Boca Negra

I don't even know what to say. I am really surprised it tastes as good as it does, as it looks a little crazy. What a nightmare this cake was to make. Everything seemed so easy. The recipe was simple enough and easy to follow. I used the food processor and it took 2 minutes to assemble. I originally baked the cake as directed in a water bath, and was really excited after the 30 mins because it looked just like the instructions said it would, there was a nice crust on top and a fudge centre. Only after inverting on a plate, the entire bottom came rushing out and all over. I didn't want to waste all that chocolate so I did my best to put it back together. I submerged the crust in the raw batter and put it back in the oven, this time without the water bath. The cake started to rise and and crack. When I pulled the cake out of the oven the entire cake caved in on itself and away from the crusty edge.

The cake tasted good on its own. A fudgy decadent chocolate cake. I also enjoyed it with the white chocolate cream. Andrew enjoyed the cake, but thought the cream was horrible. I took some pieces (heaps of chocolate mess) over to a friends. When I woke up this morning at my friend's place I was happy to see most had been polished off. It doesn't look pretty, but it sure is tasty.
 

Best Ever Brownies

It really is all in the name.

I am not a huge brownie fan. I like cake and I like fudge, but I don't normally like the hard little squares called brownies. Andrew loves brownies and I have attempted to make them for him in the past. I have used box mixes and recipes from scratch, and they have never been something I particularly enjoyed. My past experiences were so bad, I thought it was a joke that the baking dish didn't have to be greased, it was hard to trust the instructions.

But I am a convert. We are even fighting over the last piece. Wow these delicious gooey fudge treats are sooooo good.

I cooked the brownies for the full time and they were still pretty gooey in the centre. I was concerned that they were undercooked, but I didn't want to over cook them. I am very happy to see that Michele's look exactly the same.

Croissants

Behold my delicious flaky croissants!
I love croissants and it was very exciting to make them. I had no idea all the steps involved. It is not very hard or time consuming, just a lot of waiting... and waiting... and waiting.

I keep wondering with this many steps involved who figures this all out in the first place. It took me four days of following instructions; how did someone make the instructions in the first place? And I have modern conveniences, I assume the first croissants were made in a rustic place and in a very different time.

I am very happy I read through all the instructions first and watched the PBS segment. They would say assuring things during the segment such as not panicking if you see the butter coming through the dough. That was the best piece of advice since my dough looked like rolled out butter mixed with a little flour here and there.

I thought since there was so much effort involved and my love for croissants, I would use a combination of whole wheat flour and bleached... so that I wouldn't feel as guilty as I ate them all. No sharing this time!

I made the almond filling and filled all the croissants I made. I froze half the dough just in case the first batch didn't taste great and I could try again. I think the final result is absolutely wonderful, and turned out perfect (if I do say so myself). 

Andrew says delicious on the outside, but that the sweetness on the inside ruins it. Just means more for me!

Crispy Cocoa Cookies

I don't have too much to say about these little crispy thin cookies. They are like potato chips; you go to eat one and the next thing you know you have eaten a dozen. A coworker suggested adding a little amaretto next time. I gave it a try and he was right, mmmmm there goes another dozen.

Vanilla Chiffon Roll

I don't even know where to start. The Vanilla Chiffon Roll was a crazy baking adventure. I went from excited and full of anticipation, to confused and very concerned, there was fear and panic, but ultimately relief and a bit of pride.

I didn't really think to sit down and read through the instructions first. All those tests they gave me when I was young to teach me how important it is to read through all the instructions before I start, and here I was just diving in.

I volunteered to bring dessert to a dinner party and I thought the roll would be a good treat. I think the pressure of wanting to take something really great to serve and the dread of having to pick something up on the way added to my insanity.

Making the cake wasn't too bad, everything went pretty smoothly. Later when it was sitting on the counter I noticed that it was still stuck to the parchment paper, so I had to put it back in the oven for a little while. During the inverting the cake got stuck to some parchment and lost a golden layer on one side. That is when I discovered that when I was trying to delicately fold the whisked whites into the rest of the batter I didn't throughly mix and my cake had ribbons of meringue throughout.

Next I started in on the mousse. After starting I realized that I had run out of mixing bowls, whisks and beaters. So I had to stop and wash some dishes. That is when everything just started happening so fast. I was washing and drying, processing, boiling, whisking like a maniac and trying for the life of me to decipher what ribbons of whipped yolks would look like. I couldn't even believe after all that, I would now have to successfully execute whipped cream for the first time. 

I was just exhausted and so happy to be assembling when the tail end of the roll just kind of flopped and all the mousse shot out the sides. I panicked, and just started wrapping parchment and saran all over the mess and shoved it in the fridge. I reread the instructions and realized I had rolled from the short edge instead of the long.

Later in the evening (maybe I should mention I started the roll at 8pm, so now it was probably midnight) after I had assembled some fruit skewers to take to the dinner. I was feeling much calmer and thought I would give the candy walnut garnish a go. I put the sugar in a saucepan and stirred, and stirred, and stirred. Nothing was happening. I started to doubt that anything would happen and thought maybe I could help the process along. I added a little corn syrup to the hot sugar and immediately the mixture started to boil. I didn't want to burn the mixture so I took it off the heat and dumped in all the walnuts. Wow do I have bad ideas. I had no idea that the sugar would turn solid immediately and I wouldn't be getting the walnuts apart.

The next day I thought it best to consult my talented baker coworker and ended up literally begged for advice. I really had no idea what was inside my "dirty diaper" and was scared that it would be an oozy mess. I was really happy that the roll firmed up and that the mousse hadn't soaked into the cake.

Since the roll was so wide, I cut the slices pretty thin. I was so excited that the cut edges stayed pretty clean and actually looked like a roll. Andrew was the first taste taster and I couldn't believe how quickly he gobbled it up. I so excited about how great it tasted and that Andrew (a pretty tough critic) agreed. He keeps telling me it is the best thing I have ever made.

Everyone at the dinner party thought the roll was really good. The mousse was defiantly the favourite part and there was lots of compliments on the overall moistness. My friend Kathy is another tough critic and she loved the roll. She had issues with the Mint Nightcap Cookies saying they were too rich, but thought the Vanilla Chiffon Roll suited her taste in dessert perfectly.

Overall this was a great challenge. I loved loved loved the results (the next day with mint, the day after for breakfast with strawberries), but wow was it a lot of work. 

I am still in awe that I made such a great dessert, and that something that starts out like this...

...ends up like this.

Johnnycake Cobbler

I wanted to make something easy and generally pleasing to all for Easter dessert. I looked through Baking with Julia and decided a fruit cobbler would be just the right thing. I really liked the idea of having the cobbler cook while we ate and able to serve dessert right out of the oven.

The filling was peach slices and a frozen field berry mix. In the topping I used whole wheat flour.

The timing worked out and it was great to serve a piping hot dessert. Everyone really liked it. We found that since the topping was like a biscuit it was better when you mixed it in the berry sauce to soak up some of the juices, it wasn't the greatest on its own.

Buttermilk Scones

Mmmmm.... I love scones. I decided to make and serve the scones on Easter Sunday for brunch. A nice treat to hold us over while the house filled with the delicious scent of ham.

I was happy how the scones turned out. However, I am too accustomed to eating Starbuck's scones so I was sensitive to how homemade these tasted.

I really wanted to make pumpkin scones. I asked my coworker Krista to place an order for a second flavour and she picked lemon.

I did some research on the internet to make my flavours happen, and it was pretty easy.

I followed all the instruction in the recipe, using whole wheat all purpose flour. After adding half the buttermilk, I split the batter into two. One bowl I added half the remaining buttermilk and the zest of one lemon. In the other bowl I added pumpkin puree instead of the rest of the buttermilk and pinches of various spices.

Andrew and his dad were not sure what scones were, but they both enjoyed them. They both picked the pumpkin as their favourite. The lemon was really good spread with blueberry jam.

I have a lot of buttermilk and pumpkin puree left, so I will probably whip up another batch this week. Yummy.