Daring Bakers -CSN Winner

Baked Alaska

We are no strangers to Baked Alaska. Mini Me's birthday is in July, so Baked Alaska has been her birthday dessert many times. For that reason, I was thinking of skipping this challenge, but when I went to the Daring Bakers forum, people were raving about the browned butter pound cake. Since we usually make ours with a chocolate cake or brownie bottom, the pound cake was the perfect excuse to make Baked Alaska again.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”. If you want the recipes visit Elissa.

Instead of one big cake, we made mini baked Alaska's with brown sugar ice cream. The brown butter pound cake was delicious, but I have to say that the ice cream was a bit of a disappointment. You would have a hard time identifying brown sugar as the main flavor. It had good texture that stayed smooth and creamy, but just didn't have enough of the brown sugar flavor that we were expecting. If you have a brown sugar ice cream that you love, please leave me a link, or a comment if you think you know how to tweak the following recipe to make it perfect.

Brown Sugar Ice Cream

from inmamaskitchen.com

•4 egg yolks

•1 cup heavy cream

•1 cup (packed) brown sugar

•3 cups half-and-half or light cream

•1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

 

In heavy, medium, non-aluminum saucepan, whisk together the egg yolks and brown sugar until thick. In another medium saucepan bring the cream and half and half just to a boil over moderate heat. Gradually whisk the hot cream into the egg yolk mixture in a thin stream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon about 6 minutes. Do Not Boil.

Immediately strain the custard into a medium bowl. Stir in the vanilla and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 5 hours.

Pour the cold custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. Let the ice cream soften slightly before serving.

The winner of the CSN give away is Grace at A Southern Grace. Send me your e-mail address and CSN will e- mail you your gift code.

Samoa Bars

Every year we look forward to the phone calls and door to door visits of the Girl Scouts in our neighborhood. It seems like we order more boxes each year, thinking that they will last longer, but in a matter of weeks our supply is gone and there is nothing to do but wait. Mimi Jr. found this recipe for homemade Samoa bars and knew it would be a hit with the other coconut lover, Boy Mimi. While nothing is ever quite as good as the original, these will definitely get us through until the next Girl Scout comes knocking at our door.

These bars were the right flavor combination, but we all agreed that the bottom crust needs to be a little bit thinner and crisper.  I would add more coconut to the caramel mixture on top to really get that toasty coconut flavor. Although we usually keep our boxes of Samoas in the freezer, we thought these were best at room temperature.

Homemade Samoa Bars

adapted from baking bites

Cookie Base:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.

To make  the base, in a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter, until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Working at a low speed, gradually beat in flour and salt until mixture is crumbly, like wet sand. Do not over mix. Pour crumbly dough into prepared pan and press into an even layer. Poke holes in several places throughout the pan of dough using a fork.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until base is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping.

Topping:
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
12-oz good-quality chewy caramels
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk or cream
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (chocolate chips are ok)

Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet (preferably one with sides) and toast, stirring every 5 minutes, until coconut is golden, about 10-15 minutes. Make sure to check often because coconut burns quickly. Cool on baking sheet, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Unwrap the caramels and place in a large microwave-safe bowl with milk and salt. Cook on high for 3-4 minutes, stopping to stir a few times to help the caramel melt. When smooth, fold in toasted coconut with a spatula. (You can also use a double boiler, it just takes a little longer)

Put dollops of the topping all over the shortbread base. Using the spatula, spread topping into an even layer. Let topping set until cooled.

When cooled, cut into bars.
printable recipe

Once bars are cut, melt chocolate in a small bowl. Heat on high in the microwave in 45 second intervals, stirring thoroughly to prevent scorching. Dip the base of each bar into the chocolate and place on a clean piece of parchment or wax paper (I skipped this step). Transfer all remaining chocolate (or melt a bit of additional chocolate, if necessary) into a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off and drizzle bars with chocolate to finish. * I just drizzled chocolate on the top*

Let chocolate set completely before storing in an airtight container.

Makes 30 bar cookies.

As with most recipes I try to make them as written the first time. I can see that there could be some very tasty variation on this recipe. Ideas that we like were: substitute peanuts or toasted pecans for the coconut or for a German Chocolate Cake bar substitute some cocoa powder for flour in the base and add some toasted pecan  to the coconut in the topping.

We are sending this along to Foodie Fridays  party  at Design by Gollum. You can still enter the CSN give away here.

Pasta with Corn Pesto

 This delicious Linguine with Fresh Corn Pesto comes right from the pages of the August Bon Appetit magazine. I am trying to make more recipes out of all those cooking magazines I have. I am always so excited when they come in the mail and I pick so many things I want to make, then during the week I get so caught up with everything that I usually resort to an easy favorite for dinner, forgetting that I have so many new recipes to try.

 This recipe was not so easily forgotten. Corn is at the peak of the season here in Southern California, and it is sweet, abundant and really inexpensive, so this was the perfect recipe to throw into the mix. Pasta is usually a once a week meal anyway so there was no excuse not to try something this easy using fresh, sweet corn. We chose to have this as a side with some grilled chicken and a green salad, but you could easily mix in some chicken pieces and make it a one bowl meal.

Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto

(adapted ever so slightly from Bon Appetit August 2010)

4 bacon slices, chopped

4 cups fresh corn kernels ( I used 4 ears of corn)

1 large clove minced garlic

1 1/4 tsp.Salt

3/4 tsp freshly ground Pepper

 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup  toasted pine nuts

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

8 oz tagliatelle or any pasta you choose

3/4 cups torn basil leaves.

Cook bacon in a large skillet until crisp and brown. Remove from pan, leaving bacon drippings, and let bacon drain on a paper towels. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of drippings from skillet. Add corn, garlic, salt and pepper to the skillet. Saute over medium high heat until the corn is tender, but not brown, about 4 minutes. Reserve 1 1/2 cup of the corn mixture and scrape the remaining corn into a food processor. Add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese and pine nuts to the processor and with the machine running, slowly drizzle the olive oil through the feed tube. Blend until pesto is almost smooth.

Cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until done. Drain pasta, reserving 1 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Place pasta in pasta bowl, add pesto, reserved corn kernels and about 1/2 cup of the basil. Toss pasta adding reserved cooking water to thin to desired consistency. Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Sprinkle with remaining basil and reserved bacon. Serve with additional grated Parmesan cheese.

Note: the amount of pesto from this recipe could easily sauce 1lb of pasta. The recipe called for 8 oz of pasta, I used 12 oz of linguine and had plenty of pesto sauce.
printable recipe

TWD :Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream

 Katrina of Baking and Boys picked Chocolate Ganache Ice Cream. The lone woman in a houseful of boys, Katrina has her hands full, yet she always manages to cook up some tasty treats.

When I first saw this recipe pick, I had mixed feelings. None of us really like chocolate ice cream because it usually tastes artificial  and  doesn't have a real chocolate flavor or texture, so I was hoping that this wouldn't be a waste of time, ingredients, and freezer space. But I was also excited, hoping that this recipe would be the one to change our minds since Dorie has had more hits than misses with our family. And with this recipe, Dorie succeeds again. We all liked the smooth creamy texture and deep, true chocolate flavor. Everyone practically licked their bowls clean, and the remaining ice cream was gone in record time. I know that this ice cream will be reappearing as the summer days get hotter, and that says a lot coming from a bunch of people who "don't like" chocolate ice cream!

This ice cream has a few simple ingredients and is very easy to customize.  Add some nuts, chocolate chunks, and marshmallows for Rocky Road, or crushed candies or cookies for your own special treat. Whatever you do, you will definitely enjoy this creamy, chocolatey ice cream.

Thanks for a great pick Katrina. If you want the recipe for this excellent ice cream stop by Baking with Boys and Katrina will have the recipe for you, along with her special take on the recipe.  If you want to see what the other TWD bakers made visit our blog roll.

printable recipe

THE WINNERS

Thank to everyone who participated in the Girard's salad dressing  give away. Winners where chosen by :

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random integers, generated with replacement:

9 24 5 3 16

Timestamp: 2010-08-09 20:57:19 UTC

Barbara at Barbara Bakes

Becky Boyer at Columbus Foodie

Scrambled Hen Fruit

Michelle at Big Black Dog

Lynn  at Queen of the Castle Recipes

Please email (epsteinrr5@gmail.com) your complete mailing address so Girard's can send you your winnings.

TWD:Gingered Carrot Cookies

 Gingered Carrot Cookies

 Natalia of gatti fili e farina chose Gingered Carrot Cookies this week. I wasn't really excited about these cookies, but that's why you participate in a group like this, to try a recipe that you might not otherwise think twice about. However, I was pleasantly suprised by these cookies. For some reason I thought these would be just like carrot cakes, and they were not. Neither the ginger nor the carrots overpowered these little cookies. They were mildly spiced and slightly cripsy on the outside but still soft and moist on the inside. Mimi Jr. thought they were like scones, filled with nuts and raisins (no coconut for us this time). With a cup of coffee they were the perfect breakfast cookie, tasty and not too sweet.

To see what the other  TWD baker thought visit our blog roll.
If you want to enter the Girard's salad dressing give away leave a comment by this Saturday  August 7.