Thursday, August 27, 2009
A dobos torte for the Daring Bakers.....
This is the first time I have ever heard that name. So much for my ignorance.According to them, The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.
The recipe sounded challenging when I read it on the Daring Baker forum and it sure was challenging. All you need is a little planning and luck (for the buttercream)!
I made the chocolate buttercream the first,so that it would cool by the time I start arranging the cake layers. I used dark chocolate and this buttercream took shape really well. Guess this recipe is what is going to be my keeper recipe.
My cake had 6 layers. To make the layers thin, I used a ladle three times for each layer to fit my 9" spring form pan. In the pursuit to get real thin layers, I ended up with real real thin layers. They gave me tough time while getting them off the parchment paper. The resultant minor tears were pasted using the lovely buttercream.
The caramel was easy to put together as well. I should have added more lemon juice.they hardened quite fast. But the caramelized cake bits were quite hard and while trying to make perfect wedges, they lost shape. Hence the irregular shards. They were a little thick as well.
I am making it again until I perfect the wedges and for a much prettier looking cake. But the torte and the buttercream were yumm!
The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Pizza using Artisan Bread in 5 minutes dough!
Pizzas are on my menu a lot many times now. Experimenting with the myriad toppings is fun too and when you have the dough ready in the refrigerator, this makes a quick fix dinner too. And we love it when it is spicy! The little girl of mine likes hers with just sauce and loads of cheese. So she gets that!
Until now I made the base as per the Pizza Napoletana. The thin/crisp crust has become monotonous and we scraved for puffier crusts. I remember seeing/reading about the kind of puffy base I wanted on Deeba's blog. The basic recipe is from here. For that day the yeast was my bestest friend because it never failed me. The dough rose not double in volume but triple.
The sauce for the base was my keeper sauce recipe from here. However, this time, I played it low on the amount of sauce used. I spread cheese on the sauce before adding the toppings followed by anothing sprinkling of cheese. This baked well and will be made for another few times until monotony starts to play.
I am expecting a great weekend, and here's wishing you all a great weekend.
Monday, August 3, 2009
A dessert courtesy a dentist....
There is a friend A, who i got introduced to a couple of years back Since then we have been hitting it off real well sending numerous sms's revolving around everything and anything under the sun. Although she's much older to me, there's something very comforting about her. She's a good cook too apart from being a dentist (and Yes, I have a never ending fear for dentists)and sends me many a pudding recipes all through the mobile phone. One such recipe is what I have on my blog today. I have made it a number of times now and its a regular at many a households. I recently acquired a bag of hershey's goodies and their unsweetened cocoa powder works best in this pudding.
This is a very simple dessert that requires no baking and involves very little ingredients. Easy to put together, this is definitely a treat. My measurements are as per A's. According to her, Britannia milk bikis works best for the sole reason that don't get over soggy and result in a soggy crust.
What you need are (adjust as per pan size):
Britannia Milk Bikis- 3 packets
Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa Powder-4 t heaped
Fresh Cream-200 ml
Powdered Sugar-6 T (adjust as per your taste)
Cold Milk-2 cups
Make a creamy mixture using the cream, cocoa powder and the sugar.
Grease a pan. Soak the biscuits one by one in milk and arrange them forming the base of the pudding. Add the prepared mixture covering the entire base. Follow this by another layer of biscuits and then the mix until you have finished the entire biscuits and the mix. Grate chocolate for that extra choco fix. a healthy choice is what that would be. Chill this in the refrigerator for a couple of hours then slice in.
If you are impatient like me, you'd get a slice (very mushy) as you see at the top in the picture above and the other is a well-chilled slice. A scoop of vanilla icecream would compliment this but this by itself makes a yummy desseert and beware it is addictive.
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