Archive for December, 2009

This is my shortest post ever, even if it was meant to be long and full of nice words. Thank you Anna and Y for such a nice challenge.
“The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.”
The challenge was lovely but time and timing are my worst enemies again.

Anna’s Recipe:
Spicy Gingerbread Dough (from Good Housekeeping) http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/recipefinder/spicy-gingerbread-dough-157…

2 1/2 cups (500g) packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups (360mL) heavy cream or whipping cream
1 1/4 cups (425g) molasses
9 1/2 cups (1663g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon(s) baking soda
1 tablespoon(s) ground ginger

Directions
1. In very large bowl, with wire whisk (or with an electric mixer), beat brown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and ginger. With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.

2. Divide dough into 4 equal portions; flatten each into a disk to speed chilling. Wrap each disk well with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll.

3. Grease and flour large cookie sheets (17-inch by 14-inch/43x36cm)

4. Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time on each cookie sheet to about 3/16-inch thickness. (Placing 3/16-inch dowels or rulers on either side of dough to use as a guide will help roll dough to uniform thickness.)

5. Trim excess dough from cookie sheet; wrap and reserve in refrigerator. Chill rolled dough on cookie sheet in refrigerator or freezer at least 10 minutes or until firm enough to cut easily.

6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (149C)

7. Use chilled rolled dough, floured poster board patterns, and sharp paring knife to cut all house pieces on cookie sheet, making sure to leave at least 1 1/4 inches between pieces because dough will expand slightly during baking. Wrap and reserve trimmings in refrigerator. Combine and use trimmings as necessary to complete house and other decorative pieces. Cut and bake large pieces and small pieces separately.

8. Chill for 10 minutes before baking if the dough seems really soft after you cut it. This will discourage too much spreading/warping of the shapes you cut.

9. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until pieces are firm to the touch. Do not overbake; pieces will be too crisp to trim to proper size.

10. Remove cookie sheet from oven. While house pieces are still warm, place poster-board patterns on top and use them as guides to trim shapes to match if necessary. Cool pieces completely before attempting to assemble the house.

Y’s Recipe:
Scandinavian Gingerbread (Pepparkakstuga)
from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book by Beatrice Ojakangas http://astore.amazon.com/thedarkit-20/detail/0816634963

1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375′F (190′C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren’t using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

Simple Syrup:
2 cups (400g) sugar

Place in a small saucepan and heat until just boiling and the sugar dissolves. Dredge or brush the edges of the pieces to glue them together. If the syrup crystallizes, remake it.

However, due to short time available, I have used an already tested recipe, from Anita Chu’s “Field Guide to cookies”. I will post the recipe sometime soon.
For gluing the house I have used royal icing and for the decorations I have used homemade fondant. The recipe for the fondant is from Vera. The only change I made was to use honey instead of corn syrup and it worked wonderfully.

I love croissants. I love making them and I love having one on a Sunday morning with a cup of milk. I have made them very often, but I wanted to see how a chocolate croissant would be. And I mean a chocolate croissant and not a chocolate filled croissant. So I started searching the internet for a recipe. I didn’t want cocoa in the dough but chocolate. So I started experimenting. And the result was just amazing. They are the best croissant I have had in my life. I have made them several times now and just once I got to take a few pictures.
What I tried was to make chocolate butter as the butter package. I tried different chocolate to butter proportions, but I settled to 50-50.

For the dough

510 g flour
35 g butter
salt (about 8 g)
65 g sugar
4 g instant dry yeast
245 ml milk (the original asked for powdered milk and water)

For the tournage chocolate butter
100 g chocolate butter for the first 2 turns
100 g chocolate butter for the last 2 turns

Mix all ingredients, minus the tournage butter and knead for about 5 minutes until you have a satiny, elastic dough.
Roll the dough to fit an oven tray, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator, and roll it to be twice longer than wide. Spread 100 g of chocolate butter over 2/3 of the dough (cut the butter in small flakes). Bring the butter less 1/3 of dough over the center and then the buttery 1/3 still on the center (simple tour). Roll the dough again (have the opening on your left) to be again twice as long as its width. Now, fold the dough as you did before, but without adding extra butter. Roll the dough again on its length, place it in the tray, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, remove the dough from the refrigerator and repeat all the steps above with the remaining 100 g of butter.
Roll the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before shaping it.

Shape and bake

When ready to shape and bake, remove dough from the fridge and divide it in 2 parts (return one to the fridge).
Roll the dough into a rectangle (mine was 25/ 40 cm). Cut into triangles: I wanted mine not very big, so I cut the dough once lengthwise, then in 4 on the width, resulting 8 rectangles. Then, I cut each rectangle diagonally. Roll the croissants (do not roll them too tight) and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let them proof for at least 2 hours.
Heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Brush the croissants with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten). Bake them for about 10-15 minutes, rotate the tray, lower the temperature to 180 and bake for 10 more minutes (or more depending on their size).

For the chocolate butter

Melt 110 g butter together with 110g chocolate over a double broiler. Pour in silicon molds and refrigerate until solid.