Daring Bakers Challenge 2

Julia Child's French Bread

For the complete recipe and visual steps, go to http://breadchick.com/?p=336.

As time consuming as it was to complete this challenge, I would repeat this experience to enjoy the warm scent of a fine bakery in my own home over and over again. One whiff of the proliferation in the air sends intimate signals to your brain and it makes you wonder who your love interest must be. Well, that's the way I feel when I walk into a busy bakery --extremely passionate and extremely hungry! Plus, I got to enjoy wonderful french toast the next morning. To me, this is love.

Finger lickin' good

Honey BBQ Chicken and Seasoned Fries

After I made a crispy crust on the chicken, I finished cooking it in the oven to ensure a safe temperature for the meat to be eaten. I constantly glazed it with a homemade BBQ sauce to help lock in the natural juices of the meat. WOW, it was so tender.

My brother kept emphasizing how juicy the chicken was that it almost sounded like a complaint. "Too juicy," he said.

Something "filling"

I love the versatility of ravioli fillings. Plus, I like the happiness ravioli gives my tummy as these little things sit there waiting to be digested.



Meat Ravioli (topped with bacon)


Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli


Content.

My "boo"

Happy Valentines Day dearest blog readers. Although I believe this day is somewhat overrated, it gives me another opportunity to take the time out of my busy schedule and reserve it for my baking pleasure. The only guilt I feel is for licking the spoons and bowls covered with delectable delights. (And sometimes I leave a little more than I should on the sides of the bowls.)

Instead of predictable heart cookies, I decided to use my ghost-shaped cookie cutter and thought of a witty excuse for using such an odd pattern for this particular occasion.

Excuse the cheesiness... "I know it's not Halloween, but I still want you to be my BOO!"

The ghosts came out looking like deformed dinosaurs, but no matter. I tried to make them as BOOtyful as I could at 1 in the morning. (Yes, I baked throughout the night like a mad woman.)

Roll Cookies (for your boo/lover)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

(sprinkles, decorating icing, etc.)

Directions:

Cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in vanilla, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt. Once your dough starts to come together, divide it into thirds and wrap in plastic to chill for an hour or so in the refrigerator. This makes handling the dough much easier.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees [F]. Roll the dough out evenly and use confectioner's sugar instead of flour for dusting your rolling pin and surface. Cut out cookies with relatively similar sizes and thickness to that they will bake evenly. Place cookies on a greased or lined cookie sheet. Bake 7 to 12 minutes. For best results, bake 1 sheet at a time.

I also revamped the typical chocolate chip cookie recipe with my favorite ingredients in a cookie.

Mocha White Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Monsters

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

2 tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder

peanut butter (for filling)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees [F].

Whish flour and baking soda. In a large bowl beat white&brown sugar and eggs until well blended. Add and beat in egg, salt, cococa powder, and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture until well blended in smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Drop the dough by heaping teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto a greased or lined baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until the edges are slightly brown. Let stand briefly, then remove to a rack to cool.

You can stop here... but if you want to mimic my exact insanity, make decadent sandwich cookies out of these by gluing them together with peanut butter. I also made some with ice cream in between and stashed them in my freezer for a midnight snack.

Sweet taste of "failure"

One thing about vision is that it doesn't always translate into palpable form the way it appears in your mind. Sometimes it manifests itself even better than the image in your mind. Sometimes it results in unforseen disaster.

For my friend's 18th birthday, another friend and I attempted to bake him the ultimate cake. In our different minds, we both saw the same glorious cake. But this time, our vision manifested itself in an unexpected way. Nothing like we imagined. Nothing like anyone could have possible imagined. When the frosting didn't turn out the way we had hoped for, we decided to erase our minds of that picture perfect cake and make it fun by covering it with the birthday boy's favorite candies. We used our creativity to make a nostalgic cake of childhood imagination.

Candy + Cake = Candy-cake

The cake itself was made using a very light Angel food cake recipe so it balanced out the sweetness of the candy very well. We decided to drizzle the butter cream icing over the cake right before serving so people could control the sweetness level to their own taste.

As crazy as it looks, most of the responses from our daring cake eaters were that it truly tasted as innovative and marvelous as the dreams of our youth.