Daring Bakers: Armenian Nazook

Another month, another challenge.  


This month we needed to make either an Armenian Nazook or a Nutmeg cake.  


I've never heard of any of these before, but I guess that was the reason why I joined the Daring Baker's challenges. 


I used the recipes that were provided by the host of the challenge, but made a few tweaks to the fillings just to make it with my touch. 


This is the first time I've used sour cream in my pastry.  I'm not sure what difference it actually makes.  But the pastry wasn't as buttery and fluffy as I would have liked.  


My 1st filling was cinnamon with brown sugar. It was nice and subtley sweet.  2nd filling was Mr A's favourite, Nutella, hazelnut meal and choc chips! 


Glad I took some photos of my prep, but once they were baked, the filling exploded and didn't look as pretty.  

Nutella version 

Cinnamon version

Overall, they were nice, but, not really my kind of thing.  I think I prefer buttery, fatty, sugary desserts! 

xoxo 

Mich

Happy Birthday Iv!!

Apparently my font I usually use isn't good enough and is hard to read, according to Mr A.  So hence, different font it is. 

On other news, Miss Iv chose a Gateau St Honore for her birthday cake.  She rejected my pretty rainbow cake, since she described it as a wedding cake for a gay couple.  

So.. after a burnt finger, here are the results. 

I managed to take some photos of my work in progress.  Except, it just means that my phone gets sticky from my dirty hands. 

1. Choux pastry getting piped on my (flat) puff pastry circle.  I think I won't spike it with so many fork holes as much, so that it was rise like a normal puff pastry.

2. Profiteroles getting piped 

Final results.. the photos can't show the toffee plaque well. But did taste good! 

Forgot to mention, I used the Creme Diplomat, which uses chantilly cream in it.  But, since I left it to the last minute, and needed to get Mr A to do a quick pit stop to the supermarket since I ran out of cream.  The creams didn't set as well as I had hoped. 

And to make it a signature Gateau St Honore, it requires the cream to be piped using a St Honore nozzle. I couldn't find it in any kitchen shops, so hence, its just  flat and boring looking. 

At least its tasted good right.. hahah.. I tried! =)

xoxo 

Mich

13 hours later...

Happy Easter everyone! 


So, given that I had 4 days at home with no plans at all.  I decided to set myself a challenge and try to make the ... CROISSANT!


So, technically, making the croissant is not hard, its just the time and effort you need to put in for it to actually eventuate. 


I had time, I had the ingredients, and I wanted to make sure I could practice some of the pastry that I would make in Paris. So, here are the results! 

So, given all the effort of folding, waiting for it to rest, folding all over again.  I got so excited that I eventually had rolled them out, and they were ready for the oven .. that I forgot to brush it with egg wash. 


So disappointed and sad that I forgot the final step. But, I must say, given how much effort I put into these little babies.  They weren't as fragrant as the ones from the Dutch bakeries in Wynyard station.  


At least I have ticked croissants off my To Do list.  Now, to think of what to bake next!!


xoxo 
Mich

Happy Easter

Since I've been making so much bread these days, it only seemed fitting if I made some Hot Cross Buns for the festivities. 
I've always hated traditional Hot Cross Buns in the past, because they were full of raisins and I never liked the spices in them. 
So, I made a batch of choc-chip ones and also a raisin version too. 


I used an easy to follow recipe from Women's Day. Made it twice exactly the same except substituting rasins with choc chips.  I only used just a little over 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, hence, it was very subtle in any spices. 


AND... who knew it would be so hard just to pipe the crosses on the buns.  It is a flour and water mixture, and its actually so slimy and thick that it was so hard to pipe.  So you can see that for my raisin batch, there are 2 buns where the crosses turned out more like a splat. 


Here are the results 

xoxo
Mich

Daring Bakers March - Dutch Crunch Bread

Another month.. another Daring Baker's challenge!
This month, it was bread related again.  I recently got handed down an unused bread machine, which I'm loving.  And, in approximately 3 more hours, it will have made me a loaf of raisin bread! 
Yummo! 


But, back to the challenge.  So this month, we had to make Dutch Crunch Bread.  I've vaguely heard of it before, but never tasted it.  


Essentially its a normal loaf of bread or a roll, with a rice flour coating on top.  This is spread on the surface prior to baking, and then gives a crackly, crunch, tiger / giraffe looking like texture at the top.  


Taste wise.. its bread, so nothing different there.  But, I'm not sure if I hadn't set it properly prior to putting them in the oven, but my crackles looked a little funky. 


I used the recipe that they suggested from Baking Bites, as I'm still hesitant to stray away from suggested recipes. I'm too chicken for that.  


Anyway.. here are the results:

Well .. what do you think? 
Or maybe I just burnt them. Anyway, another month is coming around the corner. 


xoxo
Mich

Pear and Almond Tart

YUMMO.. 
One of my favourite pastries from my local patisserie is the Pear and Almond Tart. 


When I was researching for this recipe, I didn't realise that it was such a Frenchy dessert.  I guess its a good thing that I attempted to cook this before heading off in June. 


The results are:

For tarts, I usually use a shortcrust pastry.  But this recipe used pate sablon.  Taste beautiful, but I knew it would be really crumbly. 

The recipe used a processor to make the pastry and also the frangipan cream.  My hands and fingers had to be the processor instead, so not sure whether that makes a difference to the texture of it.  

But, it turned out well, nice, soft and buttery.  Recipe didn't say to rest it, and to line the pan straight away.  Also, not sure whether this made a difference either . 

And , due to my poor planning , I accidentally put the 2 largest pieces of the pears together, so then the whole symmetry of the arrangement went out of wack.  Hence, there are some sections where there's no pear.  Lesson learnt for next time 

At least it tasted great! =) 

xoxo 

Mich

Cupcakes

A's little sister organised a party at their place for her birthday.  So, I offered to make cupcakes for it.


1 batch of red velvet, with cream cheese frosting.  This time, unlike the cake, the cream cheese was nice and creamy.  But the cupcake itself turned out quite oily


The other batch was Devil's chocolate with vanilla cream cheese frost.  This frosting was less cheesy and more vanilla.  Perfect combination. 


Both set turned out really well.  Will definitely use the recipes again. 

The party, however, ended up being a rave in their living room. So, I don't think any of them got to eat them. 


All good. 


xoxo
Mich