Tag Archives: daring bakers kitchen

The Pioneer Woman’s cinnamon rolls are worth the effort

07/01/2014 Nichole 1 Comment

Last month’s Daring Baker’s Challenge was to make Cinnamon Rolls, which finally gave me an excuse to make the The Pioneer Woman’s Cinnamon Rolls. They’ve been on my radar for literally years. I don’t know why it took me so long to try them, but now that I have? I’m pretty sure they’re what got the Food Network’s attention and launched the Pioneer Woman empire. They’re that good.

I wouldn’t call the recipe difficult, but it does take some time to come together so make sure you have time for rising and resting and rolling before you give these guys a go. Also, there’s a chance that you’re going to make a serious mess. If you enjoy cleaning as much as I do, you might want to tell your loved ones you’ll make them some cinnamon rolls if and only if they’ll clean up after you.

So the first thing I did was

And then I

Finally, I took a bite. And I involuntarily did this:

I’m 100 percent serious. Prepare your hearts, minds and funky sweaters for a Cosby dance.

The recipe calls for baking powder, baking soda and yeast, and it yields a terrifically rich and ridiculously soft cinnamon roll. I only ran into a few problems. The first was that I didn’t have any maple flavoring on hand, so I used vanilla in the icing instead. This turned out to be not-a-problem-at-all; the vanilla + coffee in the icing ended up tasting like a vanilla latte. Which is to say: It was scrumptious.

The other problem was that I’d looked at the recipe and thought, “Oh, that’s far too many cinnamon rolls! I’ll make a half-batch!” That’s how I learned that, in fact, there is no such thing as far too many cinnamon rolls. Even if you aren’t prepared to eat two dozen of them on your own, you’re certain to find friends who will help.

So I made them again.

This time I made a full batch. I put half of the dough in one big pan and sent it along with Rockford on his Father’s Day golf excursion. I split the other half of the dough between two pans — one for the kids and I and the other for my father-in-law. I left the coffee out of the icing on the kids’ pan, because Poppy asked me to, but I made up for that by using coffee almost exclusively in the pan for my father-in-law. All three pans were joyfully received and consumed.

This month the Daring Bakers kept our creativity rolling with cinnamon bun inspired treats. Shelley from C Mom Cook dared us to create our own dough and fill it with any filling we wanted to craft tasty rolled treats, cinnamon not required!

baking

The Terribly Tardy Bakers Challenge

04/25/2013 Nichole 4 Comments

I’ve been doing the Daring Bakers Kitchen challenges on and off (OK, mostly off) since 2008, starting that October when I made pizza dough and it was delicious. Between October 2008 and the middle of 2009 I tackled the unbearably delicious Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting in November 2008; the complicated-but-worth-it buche de noel in December 2008; the Tuile cookies that didn’t quite work in January 2009; the crazy-rich chocolate Valentino in February 2009; a fantastic cheesecake in April 2009; Apple strudel in May 2009; and a terrible Bakewell tart in June 2009. I don’t remember exactly what happened, but it looks like the Bakewell tart was so terrible it made me not want to participate for the next two years.

That’s a pretty awful tart.

Once I recovered from the Bakewell, I made: Biscuits in January 2012; Dutch crunch rolls in March 2012 (and I put bacon and avocado on them, which was a good idea); a dreadful Battenburg cake in June 2012; some cream puffs so good I couldn’t believe I’d made them in August 2012; and an enormous empanada in September 2012.

And then there was another Challenge Drought from October 2012 until this month, when I finally did another challenge. (Tune in for that post on Saturday, because that’s the Official Daring Bakers Challenge Posting Day.)

After I made this month’s challenge recipe, I started to wonder about all of the months I hadn’t participated. So I looked them all up, and then I decided I’m going to retroactively participate in a few of them. Which means that I’ll make the things and post about them here at my leisure. We’ll call it the Terribly Tardy Bakers Challenge. Or something.

I’m aiming to finish around 2021. And here are the things I’m going to make:

Dobos torte
~~Macarons~~ (Done! And written about at “For some reason I keep singing “macaron” to the tune of Bush’s hit tune “Glycerine.”)
Cannoli
Tiramisu
Piece Montee (Croquembouche)
Baked Alaska or ice cream petit fours
Chocolate Marquise
Baklava with homemade phyllo
Mille Feuille

Would any of you care to join me? Either for the making-and-then-writing-about-it part or for the eating part. Either or both is fine with me!

recipes

Coming soon: Doorbells, sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

05/27/2009 Nichole 5 Comments

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book “Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague” by Rick Rodgers.

Would you like to know why I don’t buy Toaster Strudels? Because I would eat the entire box in one sitting. Okay, maybe two sittings. Either way, I’m pretty sure that’s not what your friendly local nutritionist would recommend.

The point is, I love Toaster Strudels. But I don’t think I’ve ever had real strudel. So I was pretty excited to see that this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge was The Strudel. The provided recipe was for an apple strudel, which sounded lovely. But naturally I had big plans about making an apple strudel and and chocolate strudel and a savory strudel, maybe with a samosa-ish filling. Instead, I waited until the last minute and cobbled something together.

That “something” was a cream cheese and raspberry and chocolate filling. It didn’t taste bad, but it was Not Pretty. Particularly because the filling exploded out the side and left my strudel looking like a slain sci-fi monster.

The dough itself wasn’t at all hard to make, although I think my lovely assistant and I could’ve gotten it a bit thinner. And I didn’t do the sprinkling of the bread crumbs, which I think would’ve helped the layers puff up a bit. I’ll probably try this again because it was pretty simple. But next time, I’ll follow the directions to a T.

APPLE STRUDEL
from “Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague” by Rick Rodgers.
2 tablespoons golden rum
3 tablespoons raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.

Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.

Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.

Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel Dough
1 1/3 cups unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.

Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches. Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.

Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it’s about 2 feet wide and 3 feet long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.