Saturday, May 26, 2012

Daring Baker's - Challah

This month I was cutting it a little close.  I seriously don't know where all my time goes, and its nearly the end of the month, and I just managed to bake it on the day we're suppose to release the results.  At least I made it.  


So, I must admit, I am a little over the whole bread making thing.  I think ever since I joined up for daring baker's, its consistently has been a bread/yeast related challenge.  And especially since I did inherit a bread machine, the amount of bread I've made, eaten and tried to distribute has been a record. 


Anyway, so another challenge complete, quite successfully as well.  I've never heard of Challah before. Well, given that I'm not Jewish, it's not all that surprising.  But then again, I live in the only other Jewish suburb in Sydney (out of 2), and I have never seen it at the local bakeries or anything. 


So, essentially the dough is split into 3 braids (or 4 or 6), and then plaited together like a hair braid.  Quite a cute concept, but there is religious meaning behind the braids and what each represent.  And copying out of the original post on Daring Baker's forum, the braids together is essentially suppose to represent the meaning that one will not forgot the Sabbath.  From memory, the Sabbath is a Saturday for Jewish ppl, so technically I made it on the right day. 


I did my own twist (get it?!), and filled each strand with my Nutella, hazelnut meal and choc chip formula.  rolled it up, and then plaited it all together.  Results were fantastic.  


It came out of the oven looking a little bit too black. I left it in the oven and retreated to my heated room upstairs, so didn't bother checking on it.  But, it at least it wasn't burnt.  The dough itself turned out quite hard, but once you toast it up, and with the Nutella mixture softened/melted, OMG.. quite good!! From the pictures it doesn't seem like there is enough Nutella, but when you bite, each bite just manages to reach the next plait, i.e. next Nutella spot.  






xoxo
Mich


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Raspberry Mousse Chicken Pox Cake

I've been following this blog for a while now.  All her cakes / creations are so beautiful, and so inspiring.  From the posts that I've read, she's a Thai girl who is in accounting but bakes as her hobby.  Not only did that strike a cord with me, but her cakes are so professional looking.  And honestly, she could definitely open a shop or work as a pastry chef if she wanted to.  

I guess in the end, not sure whether its the Asian gene in us, we will alway stick to the stable job with decent income over what we may truly dream to do.  And I would think, people that do what they love, definitely has some guts! 

So back to my raspberry mousse cake.  I was using this recipe of hers, and was telling A that I really doubt I could make it anywhere near as good as hers.  But, I started reading the actual blog post, and it answered my questions exactly.  So, I took her advice and gave it a go. 

I had to double the mousse part of the recipe to make look anything resembling what hers looked like. 

Here are the results: 







So.. problems were that the polka dot ended up looking like chicken pox.  And obviously from the city photo, you can see that i didn't exactly fold in the cream well enough. 

You can see the 2 layers of the mousse, when I had to double the recipe.  But taste wise, it was really good.  The top layer was nicer, since it had less raspberry in it. 

So I can definitely improve on this recipe, and have better results.  Except I will have to wait till raspberry season, since it costs $8 /punnet at the moment. 

So it'll be a recipe for next time. And next time, I'll decide whether I want to have the chicken pox effect again. 

xoxo
Mich

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Daring Baker's - Challah

This month I was cutting it a little close.  I seriously don't know where all my time goes, and its nearly the end of the month, and I just managed to bake it on the day we're suppose to release the results.  At least I made it.  


So, I must admit, I am a little over the whole bread making thing.  I think ever since I joined up for daring baker's, its consistently has been a bread/yeast related challenge.  And especially since I did inherit a bread machine, the amount of bread I've made, eaten and tried to distribute has been a record. 


Anyway, so another challenge complete, quite successfully as well.  I've never heard of Challah before. Well, given that I'm not Jewish, it's not all that surprising.  But then again, I live in the only other Jewish suburb in Sydney (out of 2), and I have never seen it at the local bakeries or anything. 


So, essentially the dough is split into 3 braids (or 4 or 6), and then plaited together like a hair braid.  Quite a cute concept, but there is religious meaning behind the braids and what each represent.  And copying out of the original post on Daring Baker's forum, the braids together is essentially suppose to represent the meaning that one will not forgot the Sabbath.  From memory, the Sabbath is a Saturday for Jewish ppl, so technically I made it on the right day. 


I did my own twist (get it?!), and filled each strand with my Nutella, hazelnut meal and choc chip formula.  rolled it up, and then plaited it all together.  Results were fantastic.  


It came out of the oven looking a little bit too black. I left it in the oven and retreated to my heated room upstairs, so didn't bother checking on it.  But, it at least it wasn't burnt.  The dough itself turned out quite hard, but once you toast it up, and with the Nutella mixture softened/melted, OMG.. quite good!! From the pictures it doesn't seem like there is enough Nutella, but when you bite, each bite just manages to reach the next plait, i.e. next Nutella spot.  






xoxo
Mich


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Raspberry Mousse Chicken Pox Cake

I've been following this blog for a while now.  All her cakes / creations are so beautiful, and so inspiring.  From the posts that I've read, she's a Thai girl who is in accounting but bakes as her hobby.  Not only did that strike a cord with me, but her cakes are so professional looking.  And honestly, she could definitely open a shop or work as a pastry chef if she wanted to.  

I guess in the end, not sure whether its the Asian gene in us, we will alway stick to the stable job with decent income over what we may truly dream to do.  And I would think, people that do what they love, definitely has some guts! 

So back to my raspberry mousse cake.  I was using this recipe of hers, and was telling A that I really doubt I could make it anywhere near as good as hers.  But, I started reading the actual blog post, and it answered my questions exactly.  So, I took her advice and gave it a go. 

I had to double the mousse part of the recipe to make look anything resembling what hers looked like. 

Here are the results: 







So.. problems were that the polka dot ended up looking like chicken pox.  And obviously from the city photo, you can see that i didn't exactly fold in the cream well enough. 

You can see the 2 layers of the mousse, when I had to double the recipe.  But taste wise, it was really good.  The top layer was nicer, since it had less raspberry in it. 

So I can definitely improve on this recipe, and have better results.  Except I will have to wait till raspberry season, since it costs $8 /punnet at the moment. 

So it'll be a recipe for next time. And next time, I'll decide whether I want to have the chicken pox effect again. 

xoxo
Mich