I have never made crème brûlée before, so I thought this was going to be really difficult. It really, really wasn’t! Well, it *shouldn’t* have been really difficult, but again oven temps and timing are really throwing off my game. I plan on trying this again sometime. I’ll have to experiment with cooking the custard… Continue reading Crème Brûlée!
When I saw that this was the famous “Lion Bread” episode, I knew I was going to have to do something that was rather spectacular. Or at least a bit showy. Then the details: 3 types of bread (flavors), one of them stuffed, and 3D. Now, first I thought maybe it would be fun to… Continue reading A Bread Sculpture Fit For a King
Another opportunity missed on photos…but it was only marginally successful, so I guess you didn’t miss much. Using the Paul Hollywood no-fail recipe, I somehow…failed. Or at least had a number of frustrations in the process. I opened a brand-new jar of yeast, so I know that was not an issue. I used all purpose… Continue reading Les Baguettes, s’il vous plait!
Episode 3, Season 3…quick breads are the challenge! Any flavors or fillings, but it must be made on a flat pan–not in a tin. That kind of ruled out a few recipes that I found online, since they were mostly put into bread tins, like the cinnamon-sugar quick bread I found on divascancook.com…I might make… Continue reading Quick! Bread!
36 biscuits in a box made of biscuits…of course, this is cookies, not what Americans call “biscuits”, which are savory or only slightly sweet muffins, but not what Americans call “muffins”. English-to-English translation is so confusing. So essentially, we’re looking at shortbread or gingerbread box filled with macarons (not to be confused with macaroons, which… Continue reading Biscuits in a Biscuit Box
This next bake is something I’ve never heard of and is a weird inside-out puff pastry method, where you wrap the chilled butter around the dough…very odd. I seem to remember another baker had done this but for another challenge, and it didn’t turn out as well (or didn’t make a difference…) The list of… Continue reading Arlette Biscuits
I don’t know if it’ll actually be bliss, but I’m going for a little alliteration here. So I’m thinking about cranberry-white chocolate…maybe cranberry-orange and dipped or drizzled in white chocolate. Cruising around on the web, I found this recipe on Epicurious. Pretty easy to mix up–dry stuff, wet stuff, mix the stuff, add the dried… Continue reading Biscotti Bliss
I’ve skipped the walnut cake entirely. No one would eat it if I did make it. Not even me. Why bother? And I’ve made so many cakes lately, I just couldn’t. The final bake in episode 1, season 3 is a chocolate cherry cake. While I love a nice choco-cherry cake, no one else will… Continue reading Just One More Cake
The final Showstopper challenge for season 2: a Three-Tiered Wedding Cake. (Note: this was written in mid-November. I forgot to publish.) My first thought, of course, is “WTF? What am I going to do with a 3-tiered wedding cake?” I don’t have a special occasion coming up that I could serve that many people that… Continue reading Second Season Final-Final
Holidays are always better with treats! Let’s start with a chocolate peppermint cake! Whatever’s left over will go to the school tomorrow. I wanted to start with a really moist recipe, so I found this one here. The only thing I changed, of course, was to omit the coffee and add in double chai tea…but… Continue reading Chocolate Chai Peppermint Cake