An Infamous Cheesecake Indeed...

***I wrote this last night and figured I'd post today once I took some photos of the the 2 new varieties I made yesterday, but with the way my day is already started, who the heck knows when I'll get home to take photos - so I'm posting right now and ya'll just have to come back again to see the CAKE FROM HELL and the 2 new varieties. MUAHAHAHAHAA!*** Yesterday, I made a cheesecake. It was going to be a GLORIOUS cheesecake. One to be envied from every inhabitant of Cheesecake Land. I thought about this cake for a MONTH before even shopping for ingredients. I made LISTS people. I might have even sketched the cake it all of its MAGNIFICENCE. What a true beauty she would be. I was so proud of what I hadn't even started yet. I was PSYCHED. I was watching what the other members were showing off on our private forums and I was left breathless each time.. the creativity of their cakes was AWESOME. But still.. I kinda chuckled to myself thinking "Wait until they see MINE. They're gonna CRAP." Oh yeah, full to the gills with cockiness I was. MUAHAHAHAA! And in true Lisa form.. Allow me to present to you - the first Official Kitchen Disaster of 2009. *sigh* Oops.. first.. gotta take care of bidnezz. ;) The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. Okay disaster or not - this is now my go-to cheesecake recipe. I've never had such a creamy cheesecake.. to die for, kids.. simply to die for. I said this before and I'll say it again.. HUGE pat on the back for Abbey for tweaking this recipe until she found cheesecake perfection.. and an equally HUGE hug for Jenny for bringing us this recipe. Bless both of yas cotton socks. ;) So there.. there you go - now it's documented, stamped, triplicated and carved in granite - LISA screwed this recipe up. LISA managed to take the perfect cheesecake recipe and totally noobed it right into the circular file cabinet. LISA is a cheesecake MURDERER. My favorite commercially made ice cream is Haagen Dazs Caramel Cone. You've got your sinfully rich caramel ice cream.. you've got a salty caramel ribbon running through it.. you've got chocolate covered sugar cone pieces throughout.. it's so good I could just BATHE in it. As a matter of fact, when the day comes that I stop breathing.. I'd like to be buried, completely submerged, in Caramel Cone ice cream. HEY YOU PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN MY NECK OF THE WOODS.. DON'T YOU DARE! GO BUY THIS ICE CREAM. IF I GO TO BUY IT AND IT'S SOLD OUT I WILL HUNT! YOU! DOWN! AND! BEAT! YOU! ABOUT! THE! HEAD! AND! SHOULDERS! WITH! MY! HUSBAND'S! DIRTY! TUBE! SOCKS! ***crickets*** So yeah.. what was I saying? RIGHT! I wanted to recreate my favorite ice cream flavor into a cheesecake. Caramel cheesecake, with a salted caramel ribbon running through it.. but instead of the chocolate covered sugar cones throughout, I thought they'd make a smashing presentation by crushing them up to wee lil pieces and then sticking them to the outside of the entire cake. Maybe even bring it up as a ring around the very top of the cake to use as a "dam" for a salted caramel "pool" on top. ARE YOU FUCKING DYING WITH THE ENVY YET??? Are ya'll writing this down?? Can you even imagine a more STUPENDOUS cheesecake EVER?? OHMYGOD. Figuring out how to make a caramel cheesecake was easy.. sub brown sugar for the white sugar the recipe called for. Easy. But if you're LISA you can't settle for easy so you start the Googling. And you read 1 (ONE) recipe that used DARK brown sugar and the author of the recipe said it was even more caramel-y than using light brown sugar so you are like.. OHYES! I WILL use DARK brown sugar for a more caramel-y cheesecake flavor! SQUEEEEEE! And you even tell a friend what you are going to and the friend will write back in a very supportive and just as excited way and say that the cheesecake will taste like "salted molasses" and she even DROOLED. And all I comprehended was the DROOL and how excited she was for my soon-to-be TRIUMPHANT cheesecake!!!! Salted molasses? One word. Eww. Unfortch for me, that I didn't figure out that lil gem until after my cake was baked. But even before that!! I had to make a caramel ribbon, right?? I had tried once before a long time ago, by using a very thick caramel sauce - but it baked into the cake and gave it a nice caramel flavor, but didn't give me the liquidy/fluidy ribbon I was hoping for. So my lovely friend suggested maybe making a batch of soft caramel.. rolling it into a rope and then arranging it over half the batter, topping with the rest of the batter and then another rope on top of that.. surely the caramel will cook and get melty and form a ribbon. And I'm sure she is right, but this batter is extremely thin, so there's no way it would have held the weight of the caramel rope, they just would have sank to the bottom. :( I got to Googling again.. and my search parameters brought up a commercial cheesecake store in Wyoming (I think?) who had described one of their cheesecakes with a caramel ribbon running through it.. but when I realized it was a site to BUY their cakes and not a site for recipes, I back buttoned to see what else the Googling brought to me.. it was slim fuckin' pickins, lemme tell ya. So in my DESPERATION, I went back to the cheesecake sellin' site and found their contact page and PLEADED with them to tell me the secret to getting a ribbon of caramel throughout a cheesecake. I PLEADED. I'm sure when they read it they thought I had gone batshit crazy to be asking them instead of PLACING AN ORDER like every SANE person would be doing with that contact form. (they never did write me back.. imagine.) I said screw it. We don't need no stinkin caramel ribbon. Instead I will make a rich, luxurious, salted caramel sauce. And I shall spoon that sweet/salty nectar over the crust of my cheesecake and then I will put that pool of pure heaven on the top of my cake and I will still get the flavors of my beloved ice cream. (Do you think I chucked this idea after I made the caramel sauce using golden syrup (following the recipe from November's Golden Caramels) that might have been bad because the caramel sauce had a chemically ass-like taste to it? Read on, naive people.. read on...) Well OF COURSE the caramel sauce baked into the crust!! OF COURSE IT DID. Because that's what fakkin happens. It's SENSIBLE. LOGICAL. RESPONSIBLE. PRACTICAL. And the baking Gods wouldn't be JOYFULLY. PLAYFULLY. WATCHING ME. Nor would they be laughing and pointing at me. Fuckers. And finally.. my genius idea of the chocolate covered sugar cone bits hugging my DELICIOUS cheesecake did not work out either. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? I thought I was making a wise decision by going to a very popular chain ice cream store and purchasing their chocolate covered wafer cones. They were cheap, and it would be more convenient than buying a box of regular sugar cones and dipping them in chocolate myself, right? Wrong. Wafer cones, apparently, are way different from sugar cones. And anyone with ONE eye would know this. They obviously don't even look the same. But this did not stop Lisa. Oh hells no. I bought several of those wafer cones and didn't even taste one until after the cake was ready for them.. They were hideous. Gaggable. They were wrong. First the cone was so fake vanilla tasting that I did gag. I really am not a vanilla fan.. lil vanilla here and there I'm okay with.. permeated through whatever a wafer cone is made of is just wrong. And the chocolate the cone is dipped in? Not chocolate, my friends. Oh noooo.. it's that chocolate flavored substance that leaves a waxy mouth feel if you eat it. My guess is they also use this substance as some kind of water-proofing mastic for basements and rooftops. Shame on you Popular Ice Cream Chain! Shame on you for cutting corners on your wafer cones! I have never ate your ice cream and I will NEVER eat your ice cream now. SHAME ON YOU! And also, I'd like my $4.35 back please. So said wafer cones hit the garbage can tout de suite. But I still needed something for the "dam" damnit. After checking out cupboards and pantries.. nothing jumped out at me, so I grabbed more graham crackers.. crushed 'em up and made a ring around the top of the cake, then half-assed spreading them on the outside edges just because I had so much left. I then poured the noxious caramel sauce on top. And then I watched the noxious caramel sauce break through the graham cracker dam and slide down the side of the cake, over the edge of the plate an onto my counter top. I just about imploded at that point. I picked up the plate, used my finger to wipe off as much of the sauce as I could, then just FLINGING it in the direction of my sink because I DIDN'T CARE ANYMORE and threw the fuckin' thing in the fridge. Even after all of this, I had hoped that the flavors would meld and mellow out after a long chill. Yeah no.. that didn't happen either. The one and only TRUE THING that I did WRONG with this cake is to NOT look at it and scream "YOU ARE NOT A MILLION DOLLARS" because for everything I thought was right about the cake, was so pitifully wrong that SURELY had I screamed those words it would have magically turned into a huge fucking pile of $100 bills. GOOD DAY PEOPLE. GOOD DAY. xoxo I made a boatload of mini's.. the first one is for Hubbs.. plain with a simple blueberry & orange compote on top (fakker wouldn't thicken for me like it usually does) And for moi! Orange cheesecake with a seriously thick layer of semi-sweet chocolate poured over it. *slurp* xoxo

Not Tho Daring When Thee's Got a Stuffed Node, Ith Thee?

Many, many apologies to The Daring Bakers, Hilda, and Marion for not getting my French Yule Log up by the designated reveal date! I am so sorry! Hubbs thought he was being funny.. har dee har har. This was a fantastic challenge - in every sense of the word. And I have to say, Hilda and Marion did an amazing job as hostesses for the month of December - as the questions were flying left and right. And what a great group of bakers we have! The logs I've seen this past week have just blown me away with all the different flavor combinations, creativity in decorating and just pure awesomeness! Congratulations to all who participated! :) So a little introduction.. This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand Once again, my mad frosting skillz are top notch! The rest of this post is going to be short and sweet (for me).. I'm pretty sure by now ya'll have gotten the gist of the challenge this month, yes? :) I went with a caramel mousse, lemon creme brulee, dark chocolate crisp (I used rice krispies), dark chocolate ganache and then a dark chocolate icing. Ya'll might notice the base of my log is a wee bit different from everyone else's.. well *blush* my almond daquoise kind of started smoking and then full on burned in the oven as the "chef" might have been on the phone and not paying attention. *sigh* Unfortunately, I didn't have another nut in the house - other than moi - so I had to improvise.. I chose to do a graham cracker crust because, well.. that's all I had in the pantry that was uhmmm.. crusty. :P So the big thing with this challenge was time.. it's time consuming to put something so magnificent together. But all 6 of the components? Easy as pie. I had no problems whatsoever with anything other than the aforementioned "casualty". It's too bad you can't really see the creme brulee insert.. and I took the advice from other DBer's and broke up the crisp layer for easier cutting - I don't think I broke it up small enough though because cutting through that layer was pretty difficult. The taste? OHMYGOD, I have never before had a frozen treat that tasted so amazing. The tart lemon brulee is exactly what the caramel mousse needed to keep this dessert from being overly sweet. Going with dark chocolate for all of the chocolate components also helped with the problem of being too sweet. Caramel, citrus and dark chocolate are truly an amazing combination. And the different textures were just fabulous as well.. the mousse and brulee were very creamy, yet different as the creme brulee was more dense. The ganache was probably my favorite texture wise as it reminded me of the ONLY part of those Dairy Queen ice cream cakes that I enjoy. hee! And well.. the crumbly graham cracker crust was perfect in adding something different to the mix. Oh Look! It's levitating! :D truly loved this challenge and will definitely make this again next Christmas - and I might even get it done IN TIME for Christmas! ;) Thanks so much Hilda and Marion for a truly "Daring" challenge! And HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! :) xoxo

Nothing Floats My Boat Like Salty & Sweet

This month's challenge was hosted by some very lovely gals.. Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, Jenny of Foray Into Food, and Alex a/k/a Brownie of the fabulous duo Blondie and Brownie. Gals you hosted with grace and knowledge and HUGE amounts of support for the rest of us - thank you so much! :) These three gals chose Caramel Cake, a recipe from talented pastry chef Shuna Fish Lydon, who writes Eggbeater. You can find Shuna's recipe at Bay Area Bites. Like many other members, I went into this recipe with a few reservations. I love caramel, but find it really sweet.. usually too sweet, unless there is a good amount of salt in it. So I was worried about this cake making my teeth scream :P Secondly, a cake that isn't chocolate, pumpkin or carrot?? Unthinkable! hee! But, again like many other Daring Baker members, I am very happy that I put my reservations aside and tried this recipe as this turned out to be a delicious cake.. especially the next day and the following days after. This cake didn't take long to make and I didn't really have any problems.. I was unsure at one point because my butter browned quite darkly. I was afraid I had burned it, but after I strained it through a coffee filter (thanks for the tip, my lovely guru!) I saw that the actual butter was a beautiful color. The cake itself was sweet, but not sickeningly so. It had a marvelous dense texture that I adore. But it was the frosting that made this cake so good to me. OHMYGOD I will make this frosting again and again. It came together easily and was very fluffy and creamy. I chose to use Maldon sea salt and I'm glad I did because I really loved the little "chunks" of salt in the sweet, creamy buttercream. Actually I prefer any cake that's frosted with buttercream to be room temperature so it doesn't feel like I'm eating sponge topped off with a stick of butter. But I really enjoyed this cake cold. I don't know why exactly, but I did. Three other people ate this cake.. Hubbs, who loved the frosting but not the cake so much. My mom, who just kept making a NOM NOM NOM YUM NOM noise the whole time she ate her slice and my sister who thought the saltiness was "interesting" har! All in all, I'd have to say the general concensus was that it was a delicious cake that they wouldn't decline if offered again. ;) Before I end, a big thank you and hugs to Natalie of Gluten A Go Go for helping out with a gluten free version of this cake, and the many talented Daring Alternative Bakers who helped support each other in creating vegan and lactose free versions! :) Warm wishes to everyone for the upcoming holiday season! Now go start CLICKIN'! xoxo

Wish Me Luck! Also, My Mad Frosting Skillz are Back!

I'm up at the crack of freakin' dawn on a Saturday when I wanted to sleep in until AT LEAST 6:30.. Gah. What happened to the days of staying up (and usually out) until 4 in the morning and sleeping until noon? Yanno.. this growing up/old shit is for the birds. :P Anyhoo.. I guess excitement might have a little bit to do with why I'm up so fakkin early. You see, today we are headed off to a casino! My very first casino ever. I use to be a bingo freak. Yeah, I know.. but Shuuuushz! I don't tell that to many people. :P Anyhoo.. I wouldn't go for the actual Bingo, I went for those damn instant win tickets.. if you've ever been to a bingo hall or a Catholic church festival, you know what I mean. Colorful tickets about the size of an Ipod with little paper tabs on the front.. you open up the tabs to find out what you've won - IF you've won. Addicting. Horribly bad - close to 12 step - addicting. At least for me. And then.. THEN some moron decides it'd be a good idea to open up little shops all through the city that sells the lil tickets! No Bingo! Just the tickets.. OMG I would count the SECONDS until my lunch hour so I could go rip through $20-$40 a day. A DAY. So you see.. gambling and I are bad juju. I haven't been to a bingo hall in years and I haven't ripped through any instant win tickets since this past summer (Hey! I support my Catholic churches! Do not judge me!) and that was only 2 festivals. :P Hubbs has wanted to go to one of these casinos that have popped up everywhere for years now and my response has always been, "We can't afford it, dear." Well this year, the pathetic look on his face when I announced that I was going to go pay off all sorts of bills with our tax refunds got to me. So I asked how much he wanted and what he wanted to do with it. "Casino trip!" was all he said. So everyone keep their fingers and toes crossed.. and send the good juju, folks! For we are casino headed. Woot! And since I've got all this time this morning, I decided to forego some behind the scenes DB work and post another Kitchen Disaster!! It's been so long.. I have missed my KD posts so muchly. Bobby Deen. Paula's hunky and still single youngest son. Twas his birthday and the Deen folks decided it'd be a cute episode for Paula's Home Cookin' - the premise was Paula tricking her youngest son into helping her cook his favorite foods for his own birthday party. ha! ha! Gah. If you are a Deen fan, like myself, and own any one of her dessert cookbooks, then ya'll know that Bobby's favorite cake is a caramel cake. I've looked at the instructions for this cake many times and nothing about it ever tripped my trigger. Until! Until I watched them make it. The recipe says to poke lots of holes in the cake with a toothpic so the caramel sauce can seep in.. well Paula, bless her buttery clogged arteries, used the end of a wooden spoon to poke LARGE holes in the cake before pouring the sauce on. Yes, kids. THAT'S what tripped my trigger. (it never does take much for me) So off I went.. as per usual, when baking cakes, my cake turned out beautifully - it rose to a lovely height and turned all goldeny brown and delicious looking. The smell was heavenly, as even Paula's recipes are not sacred in my kitchen. I gave it a lil twist and added 3 ripe bananas to the batter. *swoon* My caramel sauce turned out beautifully as well. As it pretty much should have, considering I've been making it for years now (is essentially the same recipe as Gracie's Toffee Sauce for her Croissant Bread Pudding). The poking of big holes went without a hitch.. the pouring of the caramel sauce was also a breeze. And then. And then it was time to frost with caramel frosting. The making of the frosting started off well - again with the caramel sauce base, then you transfer the sauce to a mixer and beat in a pound of confectioners' sugar and vanilla. It's a little thin at first so you beat until it becomes "spreading" consistency. Well my loves, somehow I drove past spreading consistency and crashed head on into fudge consistency. Seriously. I now know how to make caramel fudge. Seriously good caramel fudge. But did I press my fudge into a pan, cut it into little squares and enjoy it as fudge? No. I figured it was still spreadable. Yeah. No. I'll let my photos do the rest of the talkin'. And if you are wonderin' if it still tasted good.. well it did. The cake was moist, sweet and banana-y. The caramel sauce and the caramel "frosting" was buttery with just the right amount of salt to counter the super sweet that caramel can get. It was just a long chew to get through a slice. :P Have a fabulous weekend! If you're bored.. make yourself some caramel fudge! Perfectly baked cake with perfectly cooked caramel sauce Bottom layer covered with the caramel sauce Top layer with oozing caramel sauce *swoon* Caramel fudge covered Banana Caramel cake - not the best looking, but not THAT bad, right? Right?? The Other Side. :P A slice of delicious Banana cake filled with decadent caramel sauce and slathered with a very thick layer of caramel fudge. Gah. xoxo

Hey You!! Check Out My Buns!

I wonder how many post titles will reference checking out someone's buns today.. Surprise! It's the September Daring Baker challenge day! WOOO! Actually this month, I made the challenge at the beginning of September - like a day or two after the recipe was announced. That's not like me, kids. Not only am I the Queen of Dorkdum, but I am also the Court Jester of Procrastination. True story. So it was kinda cool to be the first of the DB'ers to get her challenge done - even gave my fellow baking friends a sneak preview of how they turned out. I was feeling kind of efficient there for a minute. =) Here's the rub.. I don't remember jack shite about my baking experience this month. Do you know how many days ago that was?? I can't remember what I wore yesterday and I'm suppose to recall baking something a month ago? Shhhaaahh. As if. The good news is.. I documented my experience - or rather the hour or so before I started baking - on our private Daring Baker blog. And yeah.. going back and reading what all happened slightly frightened me. I found it mildly amusing. And yep! I'm pretty much completely embarrassed. *blush* But this is me.. Imma dork.. there's no denying it - so I'm going to allow you, dear friends, to peek inside my head when I've had no sleep - am in excruciating pain - and have decided to drink lots of caffeine with a pain killer chaser. Oh yes.. this would be the time to clear the children from the room. Ready? Sunday, September 2 Good morning Kmart shoppers!! 'kay that title makes no good sense but I have been up since 2:30 this morning due to the most exquisite FUBARED back EVER in the history of FUBARED backs EVER. But do not pity thy pain.. this too, shall pass. Ugh. To compensate, I've had 2 pots of coffee and a glass of iced tea (it's now 6:30ish) along with some sinfully delicious prescribed narcotics! Holy crap I'm ZINGING. Right now? My brain is like a fart in a frying pan.. *ting* *ting* *zip* *ting* What the hell to do with all of this chemically induced energy?? Why bake cinnamon and sticky buns, OF COURSE! Because this would be THE BEST time to work with yeast! I'll have conquered my fear of it and not even remember it in a few hours! PARTY ON, WAYNE! NO!!! PARTY ON, GARTH!! SCHA-WINNNNNNNNNNGGGG! Okay so I've read the recipe about ELEVENTY kazillion times.. go ahead - ask me a question about it. Quiz me!! I KNOW THE ANSWERS! BUT I have questions :P Firstly - The husband type person is going on a fishin trip with his brother today - therefore the unlucky bastard is NOT going to get any fresh from the oven buns. Everyone.. all at once.. "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWW" So, being the kind-hearted wife type person, I thought I'd freeze half the buns for him to enjoy another day.. So first question is.. do I treat this dough like my pizza dough and freeze it after the first "fermentation" and the cutting/shaping of the buns but BEFORE the 2nd proof? Or should I freeze them after they've proofed? I would think it's before.. ? Secondly - couple things in the recipe weren't quite clear.. I'm pretty sure I know how I'm going to bumble through this as I doubt any of you more experienced bakers will see my PSYCHOTIC post before I get to work.. but I figure if I'm a tad confused, there might be someone else in the same boat. But before I ask.. HI NEWBIES!! Welcome! Are you SO EXCITED over this month's challenge?? I am! I've asked Marce to have my babies because SHE ROCKS. Ohh and be sure.. your one half of the founding duo truly is not always THIS AWAKE. Fear not, young bakers. =) Okay on to the other questions.. Firstly, or make that secondly as I've already used up my firstly question (see above) Secondly, how long are you suppose to cream the sugar, salt & butter when making the dough? Until it's light and fluffy? Or just until it's all mixed together? (I'm going for light and fluffy but ONLY because it's a light and fluffy kinda day!) Thirdly - The recipe specifically says to loosely cover the sticky buns before the 2nd proof.. but does not say to cover the cinnamon buns.. so.. do I not cover the cinnamon buns or do I cover? (hopefully someone will answer this burning question by the time it's ready to proof) And lastly.. no wait. Thirdly was lastly. Sorry. Thank you SO MUCH for your advice and direction.. I am forever grateful! xoxoxoxooxooooooooooooooooooxooooxoxxoxooxoxoxo UPDATED: Why does it say I posted this at 6:24 when my computer says it's 6:51?? ALSO and much more importantly.. don't forget La Festa al Fresco!!! DUDES you MUST attend.. we made favors for everyone.. those wee plastic shoe shaped lil containter type thingies - full of CHICKLETS. Yes CHICKLETS. Now how long has it been since you've chewed on a fruity Chicklet? I KNOW! Forever, isn't it?? Well if you come to the party your Chicklet cravings will be taken care of! Not that we're trying to bribe you into coming.. but kids? It's CHICKLETS. :P xoxooxoxoxoxo Posted by Lis at 6:24 AM Aren't I preshus? Mmm hmm.. let this be a lesson to you all! DO NOT blog while hopped up on caffeine & narcotics! I'm pretty sure you can bake that way though - hopped up on caffeine & narcotics, that is. I have no mysterious bruises, cuts or burns to speak of - so it must have went well, yes? So on with it.. You start by putting all of this stuff in a big silver bowl and then you.. apparently use this thing to mix it all up And then when your done, you get this ball of dough that you put into a totally different bowl - I'm assuming it must be blue? And then you leave it alone for a while. Once you wake up from your drug induced nappy, you throw that ball on a counter top and use your rollie thing to make it oddly mishapen and flat.. I did say oddly mishapen, yes? Following the flattening and the sprinkling of the good stuff, you roll it up into a giant cigar like object. Next, you take your bench scraper and chop! chop! chop! chop! chop! chop! Chop your bootie! Chop your bootie! Then you've got some options.. you can put your pillowy rolls on a baking sheet (or pizza pan if you are using caffeine & prescribed narcotics) or you can... Slather a pie plate (or some thing with sides) with the dreamy caramel mixture and then... Sprinkle liberally with nuts and raisins - or be a rebel and use Trader Joe's "Golden Berry Blend" which includes plump golden raisins, tart dried cranberries and sweet, oh so sweet, dried blueberries. Notice the difference in swirl size? This was the 2nd batch I made - and apparently I decided to revert back to my pot smoking days (har! Ask anyone.. I smoked pot once and puked 4 minutes afterwards) or maybe I was reverting back to a previous life when I roamed the wild west with just my horse, Ethel, and rolled my own tobacky.. cuz these rolls are much tighter. :P And then you let them sit there - doing absolutely NOTHING. And you can watch them.. but please, from my own experiences? I'd rather watch a pot of water come to a boil.. it's QUICKER. No wait!! Paint drying! YES! I'd rather watch paint dry.. it's QUICKER. So go curl up on the couch with a big fluffy pillow and a warm comfy heating pad and fall asleep for about 90 minutes. After you've came to.. toss 'em into a nice warm oven for about 15 minutes and wait for the deliciousness.. The caramelly deliciousness.. Or the glazed cinnamon-y deliciousness.. Amazingly - my back felt better after eating one of each. Go figure. If you'd like to make these beautiful cinnamon rolls and sticky buns for yourself, you can get the recipe over at Marce's - She was this month's hostess and dear sweet jebus she did a most excellent job in not only picking a fabulous recipe but in being there for all of our questions and moments of panic. As was the rest of the group - how lucky we are to have so many wonderful members!! Prepare yourself for October kids.. we've got 80 new Daring Bakers waiting in the wings.. all excited to start baking with us! Well.. almost as excited as we are to have them. =) Now fill the rest of your morning with more fantastic stories of cinnamon roll/sticky bun baking by heading for the Official Daring Bakers Blogroll and start clickin'! xoxo

A Daring Tart

This month's challenge was simply wonderful and very surprising. At least to me. =) Our beautiful hostesses this month are my sis, Veronica and the incredibly sweet Patricia. These two lovely ladies chose the Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart from Eric Kayser's Sweet and Savory Tarts for us Daring Bakers. I have to admit, (don't hate me Sis!) I was at first tickled when I saw the recipe - but then immediately bummed as well. You see, I am a milk chocolate non-liker type person. It's just too sweet. Pairing it with caramel, of all things, and my teeth were screaming in outrage. All I could think about was how sweet this tart would be and therefore I dragged my considerable arse through most of the month without making it. I know. I KNOW! I am an idiot. How dare I not trust my Sis and the lovely Patricia? How could I not know that they'd never pick something sickeningly sweet? How silly of me not to realize that the buttery goodness of the caramel layer would completely off-set the sweetness of the milk chocolate mousse? I have no good excuse and I am hanging my head in shame. 'kay I'm over it already. :P This tart was amazingly good! It was not overly sweet (to us anyway), the sandy crust, the velvety caramel and the creamy mousse were a perfect combination texture wise. The buttery and slightly smoky hits from the caramel were to die for and I believe the whipping cream also lended a hand in taming the sweetness of the chocolate because this mousse had a nice little tang to it. I really enjoyed this tart (too much! *blush*) and so did Hubbs. All in all, this recipe was pretty easy. We, as Daring Bakers, had already been through the basics of caramel and I had made my first mousse a few months ago so I didn't think I'd have any problems. HAR! As if. Okay well to be honest, it wasn't a huge problem.. but annoying enough to make me call my Baking Guru and leave a panicked message on her cell phone. *beep* "Hi! It's me! This is my monthly panic call! Where the hell are you? Anyhoo, my fakking caramel has turned into giant clumps and looks as dry as the fakking Mojave!! What the hell do I do now? CALL ME. PLEASE!!!" Of course she wasn't available. Of course. Just my luck - also known as The Bad JuJu. You'll notice in this shot, especially, how the mousse is slowly sliding off the gooey caramel.. HAR! While I waited for her to call me back, I lowered the heat and just kept stirring the sugar until it started to melt again.. in the process it turned into a lovely dark amber and smelled SO GOOD. It took awhile, maybe 5 minutes or so, but eventually and with a lot of stirring, I had perfect caramel. BUT THEN... I added the warmed cream.. she sputtered, she burped, she threatened to overflow - but once she calmed down a bit, I had.. uhhh.. a saucepan full of cream and a big knot of solidified - boulder-like - caramel. WTF? I've made this kind of caramel before and it never did that.. I don't geddit? So once again.. I stirred.. and stirred.. and then I stirred some more. Finally, it all came together so I could add the butter. Phew! I baked the filling for the directed time of 15 minutes, but when I took it out it was still pretty liquidy. I figured that a nice long wait in the fridge would solidify it, but unfortunately over 24 hours later, that wasn't the case. It did thicken up to a gorgeous goo - I mean, as gorgeous as goo can be, yanno? - but it did not look anything like the picture Veronica posted for us. Actually, as of yesterday when I finally remembered to take a photo or two, it was still gooey. But I gotta tell ya.. goo is good. Especially when your talking caramel. So even though my filling didn't look like the picture, I was rather happy with it. I will make this tart again, as I was suppose to bring it to a friend's house the evening of the day I made it, but because it was so liquidy at that point, I couldn't travel with it. I promised him if it turned out, I'd make it again - so next time the only changes I'll make is to bake the filling until I see that it's thickened properly. A huge thanks to Veronica and Patricia for being lovely hostesses and picking a truly yummy recipe this month! And as always kids.. don't forget to go check out the other NINETY THREE blogs to see what an amazingly creative group of bakers we've got here. =) xoxo PS - My Baking Guru did call me back - about 5 minutes after I put the tart in the oven, and bless her heart, her advice was exactly what I ended up doing.. so I was quite relieved. :D Thanks sweetie! xoxo

Dudes! I'm late for Donna again!

Jeez.. I hope this pattern of tardy entries to HHDD doesn't continue any longer! I apologize for being late, Helene my love! So yes, it's that time again and this is my second submission for a Hay Hay It's Donna Day event! This month's host is one of my closest and dearest friends, Helene of Tartelette - she is the incredibly talented winner of last month's HHDD with her dreamy Pillow Cheesecake with Salted Butter Caramel Sauce. *swoon* This month it's her turn to host this popular event and she's chosen mousse as the theme. I am especially happy over this because I heart mousse but have never made it before. What a simple dessert to make that yields such creamy, rich rewards. But you'd never know just how easy making mousse is if you were to have witnessed me trying to decide which flavor to make this past month! Ohhh and then when I decided exactly what I wanted (Thursday NIGHT)? I didn't have the damn ingredients! I ended up writing Helene and begging her to allow me to slip my entry in a day late.. why do I stress over things like this so much? Is it my extreme dorkiness? Is it the pressure to live up to what Donna would approve of? After all she is the Australian equivalent to The Martha and we all know how I love The Martha. Shhhh you haters! :) I don't know what the reason is, but I am quite relieved now that my mousse has been decided upon, shopped for and finally made. WOOO! And I gotsta say.. I'm quite delighted with the results.. and it's too bad that Hubbs went on a overnighter with his brother this evening, because it's highly doubtful there will be any left come tomorrow evening when he returns. So much for behaving for my diet*! I am weak.. especially when it comes to the most amazing tasting caramelized banana mousse covered in the most decadent dark chocolate mousse I've ever had.. Let's start from the bottom, shall we? Caramelized Banana Mousse - ripe bananas sliced and bathed in a hot buttery caramel sauce until they are warmed through and soft, the caramel is so silky and the bananas melt in your mouth. It's a miracle that there were enough caramelized bananas left for the mousse as I had an extremely hard time walking away from taste testing - you know, for quality control? Mmm hmm.. After that luscious component of my double layered dessert was finished and tucked away into my fridge to set, I began preparing the Deep Dark Chocolate Mousse. Not your ordinary chocolate mousse, kids.. No, this mousse uses 12 ounces of fine semi-sweet chocolate. TWELVE. It is without a doubt and unarguably the deepest, darkest, richest chocolate mousse I have ever had. This mousse will stop you in your tracks. Most definitely THE chocolate lovers answer to a quick and easy way to get your fix. Two equally decadent mousses paired together for one phenomenally creamy, rich and luscious dessert. Deep Dark Chocolate Covered Caramelized Banana Mousse Both recipes found on a new recipe collection site I've found called Food Down Under Caramelized Banana Mousse 2 TBS. butter 1/2 c. brown sugar 2 c. sliced bananas 1/2 c. plain yogurt 2 egg yolks 1/3 c. sugar 1 pkt. unflavored gelatin 4 oz. orange juice 3 c. whipping cream 3 TBS. sugar 2 egg whites Melt butter in nonstick frying pan. Add brown sugar and bananas. Saute bananas until they are well coated and soft. Remove from heat and let cool a few minutes. Add yogurt and puree with bananas in blender. Beat egg yolks and 1/3 cup sugar in stainless steel bowl over hot water bath or top half of double boiler until mixture lightens in color and becomes fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add gelatin that has been softened in orange juice to egg mixture and continue beating for another 2 minutes. Remove mixture from heat and combine with banana puree, mixing thoroughly. Refrigerate for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, whip cream and 3 TBS. sugar into soft peaks. Beat egg whites until they form firm peaks (make sure you don't whip them until they are dry. You want firm peaks but still slightly wet). Fold 2/3 of the whipped cream (reserving 1/3 for garnish - Or if you are going to do the double layer mousse, I used the remaining whipped cream in the chocolate mousse.) into the chilled banana puree. Fold in egg whites. Chill for 4-6 hours. Serves 6-8. Deep Dark Chocolate Mousse 12 oz. top-quality semi-sweet chocolate 1 c. whipping cream 1/4 c. hot coffee 1/4 c. hot water 3 egg yolks, beaten 1 tsp. vanilla 5 egg whites 1/3 c. sugar Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. Keep an eye on it, stirring often, to make sure chocolate does not burn or seize, then take it off the heat immediately. Whip the cream and set aside. Pour the hot coffee and hot water slowly into a bowl with the egg yolks, whisking briskly as you go until completely mixed. Add the vanilla to the egg yolks. Whisk in the melted chocolate. Keep whisking even after the mixture is completely combined, this will help to cool the chocolate. Whip the egg whites and the sugar until peaking but not dry. Fold the egg-white meringue into the chocolate mixture carefully with a wooden spoon. Fold in the whipped cream. The key to a great chocolate mousse is that you can't incorporate hot melted chocolate into whipped cream. The chocolate mixture must be cool to the touch or the cream will break. Lightly blend the two mixtures until uniform. Chill for 4-6 hours. Once both mousses are set, simply layer them, banana first - chocolate on top, into decorative bowl or glass / cup. Serves 4-6. As always, I'd like to thank the beautiful host of this month's HHDD - Helene! Also I'd also like to give a shout out to Barbara of Winos and Foodies for she is the creative genius behind the Hay Hay it's Donna Day! event, started wayyyy back in October of 2005. Thanks Barbara! And before I get into my notes on the recipes, I'd also like to make mention for anyone who is not aware of Barbara's LIVESTRONG Day event: "A TASTE OF YELLOW is your chance to participate in LIVESTRONG Day by doing what food bloggers do best - bake. LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation's (LAF) grassroots advocacy initiative to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about cancer survivorship issues on a national level and in local communities across the country. LIVESTRONG Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, May 16." What say we all participate in this event to show our support of such a worthy cause! *I should have made this tomorrow - the very last day of submissions, so I could take the bulk of it to work the next day. As it is right now, my fridge is calling me in this sing-songy voice that is totally mesmerizing and completely obliterating my will-power to stay away from the bad (no, the OH SO GOOD) food.. to succumb to the overwhelming desire to sit on the floor in front of the fridge with a spoon in one hand and a bowl of mousse in the other, until all evidence of such debauchery has been eliminated. My. God.

Holy Caramel, Batman!

And not just any caramel.. salted butter caramels! I DID IT!!!!!! Thanks to my wonderful friend, Helene and her fantastic recipe, for the first time in my life, I conquered the hot sugar jeebies! You might notice that mine are not chocolate like hers were.. and there's a reason for that. I honestly didn't think it would work for me and I sure as hell didn't want to waste good chocolate! Well, I proved myself wrong. I'm stunned, quite frankly. ha! Click on the link to her recipe and get out your sugar, your good butter, your carton of heavy cream and that little stash of fleur de sel that you keep for your Korova cookies and whip yourself up a batch.. they are heavenly. =) I know my purchase of a good candy thermometer made all the difference this time. No trying to figure out the temperature by judging the color or trying to decipher if that lil smoodge of brown stuff you just dropped into the water is forming a ball or are those lil threads?? I got mine at Target for like $15.00 - quite reasonable and well worth the cash. Dudes! I got caramels! MUAHAHAAAA!

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Sauce

This has been quite an uneventful week in the kitchen. Well, what I should say is uneventful for my blog as I've already blogged about pretty much everything I've made this week. With the change in weather temperatures (holy crap it snowed here - it's only October for crissakes! Have I mentioned how much I love Cleveland winters? No? Yeah well cuz it SUCKS. Okay.. well it doesn't suck as much as New York winters.. sorry to complain about our dusting of snow when some of you NY'ers got a COUPLE FEET of the nasty stuff) we've both been craving comfort foods. Cooking in your kitchen when your teeth are chattering and you are bone weary from working in the cold (Hubbs) doesn't make for easily coming up with new and exciting dishes. All we've wanted is the stuff that makes you feel cozy, warm and happy to have a working furnace. ha! Hubbs did make one request yesterday morning. He'd really like cheesecake. Who am I to say no to such a request? I was torn between a peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake or a pumpkin cheesecake. My sis, who is up from Toledo for a 5 day visit, helped me decide. She wants to go to the Cheesecake Factory today for lunch, and I KNOW after perusing and drooling over all their different cheesecakes, I will still end up ordering my favorite peanut butter slice of heaven. Therefore, I went with the pumpkin variety. I've made many pumpkin cheesecakes in my life and do have a couple favorites, but decided to go with one I've never made before. This double layer cheesecake is so easy to make. It's quite pretty once you've sliced it and see the creamy white layer below the pumpkin layer. The original recipe did not call for a crust, which I found odd.. so I just made a simple graham cracker and cinnamon crust that went really well. This cake is not very sweet although it is very creamy and delicious. But that was a good thing because I had decided to pair the cake with a caramel sauce. I've never made caramel before but after watching an episode featuring sugar on Alton Brown's Good Eats the night before, I really wanted to try my hand at it. Where Alton gave me the push I needed to finally try this sauce, I went with a recipe from Gale Gand. Gale is an accomplished pastry chef, who is quite popular in America. She has her own show on the Food TV channel called Sweet Dreams and she's fun to watch. After finding her recipe for caramel sauce I was a little worried. Her ratio of sugar to water was much different from the other caramel sauce recipes I had looked at. Ultimately though, I believe my first caramel experience was quite hairy because I think I chose too small of a saucepan. Where the cheesecake was a breeze to put together, the caramel was another story all together. Hee! Alton, if you are reading this.. please avert your eyes. Right off the bat, I threw out all that I had learned from the guru of science meets food. Gale's recipe called for 2 1/2 cups of sugar and after I piled all of that in my too small of a saucepan there was no way the sugar wasn't going to touch the sides. Did I get out a bigger saucepan and just dump the sugar in like any other sane home cook would do?? Nooo... I just poured the water in around the sides and figured I knew more than Gale and Alton and hoped for the best. Sometimes my stubborness and ignorance amazes me. As soon as the sugar mixture came to a boil a thin layer of crystals formed on top. Well duh. But I just let it go until it turned amber in color. I took it off the heat and added the heavy cream and kept stirring while watching in terror as the bubbles got vicious and threatened to overflow that small saucepan. I stirred faster and then faster and finally it stopped boiling, but there were HUGE lumps of crystalized sugar floating all through the pretty sauce. Before adding the butter and the fleur de sel, I switched my spoon for a whisk and soon most of the lumps dissolved. Most. I ended up just straining the sauce into a glass bowl and discarding the lumpy lumps. Alton would have stroked out had he seen what went on. I don't think Gale would have been too pleased either. hehee The remaining unlumped sauce did turn out fabulous and although I was embarrassed for being such a nard, I was quite impressed with it. It was of a perfect consistency, not too thin and not too thick. The salt addition produced exactly the taste I was hoping for. It was creamy and 90% perfection. And really.. what's a few lumps between us? For those wondering about the salt. Thanks to Haagen Dazs, I no longer can tolerate your basic sweet caramel sauce. The caramel they use in their ice creams is quite salty and divine. And with my love of all that is salty/sweet and sweet/savory, I can not go back to your plain jane caramel. If the thought of a salty caramel turns you off, simply omit the fleur de sel from this recipe and you will end up with a beautiful caramel sauce (hopefully less lumpier than mine). Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Sauce For the cheesecake: 2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 eggs 1 (15 oz.) can of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling) 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 tsp. nutmeg (freshly grated if you can) 1 recipe for graham cracker crust (See below) For the crust: 1 package of graham crackers (1/3 of a regular sized box of graham crackers) 2 TBS. sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon 3 TBS. melted butter For the salted caramel sauce: 2 1/2 c. white granulated sugar 1/2 c. water 1 c. heavy cream 2 TBS. unsalted butter, room temp 1 1/2 tsp. fleur de sel (or a good quality sea salt) Preheat oven to 325º F. For the crust: Ground the graham crackers in a food processor until all medium to large pieces are gone. Dump the crumbs into the bottom of a 9" springform pan, add the sugar and cinnamon and mix well with a spoon. Add the melted butter and mix well. Pat the crumbs down so they are even and come up the sides of the pan by one inch. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes or until starting to brown. For the cheesecake: In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. (If you are using a stand alone mixer, use the paddle) Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside. Add pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. For the salted caramel sauce: In a LARGE heavy sauce pan over medium heat, pour the sugar into the middle of the pan being VERY CAREFUL not to allow the sugar to touch the sides of the pan. CAREFULLY add the water around the pile of sugar MAKING SURE the sugar does not touch the sides of the pan. Do not stir; gently draw your finger through the center of the sugar to moisten it. Over medium heat, bring to a boil without stirring. Cook until light caramel in color (This took about 15 minutes for me. I do not have a candy thermometer so I went by sight. If you have a candy thermometer you want the mixture to reach 350º F.) and immediately remove from the heat. Carefully (it will bubble up and may splatter) stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add the butter and fleur de sel and continue stirring until butter melts and salt dissolves.

Gattina's Bread Nugat Pt. II

Ha.. it's "later next week" already! Ohh yes.. I made this again just last night - actually just a few hours ago. I woke up shortly after going to bed with a most delightful coughing fit and couldn't go back to sleep. I caught up on some e-mail, and could barely keep my eyes open so I decided to go back to bed about an hour later. I gathered my furry kids and off we went. I jumped in bed looking sooooo forward to getting at least a few more hours all snuggled up with the cutest pooches in alla world. Until I made full body contact with the bed. It was wet. Not just damp but soaking f*cking wet. I did not witness the act, but by the amount of wet and the size of wet puddle, I have to conclude that Chloe decided to empty her bladder in my bed. I was amazed, confused and more than a little angry. I also had wondered why she was cowering by the door instead of hopping right up like Nigel did.. that was another clue as to who left their mom a present. She did this one other time when she was a wee lil pup, and I chocked it up to her not having full control over her bladder yet because it was ON my bed and not on the floor by my bed. Well she's got full freakin' control of her bladder now and hasn't messed in this house for years. I don't get it. Was she mad at me for some reason? I let them both out when I got up.. she has fresh water and food and we spent time cuddlin' on the couch before I decided to check e-mail. The hell?? While she cowered behind the sofa (seriously? I barely even yelled at her because of the time - didn't want the neighbors to hear me screaming heee!) showing me her guilt, I spent the next couple hours trying to dry the mattress, febreezing, and washing sheets. Gah. After it was all cleaned up I still couldn't sleep so what does a bone-weary gal do? She decides to bake, of course! This time these rolls turned out perfectly. And oh yeah, I couldn't resist tasting shortly after they came outta the oven.. Hubbs and I thought the first batch was outstanding even if a lil dark - but these were even better. Makes sense, eh? hehe Too bad Hubbs is away for the weekend at an Ohio State game.. there might not be any left when he gets home. :D Ooey and gooey even if outta focus :P Gattina's Bread Nugat Makes one 8" round pan 1 can Pillsbury plain or butter flavored biscuits 1/2 cup sugar, divided 1/2 tsp. cinnamon 4 TBS. butter 1/8 c. light or dark brown sugar 1/3 c. evaporated milk 1. Pre-heat oven to 350º F. In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon, set side. 2. Grease an 8" cake pan, cut each biscuit into four pieces, coat each piece with the sugar mixture, place in the pan. 3. In a small pot, heat the evaporate milk, 1/4 cup sugar, brown sugar and butter to boiling, immediately pour it over to the bread pieces. 4. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Serve warm.

Gattina's Bread Nugat

I wasn't going to post about this until I made it a 2nd time as I slightly overbaked the first time.. but what the hell, I'm all for showing my screw ups! Keeps me grounded. har! I saw this on Gattina's site. She's extremely talented and such a very loverly gal - am so happy to have found her site months ago, I've enjoyed each entry she posts! All of her posts are awe-inspiring, but these lil sweet rolls had me at hello. I wanted to follow her recipe to the Tee but I had to omit the walnuts for health reasons and I used sweetened condensed milk instead of the called-for evaporated milk. Why, do you ask? Well let me tell ya'll why. Mmm hmm. I have two pantries.. both of them are seriously over stocked and it's harder than hell, sometimes, to find anything. Case in point. I keep all baking supplies on the 2nd shelf of both pantries - when perusing for the evaporated milk that I knew I had, I couldn't find it to save my life. I moved cans and jars and bags every which way, to no avail. I already had my biscuits cut and coated in the cinnamon sugar and smooshed into my baking pan so I was kinda screwed. I, of course, made a very panicky phone call to my mommie - "What the hell do I do, Ma? Can I sub sweetened condensed milk?" "Ohhhh noooo", she says.. "it will make whatever you are making way too sweet." "Okay well this is a dessert, kinda, so do you think that will matter much?", says panicky me. "Well you could try it, just cut the other sugars down." "'kay thanks, Mommie, buh-bye now!". So she was really no help.. but at that point I was committed in baking these lil wads of yummy dough, so I hadda try the sweetened condensed milk. I cut the sugars in the recipe in half in hopes that my teeth would not start disintegrating the instant I took a bite. The sauce came together beautifully. They looked almost good enough to eat raw after I drizzled it over. But I decided baking would be best and popped them into the oven. Unfortunately, my oven runs hot and I overbaked them. BUT! They were still extremely tasty and the carmelized coating was only "crunchy" around the edges.. the rest of it was heavenly. I've got biscuits on my grocery list for this week and will try this again, keeping in mind my hot oven. Ohh yeah.. just as I cut the lid off the sweetened condensed milk? Hubbs pulls the can of evaporated milk out of the 2nd pantry. I almost beat him over the head with it. I know he was trying to be helpful and probably thought if he could find it, he'd beat me to the opening of the other milk, but he was a split second too late. tee! I still went with the sweetened condensed and by cutting the other sugars, I don't feel it made too much of a difference in taste - I'm assuming these sweet rolls were to have a caramel flavor and that's exactly how they ended up tasting. So all in all, fabulous recipe, Gattina! Thank you so much for sharing! The next time I try one of your recipes I'll make sure to have all my ingredients pulled from their various temporary homes in my kitchen BEFORE I start prepping. heheee! Below are my pictures.. for some reason I couldn't get a photo of the slice to come out bright. WTF? I'll post more pictures once I try this recipe again, later next week. ;) Please, go check out Gattina's recipe to learn how to make these and to see gorgeous pictures of how they should turn out! heee! It really wasn't baked to a charred, wedge shaped brick, just bad lighting ;)