Tiramisu has layers...

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. Has anyone see Shrek? I love donkey. Who doesn't right? Does anyone remember this dialog? For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think. "Example?" (donkey) "Example. OK, er, ogres are like... onions! " (Shrek) "They stink?" (donkey) "Yes. No! [...] Onions have layers! Ogres have layers. D'you get it? We both have layers!" (Shrek) "Oh, you both have layers. You know not everybody like onions! Eh, cakes! Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have layers!" (donkey) "I don't care what everyone likes! Ogres are not like cakes." (Shrek) Every time I begin to make a cake or a layered dessert, I think of that dialog.

So this month's challenge was to build a tiramisu. Not just build it, but to make each of the components that go into this dessert. There are three main componets:

First you need your ladyfingers/Savoiardi biscuits. Super easy to make. Very tasty. A little too tasty that I had to make a second batch. I ate one too many with the first batch that I didn't have enough to make the tiramisu. :)

Second, you need your tiramisu filling (zabaglione,vanilla pastry cream, mascarpone cheese )
I was all on top of photo taking and I took a picture of the zabaglione cream, but totally forgot the vanilla pastry cream and mascarpone cheese. It was about 10pm when I finished this and I was pooped. Both the zabaglione and vanilla pastry cream were a cinch to make. The mascarpone cheese I was a bit worried. My cheese seemed a bit watery. Luckily, I read online that it would firm up once it is chilled. I also added mini chocolate chips to my filling to give it bit of a party in the mouth when you bite into it.

Third, you need a espresso for dipping your ladyfingers and cocoa powder to finish the cake off.

First layer down.
And presto! Wait a second...a piece is missing??


Oh there it is!

I was too anxious to wait a few hours to eat. That is why the tiramisu is a bit floppy. What a fun and tasty challenge. I hope my co-workers will enjoy this treat. :)

Don't mess with Mezze

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

My husband and I loves anything carbs. So when this month's DB challenge called for pita bread. I was delighted to take on this challenge.

Here is the dough waiting to be flattened. Instead of regular salt, I used garlic salt instead. Yum!

Instead of the oven, to cook these babies in. I used my trusty pan. They puffed up just right.


Accompany the pita bread with some homemade hummas and olives. What a tasty bite before the big meal. :)

Going Gluten Free On Ya!

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

I was excited to see that Lauren was the host of the January challenge as I have been researching on gluten/wheat free recipes. Lauren has celiac's disease. Celiac disease is when the lining of the small intestine is damaged from eating gluten and other proteins found in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats.

Doing research about celiac disease and cooking gluten/wheat free has definitely opened my mind and I sympathize with anyone who has a food allergy.Being conscience about what you eat, reading labels, and asking the restaurant on how the food is made to make sure you can consume it. I was excited to see that this month's challenge was gluten free graham crackers and nanaimo bars. Nanaimo bars. What's a nanaimo bar? The Nanaimo bar is a dessert of Canadian origin popular across North America. A type of chocolate no-bake square, it is named after the West-Coast city of Nanaimo, British Columbia.
Here is my attempt at gluten free graham crackers. One thing I learned is that baking gluten free is a science. Trying to get a bunch of different flours mixed together to produce what you what is a challenge. I was expecting my dough to be denser, but my dough was really sticky. I was so worried that it wouldn't bake. In the end, it did come out. It was pretty delicious!

Take a look at those fudgy bars! I didn't get an opportunity to taste them, but my whole office was very excited to have a sugary treat for the Monday blues. People were asking for them again.

Thanks Lauren for the wonderful baking challenge!