Daring Bakers' Candylicious

Thanks to Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!, this month is passing by with lots of fun, call it candy fun!

I am sure many Daring Bakers have developed great chocolate and candy creations, and that is why I have been so excited about this challenge, and make sure that I will not skip it, no excuses whatsoever. This is a great challenge I have been looking forward to...



Personally I felt great that finally got to make a chocolate version of Ispahan, which is a blend of white chocolate, rose water, and lychees. It is in fact a compatible match with almonds, so I just can't wait to eat all these once the photo shoot is over. And they are in pink, who could resist?

At the same time, I also made Lychee Delight (a lychee version of Turkish Delight)and Coconut Lime Chocolate Truffles. So all in all, I have made two chocolate candies and one non chocolate candy. It has been a great time and I am on my way to fulfill my craving for chocolate right after this. I am sure you are too, aren't you?



The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies!

Daring Bakers' Fraisier

I had thought about skipping this month’s challenge due to my lack of focus. My mind was filled with thoughts about completing a shopping bag birthday cake which was initially being ordered for delivery on 22nd this month. For some reason it was postponed for another week and the new date was 27th which was also the date of delivering Daring Bakers’ Fraisier. It was tedious to concentrate on a couple of things at the same time so I finally decided to just focus in my shopping bag project.



The cake was delivered on time and I thought that was it – me setting aside the Daring Bakers Challenge and was merely happy with one achievement rather than two. But then something happened, on the way back home T bought me 2 packs of strawberries out of the blue. He never did this before and it was like a hint that within whatever time left out there I had to continue with the challenge, even though I was late. Well, better be late than never at all, right?



So there I was, making the best I could mending for the lost time. And I should really say that I am glad that I have done it. This Fraisier is filled with strawberries and instead of having a layer of almond paste on the top, I chose to cover it with Mango Jelly. I was just so in a mood of summer due to my boredom of the rainy season we have right now, so mango and strawberry definitely brighten up my day… and I am sure they will to yours too.



Thanks to Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes for this wonderful challenge. Jana of Cherry Tea Cakes was our July Daring Bakers’ host and she challenges us to make Fresh Frasiers inspired by recipes written by Elisabeth M. Prueitt and Chad Robertson in the beautiful cookbook Tartine.

Daring Bakers' Baklava

I have to admit that from the outset I was not so keen of this challenge, simply because I was not moved by how Baklava looked. It vaguely reminded me of Apple Strudle challenge quite long time ago. Rolling dough until it was transparent was just as challenging back then, but I had done that with Apple Strudle and that was the second reason I wasn’t quite interested.

But then I had a strong reason to join this challenge – I was so eager to make the home-made phyllo, the compulsory of this challenge. It might be astonishing, phyllo is an ingredient one could never find in Bangkok. I remembered ordering a phyllo pack from a shop in Singapore and my friend who had picked it up left it in his fridge and totally forgot about it on the day he left for Bangkok to see me.



Apparently I could make good use of my huge rolling pin which helped expand the phyllo dough as wide as possible quite easily. I had decided to go moderate with the recipes and be happy with a smaller size Baklava: 4 inch x 11 inch.

When the baking was done, I couldn’t resist tasting Baklava while it was still hot and crispy. I figured that it would taste better without soaking it in syrup but simply brushing the top with a layer of syrup to create a glossy surface. What do you think?



My first bite into Baklava was just delightful, it was delicious - the nutty fragrance and crispiness had fulfilled my most anticipating palate. Felt good I had taken the Baklava challenge and right there and then, I was glad I could tell everyone how delicious this Greek dessert was.

Thanks so much to Erica of Erica’s Edibles for this luscious dessert! Erica of Erica’s Edibles was our host for the Daring Baker’s June challenge. Erica challenged us to be truly DARING by making homemade phyllo dough and then to use that homemade dough to make Baklava.

Daring Bakers' Marquis on Meringue

The rainy season finally came. It is late than last year but the rainfall is definitely still as stong. People in some parts of Thailand start worrying about flood, the worst nightmare that could happen and drive them away from their houses, and destroy their farms and cattles. Let's wish it doesn't go into that state of disaster this year.

However, thanks to the rain, the weather is cooler right now. After the extreme heat in April, I basically so looked forward to welcoming the rainy season.



May is the month when things are getting better and nicer. It is a month full of public holidays, and swamped by a wide variety of fruits. Durian, the king of fruits are available abundantly with reasonable price and excellent taste. Mangosteen is a dear friend of durian and always present right side by side. Mango, orange, lychee, and jackfruit are next to them. It is a great month for fruit lovers.

And in this great month, we have a great Daring Baker's challenge: Marquis on Meringue. Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt, the hosts are proclaiming that this is a special dessert due to its rareness - never being seen in mainstream cookbooks or written about online. By participating and indulging in this dessert makes me one of the small percentage of world population who ever made and tasted Marquis.



The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

Daring Bakers' Maple Mousse in Edible Container

I just had to jump into the wagon. Due to my overly focus on fondant practice I had entirely forgot last month’s Daring Bakers Challenge. I almost couldn’t believe myself for such ignorance, but then I had promised myself I would definitely keep track of the next one. So here it is.

Never thought this was going to be an interesting discovery of great taste. In the beginning I was setting my expectation quite low on the outcome of this challenge judging from my rejection over bacon cups, one of the challenge mandatory items. But when it was revealed that the compulsory challenges were the maple mousse and a creative edible container, I was glad I could skip the bacon cups altogether.



I was looking into the nut bowls. My liking for almonds led me into the decision to develop almond bowls. It was pretty much the same as making the tart cups, just that it was mostly consisting of almonds. I had to say I couldn’t wait to taste the baked almond bowls since the baked almond fragrance overwhelmed my kitchen and quickly turned my curious taste buds on.

The almond bowls were heavenly. And so was the maple mousse. It was sweet, thick, and smooth. They were such a good couple as soon as I added peach slices. Somehow a slight tanginess was all that it needed to break the dominating sweetness of maple mousse. As an overall, the taste was a true marriage of sweetness, nuttiness, and slight tanginess.



Thanks to Evelyne for this wonderful challenge! Without her I wouldn’t have found the wonders of maple mousse and almond bowls. The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

Daring Bakers' Panacotta and Florentines

It is fifteen minutes past midnight and well in Bangkok it is officially three hours and fifteen minutes on a 27th February. So I might just get this challenge posted since I have got plenty of errands to run tomorrow... Hope you all don't mind :-)

What have I been doing these past few weeks? Pretty much frantically dealing with fondant. First of all I need to get the cakes perfect in terms of shape and texture, I have had so many unleveled cakes that at one point I thought that was all I could deal with, but then I was introduced to cake strips, the magical belt used to wrap around the side of a cake tin while baking and somehow helps to slow down the heat penetrating the sides of the cake and result in a level cake. Thanks God, I have this way out, even though the strips are still on their way, thanks to Kate of Artisan Sweets By Kate .



Then I still have to deal with icing the cake before rolling with fondant. Due to hot weather in Bangkok, should I use butter buttercream? shortening buttercream? meringue buttercream? I haven't figured it out, that is the reason why I haven't got into practice of rolling the fondant and covering my very first fondant cake.



Okay, take it easy... one step at a time... Let's get this challenge out, and later get back to fondant all over again. Hopefully everything will go smoothly. Meanwhile, thanks to Kate of Artisan Sweets By Kate for being such a great source of information and inspiration!

Okay, let's switch to the challenge a bit here...... This months's Panacotta and Florentines are truly fun to deal with. Colorful layers, bring it on :-) I decided to work with Chocolate Panacotta layered with Papaya Gelée and Peach Milk Gelée.



The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Daring Bakers' Joconde Imprint

Thanks so much to all of you for sharing your favorite TV series :-) It is so nice to know a little bit more about your viewing favorites. Well, I could sort of deciding what series to go for next! Thanks again!

Meanwhile, I have to confess that I love love love this month's contest. Reminiscing one episode of my baking classes long time ago which included a lesson on joconde. Apparently it was not a great class, I would say or more like it was not a perfect joconde recipe that I got from the baking instructor. My imprint was never been clear and sharp like what I just did with recipe provided by Astheroshe. Thanks to her lesson with Chef John O. at The International Culinary School in Atlanta, Georgia USA!



I have had this imprint stencil sitting in my cupboard for the longest time and this challenge just gave me a chance to make good use of it. And while this month is a perfect month to bake everything that involves strawberries, I wouldn't skip any opportunity to include these beautiful fruits into my joconde mousse. Hope you will enjoy this Joconde Strawberry Mousse with me!

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Daring Baker's Stollen Wreath

Merry Christmas, dear friends! I am on my way to the Northern part of Thailand with T and 11 of my family members. They are all excited about this trip as much as we are. Planned out the whole itinerary and hope that everything will proceed as what we desire. See you guys in New Year 2011. Happy Holiday and Happy New Year!




The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.

Daring Bakers' Crostata

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a Crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.



I would say this is the easiest Daring Baker Challenge ever! Crostata, an Italian baked dessert tart that happens to translate into nothing else but pie seems to be familiar to anyone who ever picks up baking. Well, for food bloggers this would be an easy task. And to some, this could be something that they have been baking or making more than once.



But despite all that, Crostata is definitely a beautiful name that generates flow of creativity. One could choose to play around with the crust (or what Simona mentioned as pasta frolla), the filling or the topping.

For the crust, they are many possible ingredients to use in order to create a certain texture and flavor. For filling, jam or marmalade is one of the options among pastry cream, lemon cream, custard, crème patissiere, or simply whipping cream. Some would even combine jam with cream or fresh fruits with cream. For topping there are many options such as chocolate, caramel, any family of nuts, or the most favorable fresh fruits.



For practical purposes, one could choose to just blind bake the crust, leave it to cool, keep it in an air-tight container and stuff with whatever desired filling just before serving. But others might like to actually bake the crust together with the filling, either just jam, jam with fresh fruit, jam with cream, or fresh fruit with cream. The possibility is just endless. And feel free to serve it warm or cold.



I like pies, and therefore I decided to bake 4 crusts in one go. In that way, I could just store them in air-tight container and fill whenever I like later on. That also triggers me to constantly think about interesting filling that I have never made before. As a consequence, I assume that I would be consuming lots of pie for the next 30 days. I do hope that T will help me on this...



Thanks to Simona for this wonderful challenge and the opportunity to try out new recipes that are different from the few that I had used before. The taste is wonderful and I just couldn’t stop eating these. Somebody has to stop me now…

For those of you who would like to find the complete Challenge recipe, click here. Happy Crostata!!!

Daring Bakers' Doughnuts

Doughnuts? Just fancy this challenge. Have imagined it as a straight-forward exercise or practice that opens to many decoration possibilities. Going through the posts in the forum, I have come across many variations of doughnuts in terms of filling, topping, shaping and finishing. Some would prefer a classic hollow-in-the-center creations, some enjoy just rounded shapes and chose to fiddle around with the topping instead, while others have come up with inordinary shapes like squares, flowers, or just about anything under the sunlight.



I was familiarized with doughnuts since my young age, just happened that my auntie picked up baking and occasionally fried doughnuts for everyone in the family. Then as I grew up besides liking doughnuts from the local markets, I patronized Dunkin Donuts. It was the brand that teenagers and office workers would go to spend their free time with friends. DD was and still is famous for its comfortable seating outlets and very delicious croissants and hot cocoa. Some of the outlets are in fact so comfy that youngsters spend long hours chatting with friends while spending minimum on a glass of carbonated drink.



Many brands have come and gone competing with DD and not many have succeeded in maintaining their existence. Can’t really remember any brand that could quickly relate to doughnuts in an instant second like Dunkin Donuts. In present time countable doughnut shops emerged slowly and established a wide range of of selections either in flavors, topping, and textures. In Thailand we have Mister Donut, Daddy Dough (my favorite), and the latest Krispy Kreme.



Just a few days ago, T was commenting about the long queue at the only recently opened Krispy Kreme outlet at Siam Paragon. And we both reminiscing our good time having very soft and delicious doughtnuts at J.Co during our last holiday in Jakarta.
Well, to Lori of Butter Me Up... thanks so much for this wonderful challenge. Love this comfort food and have developed a few varieties from this marvelous Bomboloni Recipe..



The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious. For detailed challenge recipes please click here.

Daring Bakers' Decorated Sugar Cookies

This is not really my first decorated sugar cookie project (refer to my Croquembouche and Ginger Bread House). But I could say this is the first attempt of doing it correctly based on a proper recipe and sort of dedicating the entire time and attention to make it right. For some reasons, I took this meticulous decoration challenge rather seriously.



As we all have seen how beautiful and elaborate some of the decorated sugar cookies done by many of our dedicated expert food bloggers. Name a few, Sue Sparks of Munchkin Munchies whose creativity and style are the reflection of her warm personality and love for her family and Katie Yoon of Something Sweet who regularly blows my mind with her sense of beauty and high fashion, and of course many many more whom I haven't discovered. Having seen so many beautiful decorated cookies intrigued me into attempting to do the crafting on my own.



So thanks to Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! for picking up the perfect recipe for everyone to play and have decorating fun! The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!” Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.



I was supposed to come up with a September theme for my decorated cookies. And my first thought was the person who was behind the drawing skill that has embarked me into a life of design and arts...... My father! The one man in this world who nourished my passion for drawing when I was young, bought me my first set of coloring pencils, introduced me to the beautiful world of Chinese water color art, and showed me the wonders of the art of Picasso.



My father passed away many years ago but he is always a part of me. He has instilled his passion for drawing into me, a passion that he had when he was young and just didn’t get developed due to his responsibility as the eldest son to support his parents and 10 siblings.



My flower decorations are taken from the book my dad once bought for me. A treasure that lasts forever. Flower was an important object in my years of drawing on paper, just as important as now ..... on cookies. “Dad, these are for you!”

Daring Bakers' Baked Alaska

Baked Alaska? I have seen it featured in many different cooking books and magazines. And every single time I looked at the pictures I always told myself that I would love to bake this. However it never happened since somehow I always caught the impression that it was complicated, leave alone the raw meringue coating was another reason for hesitation.



Having mentioned that, this challenge is definitely a trigger to finally bring it to reality. I’d like to experience baking and freezing this cold cake, and finally face my fear of raw meringue.



And for this challenge, I was ready to take the distance of preparing various flavors for ice cream. I had imagined having the ice cream layer of vivid colors - either pink, purple, and red. Especially red! Therefore, I changed vanilla ice cream into lychee cranberry sorbet for pink, blueberry yoghurt ice cream for purple, and strawberry sorbet for red. Before taking any step into my kitchen, I visualized taking colorful and interesting pictures. The thought itself was so delightful... For that reason, I wished that this cake would be a success story.



And thanks to Elissa for bringing up this wonderful challenge. Totally enjoyable and delicious! 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”.



Please check out more details about the challenge and recipe here and don't forget to view other Daring Bakers' takes on this challenge!