Daring Bakers – Nanaimo Bars

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.

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~I think that everyone needs to feel like part of something outside of herself.  Things changed drastically last year and so it’s been nice to have so much baking to keep my mind active.  Certainly, there have been many more wonderful people around me and they have been happy to taste.

Vancouver 2006

~This challenge is based on the Nanaimo bar – from British Columbia.  My cousin lives in Vancouver and she has sent me many pictures of her family vacationing in Whistler where the Olympics will be held soon.  I love visiting her because there are so many fantastic places to eat.

~So, this month’s challenge was actually the Nanaimo bars plus an added gluten-free graham cracker.  While I have been interested in trying (and have been trying) to make gluten free, I also think you should understand what the standard is before embarking on something different.  I decided I’d try a few recipes for graham crackers – using graham flour available from Bob’s Red Mill.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures of all my attempts.  I can tell you that one of them was such a spectacular flop that it was a little like the recipe author didn’t write any part of the recipe correctly (or maybe scaled it incorrectly from her bakery.)

The Graham Crackers:

1.  I did manage to take pictures of two of my attempts.  The first was interesting because it puffed up in the oven and then fell back – just like our very good gingerbread.  It also reminded people of gingerbread, even though no ginger was present.

2.  The second was a recipe from Martha Stewart’s site.  This one turned out to be the most like a real graham cracker.  The technique was a little fussy; but, because the timing only required minutes rather than hours, it was easier to plan.  My sister thought they tasted like a graham cracker version of butter cookies.  These are the ones I eventually used. The techniques used were different (cutting them into squares first and baking as one large square) and may have also made a difference in the final product.

3.  I also purchased a box of organic graham crackers to compare.  Although I’ve had great luck in the past, this particular brand was not good at all.  I ended up composting it.

What will I do with the leftover grahams? Well, the really good ones may get eaten just straight.  For the others -  S’mores, of course.  Maybe some cheesecake base….

The Nanaimo Bars:

1.  I used the recipe as written with the following choices:  I could not find the Bird’s mix (although  our local store used to carry it).  So, I used organic vanilla pudding by Oetker. (If I were to do this again, I would skip the pudding and use just straight vanilla flavoring.)  I also used Ghiradelli semi-sweet bar chocolate and cocoa.

2.  For the base, you’re asked to melt chocolate, sugar, and cocoa and then add in a beaten egg.  The consistency looks all wrong at first but then suddenly comes together into a nice smooth chocolate paste – if you keep whisking over the heat.  It’s really great.

What did people think? Everyone seemed to like it a lot.  One person thought it tasted like an elaborate fudge bar.  I am certain that the homemade graham cracker is lost in all the flavors of the base.  In some ways, I think you could easily substitute any graham cracker.

This is a really fun, easy recipe, but definitely high in fat and sugar.  Now that I know how these are supposed to taste and have made them a few times, I will likely return and try it with my own gluten free mixture.

{The picture to the left gives you a better side view.  You can see the layers.  Even when you dip and wipe your knife, it’s still hard not to have some bleeding of the chocolate top layer. Each layer has a different texture and flavor.}

Snickerdoodles 2: Butter & Earth Balance

After making 5 batches of Snickerdoodles testing sugars, it occurred to me that I didn’t really know how Earth Balance compared to the regular Crisco/vegetable shortening suggested in most Snickerdoodle recipes.  So, using the same method as the sugar testing, I used all Earth Balance, half-half, and all butter.

*You can see the difference between the Earth Balance and the butter.  Earth Balance looks a lot like Crisco but it’s actually quite different.  First, it’s made with healthy fats.  Second, it has a lower fat content.  Earth Balance is closer (79%) to margarine (80%), while Crisco is 100% fat.  This is also close in water content to butter.

*I used organic cane sugar; however, due to the results in the last test, I decided to whirl it in the food processor after weighing.  All 3 conditions were created using the same ingredients & procedures (down to the same creaming time and baking time).

*The butter version had to be baked 2x, though.  The first batch came out too dark due because the butter fat browned more quickly.  The second batch reduced the baking time by a full minute to achieve the same color.

*You can see the difference between the 3 versions.  The half-half version baked just like the Snickerdoodles in the original test.  It had the characteristic look and flavor.  The all Earth Balance tasted flat and just had less umph overall.  The all butter was fantastic but was more like a sugar cookie with cinnamon or a shortbread with cinnamon — It didn’t have the characteristic look either.

*Bottom line:  If you don’t have butter, I wouldn’t make Snickerdoodles.  While the all butter version tasted great, the all Earth Balance just wasn’t as good.  (On the other hand, when my sister brought them to work, there weren’t many complaints.)

BBA: Stollen, Tuscan Bread, Vienna Bread & Pugliese

I’ve been working and thinking about sweeteners for the last 2 weeks and so have not had time to write up the breads.  I’m managing to make almost all the breads from Peter Reinhardt’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

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29.  Pugliese:  So, I made this bread around the holidays and couldn’t find the picture among all the pictures that I took at that time.  This bread is interesting because it has an optional mashed potato ingredient.  The potato added an interesting texture and I think it made the bread last longer on the counter.

*I’m skipping the rye breads.  I’ve never liked rye and the smell makes my daughter and I a little ill.

32.  Stollen:  My friend makes stollen at Xmas.  She makes a different version from her mother and, when she was in Wisconsin over the holidays, she tried another version (that had a lot of alcohol, apparently).  I asked her to try this bread and she liked it.  She also showed me another cookbook where they had a base recipe and many versions.  The one in this book is similar to the Dresden version in her book, without cardamom.  I did not use alcohol and the fruit and bread were very moist.  I also used the shaping method 2 – a little difficult but fun to try.

33.  Tuscan Bread:  The interesting part of this bread is that there is no salt.  While there is a base flour/water mixture that is made the evening ahead and olive oil, the bread still was a little flat.  The family didn’t like it as much as the others.  So, I think we won’t be making this one again.  By the way, I took pictures of the Tuscan bread and was surprised about how similar it looks to the Pugliese.  Of course, this might be expected, since I made boules for both; however, they taste very different.

34.  Vienna Bread:  This bread is like many of the others in this book.  It’s made in 2 days, and uses instant yeast and barley syrup.  It’s enriched – has egg and fat.  What’s different are the instructions for the Dutch crunch topping at the very end of the recipe.  The only different ingredient is the rice flour.  I spread the paste onto the bread before it went into the oven.   The bread was good (moist and delicious) and I really liked the topping.  I would go to the extra effort again.

*Yeah!  I’m almost done.  4 more breads to go.

Sugar & Brown sugars

Here in Boulder there’s a lot of talk about what is good for you to eat and what is not.  There are many varieties of eaters: vegetarians, vegans, etc.  So, when you raise the issue of sugar, people have opinions. (See Michael Pollan’s recent book, Food Rules, for a comprehensive listing of foods that one should avoid, including sugar if it occurs among the first 3 ingredients and corn syrup.)

*I’ve been curious about different types of sugars and have read a lot about their effects on baking (ex/ Rose Levy Bernbaum wrote a really great article on sugar/sweeteners.); but, the best way to understand something is to play with it (bake).  Where to start?

*Light demerara and turbindo (sugars on the left) are considered the same. (Read more about it here.) My samples had close to the same color and texture and so I used the demerara. (Note that dark demerara is available and is likely to have more natural molasses.)  The muscavado (also muscovado in some places) is definitely lighter and was hard when I opened the package.  So, I rehydrated a little in the microwave and used the food processor.

*I decided to do an experiment with 5 different granulated/dry sugars.  The details for the experiment (including recipe) can be found on my sugar page with this post as my summary.

*From the picture, you can see the difference among the sugars before we even start.  The demerara/turbindo and muscavado sugars have a larger grain size.  I used a food processor to make the size equivalent.

*I made Snickerdoodles with these sugars. (Recipe at the end of the sugar summary.)  Snickerdoodles often contain margarine and I used Earth Balance.  You can go to their website for more information.  The critical aspect is that Earth Balance is made from non-hydrogenated oils (and includes healthy oils in their place).

*What happened?  The natural brown sugars produced a much darker cookie.  You can definitely taste the molasses (whether added or natural).  The organic cookie had a rougher look and a different texture.

*Without telling people the differences, I asked several groups of people to taste the different cookies.  1.  Those who like Snickerdoodles could identify them immediately and liked this version.  2.  People could taste the differences among the cookies.  What is interesting is that people thought some had more salt (every one had the same amount of salt).

*So, what do I think of these different sugars?  I can see why people use granulated white and processed brown sugar because they definitely produce the most consistent and pretty results.  The bottom line is that you can substitute the brown sugars for white sugar but you might have to adjust both the texture (use food processor) and the holding time (time in the fridge/freezer).

More on Gingerbread houses

Every year for the last so many years we have made a gingerbread house around Xmas.  After our daughter became old enough to decorate, this became 2 houses – one big creation and one small “sweet shop” for her to decorate.  This year we made 3 houses:  one big creation, one small house for her, and the Daring Bakers challenge house. Here is a picture of all 3 houses:

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*The house on the far right is from the Daring Bakers Dec challenge with some additions. (Click here to see my original post.)  Here’s the original picture and the updated photo. I added a pond surrounded by chocolate stones, a chocolate stone path, and a rice treat tree and rice tree bushes. The pond is created by making sugar syrup and pouring it into an aluminum foil mold.  I added blue food coloring.  After cooling I removed the foil and added a blue construction paper underneath to add depth.

*Powdered sugar is the “snow”.

*Note that the roofs on all 3 houses are made from M&Ms.  Our local candy shop (Powell’s Sweet Shop) sells retro candies and huge dispensers with different varieties of jelly bellies and different colors of M&Ms.  They also have bins with different types of gummy candies and hard candies.  I found these great miniature rock candies of different colors to line the front and side windows and it looks like a string of lights.

*The middle house is the little one that we made for our daughter to decorate.  I used the same template as the one on the right. Gummy turtles decorate this pond.  My daughter actually did some of the cutting and all of the decorating.

*Note that on the sides of each house I have piped a decoration.  This is piped onto parchment, allowed to dry, and attached later.

*The house on the left is the same as last year except that we changed the posts.  Last year we used candy canes and this year we used Pepperidge Farm pirouette chocolate hazelnut cookies.  This was a better choice for a house  because it looks like a real house with the darkness of the cookies.  On the other hand, if you’re decorating a gingerbread house and want it to look more whimsical or festive, you might choose to use candy canes.  Hint – cut the candy canes in their plastic wrapper.

*The house raising (putting up of the sides) is described in my previous post.  The difference is the use of “glue”.  For the far right house, royal icing was used.  This is the glue used for the decorations and for securing the stones.  The other two houses used hot sugar glue.  The advantage is that hot sugar glue makes a much more secure house — You can even pick the whole thing up.

*After Xmas we would host a party to “break” the houses.  The main question for people who have not been to one of these parties is “How can you break something so beautiful?”  I respond that it’s like a Buddhist sand mandala – You need to have non-attachment.

BBA: 3 more breads

It’s easier to bake than it is to write about it.  Last year I found a site where a group of people was baking through the Bread Baker’s Apprentice book.  I was behind but tried to bake a few breads per week to catch up.  Needless to say, I’m over halfway but not done yet.  Over the holidays, I baked a few breads but had not time to write (due to all the cookie baking): I’m going to try to clean things up right now – This way I can just start fresh on this last push to finish up these breads.

28.  Potato Rosemary Bread:  For this bread, I substituted thyme because I prefer it.  So, I guess I made  Potato Thyme Bread, instead.  Everyone loved the flavor and it was so moist.

29.  Pugliese:  I can’t find the picture and so I’ll re-do and add this one later.

30.  Sourdough:  Rather than making the starter from this book, I used the starter that I’ve been feeding for a long time now.  A friend gave this starter to me a long time ago.  It dates to the year my daughter was born!  As you can see from the pictures, the recipe was fantastic.

31.  Poilane-style Miche:  This was not a difficult bread, although it did take a while.  The flavor was great.

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Other notes:  Over the holidays, I also re-made breads.  Here’s the bagel recipe again.  Everyone loves these bagels.  I think that the barley malt boosts the flavor significantly.

So, that’s all for now.  I’m going to skip the rye and pumpernickel breads and head straight to stollen.  A friend of mine makes them at Xmas. Even though I’ve missed the holiday, I’m excited to make this bread to see what she thinks of this recipe.

More cookie baking

OK… So I haven’t been good about posting my breads from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge lately.  I have an excuse.  I’ve been just baking a ton of cookies.  It’s been fun.  I’ve also been finishing up the gingerbread houses.  You can see the first of three houses on an earlier post.  Here’s a picture of some of the cookies that I made over the holidays:

*pointsetta cookies, pine nut cookies, rugelah, Pichet Ong’s nutella cookies (I used both unsweetened & sweetened coconut in two different batches.  People preferred the sweetened – a bit more moisture.)

*More pointsetta cookies and chocolate/white chocolate chip cookies:  We brought these to Frasier Meadows when my daughter’s girl scout troop sang to residents.

*chocolate ginger cookies & more pine nut cookies, peanut butter cookies, & a healthy Boot track cookie

*The cookies are hiding the painting on the tray which I did with my daughter one afternoon.  I highly recommend going to these paint your own pottery places – It’s extremely relaxing and fun to do.

*After finishing the gingerbread houses,  Miranda, Molly, and I cut out shapes (very thinly rolled, Swedish recipe gingerbread).  Then after decorating the houses, Miranda, Marianne, Michele, and I decorated the cookies.  (This was great for my nieces who haven’t had a chance to participate in years past.  Hopefully they’ll be part of it in future years, too.)

*I think I’m caught up for now with the cookies.  So, now I need to just get those Bread Baker’s Apprentice breads that I finished organized and then I can forge ahead.  I’m over halfway….

Breckenridge, CO

Unlike previous trips, I did not plan far in advance – I did little research and made few reservations.  It turns out that the week between Xmas and New Years is one of the busiest in Breckenridge.

*The first two nights we just went out and walked.  It was cold.  On Night 1, we went to Rasta Pasta.  It was fun — We were so lucky to be seated right by the kitchen which was smaller than my second rental unit in Boulder.  The guys looked like they were having a good time and the food was good.  The cheesy pasta was rich and creamy.  The Tortellini Jamaica Mon was very interesting with its pineapple, bananas, and grapes.

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Finally, the Spicy Jamin was spicy and had a combination of interesting flavors. The prices were extremely reasonable (especially since the regular pasta dishes come with salad and garlic bread and the portions are large.) I could see how some people might find it uneven; however, our meal was so much fun that we’d come again. Note that after a certain time the wait is incredibly long.

*On Night 2 we set out to find Empire Burger.  The one odd thing about Breckenridge near where Empire Burger lives is that around 4:30 or so, the police come and start to control the crossing lights.  Large groups of pedestrians mill about for long periods of time before they are allowed to cross and then everyone crosses every where.  Of course there are people who run across the minute they get a chance and the police verbally shout out.  Anyway, when we were finally able to cross, a lot of the people around us were also headed to Empire Burger.  The smell of the onion rings and french fries is spectacular – especially when you’ve been outside exercising most of the day.  We ordered onion rings for appetizer and chose garlic mayo.  (The garlic may was amazingly garlicky.  It was great.)  We all ordered burgers and they were good; however, even though we ordered medium rare, they came out medium and so did not have the flavor they could have had.  The dessert was a large brownie, scoop of ice cream, and whipped cream.  It was supposed to have hot fudge but there was so little that it was hard to tell.  (Some ice cream places do this too – if a person orders hot fudge, why not give them enough?)  The overall experience was good – especially for the price and atmosphere.  (Note that we went into another very popular place farther up the street and turned around because it was just a little too noisy and grungy.)

*While we wanted to wing it, after 2 nights of waiting for 45 min to even get seated, we decided that it was too much.  Thank goodness I had made a reservation for New Year’s eve.

*For New Year’s eve, we headed over to the Hearthstone Restaurant: Based on reviews and the website, I had decided to reserve at Hearthstone over a month in advance.  The website makes the restaurant appear contemporary and modern but the restaurant is on the classic side – It is in a beautiful Victorian that was decorated with lights.  A cute decor touch was that all the paintings were wrapped like Xmas presents.  The service was OK and the food was good – standard for this type and level of restaurant.  The servings were large.  (The only hiccup was that our mains came out really far behind our apps and tables that were seated well after us, had their meals before us.  It’s not bad unless you’re dining with children.)  We decided on the triple chocolate dessert.  The flavor was good and rich, but the amount of toffee sauce was mostly a slight plate decoration.  The server very kindly brought us more toffee sauce and it was the perfect addition.

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Again, due to the large crowds, we decided to make reservations for dinner for Jan 1 to avoid the waiting. At first, we tried to book at a highly recommended place on Trip Advisor but after two nights of trying and no return phone calls, we decided on Modis which had a reservation easily available via OpenTable.  (OpenTable is great because you also receive an e-mail confirmation.)

*On New Year’s day (Jan 1) we had a reservation for  5:30 at Modis.  The seating is mid-way into the restaurant (with a bar in front) and additional seating upstairs.  Needless to say, the restaurant was booked fully and the host turned large parties away.  The restaurant is beautiful – modern but warm with all the wood and original ceilings.  The service was friendly.  The menu definitely had good vegetarian options – which is different from many of the places in Breckenridge.  For an appetizer, the poki was fantastic served on a bed of spicy cucumber.  They had many salads that all sounded interesting.  One of the tables near us ordered the big salad that had everything on it and it looked huge.  I ordered the spinach salad that was lightly dressed and included bacon pieces, cheese, and caramelized onions.  It was delicious.  We ordered the sliders and the butternut squash (in an appetizer portion) as two of our mains.  As our last main, we ordered the maple duck with a cherry sauce on bacon grits.  Everything was tasty.  This led us to order dessert which was billed as a dark chocolate peppermint tart.  (The tart was more like a dark chocolate tart with peppermint whipped cream – a bit disappointing but the flavor was still good.)  With atmosphere, service, and flavor, the meal at Modis exceeded our expectations.  We’d definitely both recommend it to others and come back again.

*One other recommendation is to see if you can find a Kava Cafe on Main Street.  Oddly, we went to find Daylight Donuts and they were closed.  So, we continued south on the street and there was a coffee shop where they advertised fresh donuts.  Sure enough, there’s a donut machine in the front window and they make the donuts fresh/to order.  It’s a lot like the donuts you get at the Pike’s market in Seattle.

*I can’t leave Breckenridge without talking about the skiing.  This was the first time I’d been back since the 1980s and the whole place is quite different.  It has the feel of the resort areas like Vail; however, it has managed to maintain some small town feel.  We stayed at a place that was right near the slopes – we could literally walk out and ski.  Due to the holidays, it was very crowded.  On the other hand, we had a good time and everything seemed to run very smoothly.

*The best advice we had was Boreas Pass for X-country.  The grade was so slight that you never felt like you were working very hard.  The views were spectacular.  Because it’s farther away, there were few people.  Many skiers had dogs.  One dog was so funny because she decided she liked Miranda and wanted her to throw sticks for her.  She would run to get the stick and drop it near Miranda. Then deciding that it was too far away, she would pick it up and move it closer.

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We couldn’t have had a more perfect x-country experience.

*By the way, the Nordic center at Frisco was also recommended.  We stopped there on the way out.  It looks like Pine beetles must have attacked a lot of the trees and if the the weather had been better, the views are likely to be good from there, as well.

Daring Bakers Xmas 2009

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

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For many years, my husband’s family has been making gingerbread churches (houses).  We started our own together in 1990 with a very simple church and have progressed to very elaborate, multi-story, multi-sectioned houses.  Some were plans created from photos of churches and Victorian houses, and some were from plans on the web or books.  I love making these plans and seeing how things turn out.

~ While we used to try to get it done before Xmas (so that Santa could fill it with candy), we now just get it done over the period from a few days before Xmas to a few days after.  This has made the process more relaxed and fun.

~ This challenge was a challenge for me because I used the Scandinavian recipe rather than the family recipe, and royal icing rather than hot sugar.  Otherwise, I followed the guidelines. (The Scandinavian recipe which was a bit dry.  I added molasses to get it to the right consistency.  I used the King Arthur Flour template but made an overhang on the two sides.  Next time I’ll add more overhang for the remaining sides, as well.)

~ I will likely add a pond – when I make the ponds for the other 2 houses.  Because it doesn’t make sense to work on 1 house completely independently from the other 2 houses, my sister took pictures of the construction of the other 2 (large and small).  This is the first year where my daughter really cut some of her own pieces and decorated her own house.  (She asked me to pipe one title for the front of her house.  She also did the wreaths on the house for this challenge.)

~I loved having another house to make and decorate — I had a chance to actually add real candy in various places.  I used candy stars, candy hearts, life savers, etc.  I also had a chance to try different piping, too.

1.  The baking

After letting the dough rest overnight, I rolled the dough out onto the cookie sheet.  I used baking spray Pam and floured the sheets.  I rolled the dough to about 1/8” thickness and they pieces puffed as they baked.

2.  Caramel sugar windows

I’ve always made caramel sugar windows for my houses.  You trace the windows onto the back of parchment, turn it over, and pour on the caramel.  We have one board where we have a light that we turn on before showing the house.

3.  Then you use royal icing to attach the windows.  Turn over the pieces and decorate the front.

4.  Assembly:  At this point, we usually use hot sugar syrup to attach the pieces together.  Because it dries so quickly and so strong, we can then almost immediately start to put on the roof and decorate.  In this case, I put the walls up with royal icing and waited for a little while before putting on the roof.  Then I waited an hour before putting on the M&Ms.

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5.  I added a stone candy pathway and piped royal icing detail for the roof.

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6.  The gingerbread men are from a batch of the family recipe.  They are thinner and taste better.  [Pictures are of the front and then of the back.]

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Here are pictures of putting up our large house with the traditional dough (taken by my sister).  I’ll post again when I finish decorating the remaining two houses (and the one above) with ponds and bushes, etc.

*This is the alcove for the large house (and you can see the body of the house is already constructed).

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This is what the house looks like before added decoration (to roof and otherwise).

Initial holiday baking

Over Thanksgiving I cooked more than baked.  Still, there was time for a nice pumpkin muffin and a pumpkin cookie.

I also taught Miranda how to make some pies.

Three different types – apple, pumpkin & pecan.

Every day I’ve been baking cookies – trying to figure out what might be great ones for gifts.  Also, I re-made various breads including the bagels – which were a huge hit with cream cheese and Colorado smoked salmon.  (These are the same bagels from Peter Reinhardt’s book.)

What was really fun is the King Arthur Sharing bread.  It really does bake up make 2 cute small loaves that you can give away to 2 people rather than 1 or you can check to see if the loaf turns out well and give the other one away if it turns out.  Fun.