Daring Bakers- French Yule Log

This months Daring Bakers was a lovely challenge.  The French Yule log is in over simplified terms an ice cream cake with quite a few upgrades.

This month’s challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand

I made the stock standard version in a silicon loaf mold.  This is not to snear at the standard recipe but it had 6 components and I wanted to see how they worked together before I started messing about with variations.  Also, I lurve dark chocolate.

So the Yule log is made up of a chocolate glaze, daquoise cake layer chocolate mousse,  crisp praline (yummy crispy layer) more mousse, a baked custard layer, more mousse and then some ganache and finally another daquoise layer.

I was deeply pleased with this dessert. As were my Christmas brunch attendees.

My only need to do better areas in them are…  need to make bottom daquoise layer a bit bigger.  I made a template to suit the top layer of the mold but didn’t remember to flare the bottom layer to suit my loaf mold.  Also, the custard layer had ice crystals in it and that was a bit distracting for me.

This was a lovely challenge and perfect for a summer Christmas.

Now go and check the Daring Bakers Blogroll and see what other delicious treats the DB  have come up with.

TWD- Tall and Creamy Cheesecake

So there are baked and unbaked cheesecake people in this world.  Without making any slanderous comments toward the fools that prefer unbaked, I belong to the baked loving side of the fence (but to be fair the no bake cheesecake recipe in Nigella Express is not a hardship to eat).

Dories Tall and Creamy cheesecake is baked in a water bath long and slow.  It has a great mouth feel- unlike so many of the bought cheesecake varieties.  I really hate the slimy residue (cheaper filler fats with a different melting point I suspect) left in the mouth after eating these.  I do not begrudge a luscious calorie but will not eat rubbish for the sake of it.

I went for the straight up recipe.  I used sour cream (full fat) as that was what was in the fridge.  But I made it to take to a party- this is a cake meant to be shared.  I could see recently aquired clothes not fitting if I sat down to 2 pounds of cream cheese with a sour cream chaser all on my pat malone….

This time I put my springform 9 inch tin inside a scant 10 inch silicone round instead of the al foil wrap.  It wasn’t a really firm fit but I think it worked well for the water bath.  And the results were really good.

The cheesecake was a hit.  It was really lifted by some berry sauce I had in the cupboard (Smashed berry and vodka- how could it go wrong?).

TWD- Real Butterscotch Pudding

For this weeks almost late posting, Donna of Spatulas, Corkscrews & Suitcases chose Real Butterscotch Pudding on page 386 of Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

This uses the same technique as the chocolate pudding posted back in July.  As long as you have a generous bowl on your food processor it is so easy.

Thankfully, I am lucky enough to have a 12 cup processor.  I ‘had’ to crack open the bottle of Bushmills.  In my house there is a definite preference toward Irish Whiskey rather than Scotch- but with a name like Moriarty what would you expect?

Matt was cross I was using his good tipple for cooking but was appeased when I told him it was just a nip.

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This is nice and silky and the whiskey is a really interesting flavour note, but just too sweet for me (and Matthew).    Patrick however had to be restrained from having a 4th bowl.

Now take a break from the Christmas baking to check out the TWD blogroll.  Merry Christmas!

TWD- Buttery Jam Cookies

For this weeks Tuesday with Dorie we finish up our trio of cookies with the pick of Heather of Randomosity and the Girl she has chosen Buttery Jam Cookies on page 80 from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

After the roll out cookies and the challenges that come from dealing with them in the tropics it was a joy to get a drop cookie recipe.

These are nice and easy.  I used some homemade apricot levkar I had lurking in the depths of the fridge (leftover from the Daring Bakers Danish a few months ago).    My levkar is nice and thick so the dough stayed in shape.  The levkar also had a really concentrated apricot flavour so it worked a charm.

My cookies came out like sweet scones and were not flaky, perhaps even a touch cakey out of the oven.  I am a crispy and chewy cookie fan personally but, my husband is completely impressed with them. His words- ‘These Rock’

Given today is our 13th wedding anniversary isn’t it nice he got something that was all about him without planning it.  Thanks Dorie and Heather for helping me sort out an easy pressie!

Now go and check the TWD blogroll and check out what jam and spice combos people came up with.

My Cookie Christmas Tree

So I hinted at the ccokie Christmas Tree in last weeks TWD post but hadn’t made enough cookies quote yet for full effect.

As I placed each and every one of the cookies on the tree one by one young Patrick (2) asked me “What are you doing”.  There are about 40 cookies…

Going to the display house to bake was entirely the correct thing to do.  In terms of sensible kitchen design for the tropics, this is the go.

Michael was sensible enough to install a second air conditioner pointing directly at the kitchen bench.  It only needs to get fired up when you are cooking up a storm but golly when it is 35C all day every day it is a blessing.  The cookies I cut out in the air conditioning held true shapes.  I could also fit them in the fridge for a brief chillout before the oven.  My fridge at home is always full to bursting.  One small point is if you need to re-score the centre hole you must do so while the cookies are fresh from the oven.  Otherwise the smaller stars will shatter.

I made up some royal icing (closest thing we will get to snow up here!) and attached a few dragees as baubles.

This was a great project.  The boys loved it.  After letting the boys eat half a dozen each I refreshed the top cookies and sent it to Liam’s last day of school to share with his friends.  The only down side is they both want me to make it again and again!  And roll out cookies need a bit of fore planning.

Don’t they look like satisfied customers?

TWD- Grandmas Sugar Cookies

This week for the Tuesday’s With Dorie Bake, Ulrike of Küchenlatein chose Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies on pages 146-147 of Dorie Greenspans Baking From My Home To Yours.

It is still quite warm here so another butter rich dough was a challenge.  In fact after one batch I decided I need to stop talking about using the other better air conditioned kitchen and do it!

You can see the dough melting away above.

I really wanted to make the Christmas Cookie Tree.  That’s what the hole is for in the middle.

I need to bake the other half of the dough to get more of the tree thing happening.  I also have some gingerbread dough to supplement the bulk.  I will take more photos once done and add it to this post.  Hopefully I also get my camera back (which I lent to my sister in law for the company Christmas party) tomorrow so the photos will be clearer.  I am fond of my little Olympus.

This cookies were very crispy and lovely.  I stuck to the base recipe and didn’t try any mix ins.  I am looking forward to finishing off the tree- maybe it will rain tomorrow and take the heat down to below 30C.  Now go and check out the TWD blogroll and see the other tasty treats.

TWD- Linzer Sables

For this weeks Tuesday’s With Dorie Noskos of Living the Life chose Linzer Sables on pages 134-135.

I finally got a chance to use the special cookie cutters I bought in Switzerland back in July made just for this purpose.  I left the dough in the plastic bag so I could pop it back in the fridge as needed but thankfully this dough behaved in the heat fairly well.

I used walnuts in the dough.  (They were the nuts that most needed to be turned over).  I broke them up in the food processor first and then finished them off with the flour to get them nice and fine but to prevent them getting oily and turning into nut butter.

Liam insisted that he wanted dinosaur biscuits so I of course, obliged.  I had a moment where I thought about having a small cut out for the eye but Liam just wanted it baked NOW!

These are quite nice.  The cinnamon and touch of cloves does give a classic recipe a lift and in fact brightened up the walnut which could be overwhelming.  I used my Bonne Maman Strawberry Jam -who could resist using a product that reminded you that you were a good mother!

Now go and check out all the Linzer Sables from the TWD crew.