Daring Bakers- Lasagne

The Daring Bakers challenge for this month is lasagne.

This is a lovely homey dish.  I didn’t count as I put them in but there is 9 very thin layers of homemade spinich pasta with a thin kiss of bechamel  sauce and a seriously good ragu between each layer.  How good?  It beats my previous fav Heston Blumenthals (from In Search of Perfection) hands down.

I did tweak the meats a bit.  I had some slightly freezer burnt pork fillet, regular bacon and kangaroo steaks that I put through the KitchenAid mincer.  Every time I use it it is better value!

We make pasta at home fairly often.  I found the spinich pasta needed an extra egg to get the right consistency (maybe I squeezed too much water out of the spinich).  Matthew my good husband quite enjoys rolling out the pasta so I left him to it using the pasta machine.  Note the beer in reach.  Making pasta must be thirsty work!

I assembled this as the pasta came off the machine so I skipped the parboil stage.  I did moisten each layer using a spray bottle, and it worked a treat.

This was great fun and gave us a great dinner to share.

For the benefit of the auto checking software:

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

TWD- Blueberry and Peach Crumb Cake

For this weeks TWD Sihan of Befuddlement- picked Blueberry Crumb Cake on pages 192-193 of Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

I had a single cup of frozen blueberries left but chopped up a couple of peaches that had gotten too bruised for my diserning taste panel to eat.  In the spirit of cleaning out the fridge and freezer I also had some orange zest good to go.  I made this in the 8 inch square as suggested but the middle took a long time to set which made the edges a bit dry and overcooked.  All was saved by the crumb topping though.  I know it is childish to only want to eat the crumb topping but oh dear, it was so good.

Notes for next time.  The cake was ok, but again it was all about the crumbs for me.  Perhaps try in a loaf size for more even baking or even go back to muffin size (Matt’s suggestion).  I also wonder how this would go with the French Yougurt Cake from last week as the base.  I did really like that cake.

Now it’s time to say see you next week, and go check out the TWD blogroll and see all the crumb cakes you could desire.

TWD- French Yougurt Cake

For this weeks TWD- Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction- chose French Yogurt Cake on pages 224-225 from Baking From My Home To Yours By Dorie Greenspan.

This is a deeply simple and tasty cake.  It is kept moist by the yougurt and canola oil and improves with a days rest, not that mine lasted long at all.  The marmalade glaze didn’t happen as one must have an intact cake to glaze!

I was keen to play around with cupcake decoration so I made these as cupcakes.  My son Liam thought that was such a great idea he ate 4 of them before I even noticed.  Patrick felt he should keep up with his brother so my chance to decorate was deeply limited!

These were great,  Now go and check out the other cakes on the TWD blogroll and see if anyone elses lasted long enough to glaze!

TWD- Tale of two custards

For this weeks TWD Bridget of The Way the Cookie Crumbles- chose Lemon Cup Custard on page 387 of Baking From My Home To Yours by the fabulous Dorie Greenspan.

This is a simple baked egg custard, spiked with subtle add-ins.   I tried the original lemon and the coffee cinnamon variation.

I read the message board before trying this recipe.  It seems for some this just wasn’t their cup of custard.  Something to note are Australians are much keener baked custard eaters than pudding eaters.  I am a big fan of the coffee cinnamon but Matthew (and Liam) were all about the simple lemon cup.

I used an immersion mixer to really squeeze all the lemony goodness out and since it was out, it did a great job of mixing the hot milk into the egg and sugar mixture.

A slow bake in a water bath and a rest in the fridge and these were done.

So go check out the other variations on theme out there on the TWD Blogroll. By the way loving the macro on my new camera.  Still working it all out.  But it is lots of fun.

TWD- Chocolate Walnut and Drunken Prune Cake

This weeks exciting installment of TWD is hosted by Lyb of And then I do the dishes- Chocolate Armagnac Cake – The Cake That Got Me Fired on pages 279-281 of Baking From My Home To Yours By Dorie Greenspan.

This cake is similar in nature to the flourless chocolate cake made by the Daring Bakers last month.  I am so pleased that a couple of extra ingredients made this cake SO much more to my liking.

Dorie tells a great story about losing a job for baking insubordination- really if you don’t have the book go get it.

My combination was toasted walnuts ground to flour and prunes flambe-d in brandy.  Armagnac isn’t available and I had walnuts tucked away in the back of the fridge.  I made 2 x 4 inch cakes.  Like others I struggled with the timings.  Even with my wee little cakes they took well over 40 minutes.  I had to pop the little darlings back in the oven.

This was lovely and simple.  The prunes added to the fudgy nature and were a winner.  Now go and check out the TWD blogroll and see what other yummy cakes there are out there.

DB- Valentino Cake and White Chocolate Matcha Ice Cream

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The cake is flour-less and is essentially chocolate thinned by butter and given some body by eggs.   I sprinkled a few flakes of sea salt on the top of the cake before baking.

It is very dense.  I used a chocolate I like very much but the bitterness of the chocolate seemed intensified and it wasn’t to my families love.  The ice cream was really interesting and complex though.

Our DB challenge this month was not just baking but making ice cream.  I saw this recipe for white chocolate and matcha ice cream at Jaden’s Steamy Kitchen and thought it is time for me to try the matcha powder I bought in Singapore back in July.  Now to show proper provinance here is where Jaden found the recipe.

I followed Jaden’s recipe but I made tweaks in method.

I heated my milk, sugar and cream in a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup in the micowave.  It made it easy to slowly temper the egg yolks.

I have been making white chocolate ganache using an immersion mixer of late with great success.  I thought I would try that technique to save messing about with melting the chocolate in the microwave.  The immersion mixer helps to emulsify the white chocolate which can rudely clump  if one depends on a whisk.

I then mixed some of the white chocolate custard with the matcha (with the immersion blender because it was on the bench and good to go).

Matcha White Chocolate Ice Cream

Adapted from Kuidaore and Jaden

Makes about 1 litre

375ml heavy cream
375ml milk
100g granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon fine salt
4 large egg yolks
250 g white chocolate, finely chopped
2 tablespoons matcha powder, sifted

Equipment: Ice cream maker + frozen insert, immersion mixer

1. In a medium heavy saucepan (or the microwave) , bring the cream, milk, sugar and salt to a simmer over low heat, stirring constantly.

2. While whisking eggs, pour about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture in a thin, steady stream in the bowl of eggs. This should temper the eggs. Now pour the tempered eggs in the rest of the saucepan with the hot cream mixture, in a thin, steady stream while whisking the hot cream.

3. Cook over low heat, constantly stirring, just until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 5 minutes (do not heat over 170C or the eggs will scramble). Do not let this mixture boil. Pour this mixture through a strainer lined with cheesecloth. (I didn’t worry with this step)

4. Place the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 2 1/2 minutes, stirring at 30 second intervals until chocolate is melted. Add the matcha powder to the chocolate and stir vigorously with whisk to mix well. Add this to the strained hot cream and stir to blend. (Or use the immersion mixer to melt the chocolate straight into the hot custard, then use some of this mixture to mix in the matcha powder). Cool this mixture and refrigerate until chilled. (Bo Friedburg in the very amazing, Professional Pastry Chef recommends letting the custard rest overnight for best results)

5. Freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine.