quinoa For the month of Nov my Secret recipe club assignment was Le Andra’s blog love and flour. LeAndra describes herself as […]
Category Archive: Dessert
The October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Korena of Korena in the Kitchen. She took […]
The August Daring Bakers’ Challenge took us for a spin! Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen taught us […]
It is time for our secret recipe club reveal for the month of March. For this month my […]
The January 2014 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Francijn of “Koken in de Brouwerij“. She challenged us all to bake layered cakes in the tradition of Baumkuchen (tree cake) and Schichttorte (layered cake).
This month’s challenge was a real treat!
Sandie of the lovely blog, Crumbs of Love, was our November hostess. Sandie challenged us to make a traditional Italian dessert, along with its American version – Sfogliatelle (or better known in the US – lobster tails!) The flakey, 1000 layers of super thin dough, shaped into a horn and filled with a scrumptious filling. Così buono!
Sandie offered us the recipes for sfogliatelle ricci, sfogliatelle frolle and lobster tail. I chose to make sfogliatelle ricci because it somehow reminded me of an arabic dessert that my kids love that is called warbat. Warbat is a dessert made of layers of a very thin dough that are filled with cream and then drizzled with syrup. The crunch and crackle of the pastry layers, beautifully contrasted by the creamy filling, the hints of rosewater in the syrup. It is simply irresistable.
Sfogliatelle riccia , it turns out is also made with a, flaky dough, similar to puff pastry or phyllo . It is then filled with a mixture of ricotta, semolina, sugar, cinnamon, eggs and some candied citrus and/or other fruit. It seemed like a dessert that would hit the same buttons as warbat so I knew the kids would love it. I on the other hand loved the challenge of making it! Despite how crazy life has been this month, I was determined not to miss this challenge, so I ended up starting the day before reveal day!Not a good idea when you have such a demanding challenge to meet, a new pasta machine that you bought because of this challenge and still have to figure out how to use it and a flue that makes your head spin!
If you were expecting a baby and you lived in the middle east. Your shopping list for the last few days before the baby arrives would probably include caraway seeds, rice flour and spices. Why on earth would you buy all that stuff with a baby on the way?
A tres leches cake, or torta de tres leches (from Spanish, “three milks cake”), is basically a sponge cake soaked in three kinds of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream.The tres leches cake is very popular in many parts of Central and South America.It is sometimes featured in cinco de Mayo celebrations. For this month it was our daring bakers challenge to make one.
The tres leches cake is super moist and decadent -as you might expect- but what is surprising is that it is not soggy. When you make the cake and pour the three milk mixture on it you will think “this is going to end in a disaster, there is no way that this little cake will absorb all this liquid” but it will!The cake’s ability to absorb all that liquid is due to the fact that the tres leches cake is made of a sponge cake base, sponge cakes as the name implies are full of bubbles. This distinct texture is why the tres leches is moist but not soggy
Chef in disguise 