempt, it was still unsuccessful... My first attempt, the batter was too runny so it couldn't even hold its shape much when piped out. This time around, the batter was too stiff...

I think that explains the oddly shaped macarons, which my H liked to call macarooms cause they looked a bit like mushrooms :p

Anyway, later today I'm going to go for attempt # 3... wish me luck!:) I hope three times the charm :D

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Macaron de Paris... Attempt # 1

Bonjour everyone! For the past few days, I've been thinking of facing my fear of macarons again. I had a short stint working in a pastry shop a long long time ago, and I used to make macarons.

It wasn't an easy dessert at all; I remember the butterflies in my tummy every time I make a batch of them. The stare of anxiety I gave towards the oven... sigh... those were the days. It took me a lot of practice before I was able to make them consistently good. Even so, I never gained the confidence that I have conquered the techniques in making macarons.

So for today's attempt.... Voila!

I know I know, that's not a macaron! :p It was a disaster. If you notice, I only took a picture of the one that is close to looking like a macaron :p The rest may send you with nightmares if I took photos :p

Anyway, that was my first attempt after years of not making them. I am determined to get this right. Hence, I bought extra ingredients for expected series of attempts ;)

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

The Flan Plan

Ok, so I said I might do cookies for comfort, but I changed my mind.

I have loads of egg yolks stocked up on my fridge,

hence I decided to make Creme Caramel.

Ugh... Do you guys believe that bad luck comes in three?

Well I sort of do. First, the shortbread cookies -- the amount of cookies the recipe said it was suppose to yield didn't exactly transpire AND I overbaked them. Then there was the pavlova -- for some reason the meringe kept on flopping, and mind you I have done this recipe for like six times in the past and was always successful. Lastly, this Creme Caramel...

Everything was going right until I inverted the pan. Quarter of the flan came out a mess...

Anyway, I hope this is the END of bad lucks... So cross fingers on my next baking!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte

Flop of a Pavlova

Hiya guys.. Had a couple of downer days recently.

I was going to make a Chocolate Pavlova with Strawberries, but I couldn't get the pavlova right.

Instead of having a fluffy meringue, I always end up with a meringue disk looking pav...

I attempted to get the pav right about five times in the span of three days...all flops! It's so depressing...

In the process of baking they always seem to be puffing up nicely but on the cooling down period, they all just flopped! ~

I've made this recipe several times before, and I have always found this as an easy dessert... So I don't know what made my attempts such failure this time around.

So for this week, I produced nothing...

Anyway, I might make some comforting cookies to make myself feel better this weekend :)

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte