The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. Here is the recipe if you would like it.

Here is the full photo set.

Now Tiramisu is not new to me, I make it several times a year since it’s Justin’s favorite dessert. However I had not tried that particular version of it, nor had I ever made my own marscapone so that was interesting to me. I usually use Kahlua in mine for flavor but this called for Marsala. So I decided to go with the Marsala and also to make a hazelnut flavored one since that is another of Justin’s favorite add-ons to coffee and chocolate. I had actually meant to start earlier in the week but my stupid overpriced dishwasher decided to break itself so I was dealing with that (it’s still not fixed).  Anyway Friday I started with the marscpone.  It was an easy process and reminded me quite a bit of making ricotta except for the change in fat levels of the dairy and acid.  From milk to cream and from vinegar to lemon juice.

So anyway it went for a long night of rest in the fridge but I stupidly forgot to take a picture after its naptime.

Another element to Tiramisu are lady fingers. I’ve made them before but as my piping skills weren’t quite up to the task since then I’ve done the insides in cake pans and just bought some for the outside. After the last one I made I decided in the future I was going to make enough filling to use it essentially as a frosting since the store bought ones are not nearly as good. This recipe did differ in the order egg whites to yolk folding but I think it yields an easier batter to work with so I will be using it in the future. I also chose to make smaller rounded shapes since I thought it would be easier to use them in parfaits with the leftovers.  Also in the last photo you can really see a difference in the ones I baked first and the ones I baked last.

The recipe called for adding a vanilla pastry cream and a zabaglione. Since I was doing two different flavors I had to make two different zabagliones.  All three recipes called for lemon zest so I dutifully microplaned some. Maybe I’m overly sensitive to the flavor but I couldn’t taste anything but lemon. It’s more than possible I added too much since I was unsure exactly how packed it was supposed to be.  I decided to use it as an accent when plating rather than adding it to the marscapone.  To be all food snobby I was hoping for a pleasing brightness but I ended up with oh my god it’s lemonaid.

So for the filling I portioned out my marscapone since I had just made double of everything and I whipped my cream. I ended up frankensteining the method I normally use and this recipe. Normally I mix everything into the marscapone and add my cream and whip it all together. I add the sugar last since I like to adjust the sweetness down a bit. This time I whipped the cream with the sugar and the vanilla.  It actually made for a lighter and less grainy texture. I also used the whisk attachment to my hand blender rather than the stand mixer. I thought it made for finer control and I will continue to do that in the future.

Whipped Cream

Putting it all together couldn’t have been easier. I made the two different dipping syrups by using instant espresso powder, warm water, some sugar and the liquor. I did add more liquor since I liked it to be a tad bit more strongly flavored. So I lined some of my mini bread pans with plastic and did my layers. The only difference between them was I had ground up some hazelnuts to add to the cocoa powder layer. With the leftovers I made some parfaits. I actually still have quite a few ladyfingers and syrup and marscapone in the freezer. I’ll probably make a casserole of it for Justin to take to work. Now the one thing I do not have is a beautifully plated finished dessert to show you since we’re having it for dinner tonight.

Tiramisu

The 2010 February Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid. If you would like the recipes you can find them here.

I’m just warning you this will be a picture heavy post….(here is the full set from the feast since there is no way I’ll use all of them)

So I was really excited by this challenge. I love hummus and pita and I had been meaning to get around to making hummus from scratch.  Making the pita just gave me a +1 to my cooking skill.  So those were the two required elements and then whatever you wanted to add to the feast was up to you. I did this last Sunday so I could have help with the baby minding while I cooked. Sometimes Elke doesn’t quite get that something needs to be done right then.  One day though she’ll love the fact that I cook, I hope. Although I can see her deciding to never cook because she resented the cooking I did or something. Anyway I ended up making:

The Feast

Pita

This came out amazingly good. I think I let it rise too long because it wasn’t exactly pita-like in its consistency. However they were quite tasty and I’ll never buy pita again. The only changes I made were that I baked them on foil since I wanted to be able to quickly change them out and I hate baking things directly on my pizza stone. Also I was out of parchment paper. This exercise also highlighted the fact that I really do need more practice in my rolling out skills since they ended up rather amoeba shaped.

Pita Dough ready to rise

Pita waiting to be baked

Hummus & Dill Hummus

Now when I say I did this from scratch, I mean from scratch. No canned beans here. However I’ll probably try canned beans next time to see if there is any appreciable difference other than bragging rights. I soaked the beans for about twenty-four hours, before I started to cook them.  I had never actually cooked beans before so I was a bit amazed at how long they took. Also I’ve got to say what a horrid smell. So once they were cooked I processed them with the other ingredients. I thought it ended up slightly stiff  and my garlic was a bit strong but in the end it beat the pants off any bought hummus I’ve had. I also did a batch of dill since that and roasted red pepper are my favorite of the flavored varieties that I’ve bought. Assuming the canned version is as good I’d totally make this again. I am not sure I will make it that frequently if I have to cook the beans myself.

Soaking Beans

Hummus

Dill Hummus

Roasted Garlic

I wrapped it all up in foil and roasted it for quite a long time. The problem was this was unusually strong garlic so I didn’t quite get that garlic candy I was hoping for.

Oh so strong roasted garlic

Yogurt Dill Dip

I made this up as I went frankensteining a couple of different recipes. I used plain full fat yogurt, cumin, fresh parsley, dill, some garlic and lemon juice.I was finishing up though I realized it was ‘off’ in some way so I looked up a few more. One of them on Allrecipes.com (which I remembered using before) suggested adding mayo. Once I added a decent sized glop of it, the dip/sauce was perfect. I’m sorry I can’t be more precise since I’m sort of an improvisational cook most of the time.

Yogurt/Dill Dipping Sauce

Falafel

Right so I was especially happy to try this from scratch. I love falafel. The mix though is usually a bit well dry and not quite as good as I’ve had in restaurants. I should have been more vigiliant though when I measured the cilantro because it really tasted like soap. It was fine once you dipped it in the yogurt sauce but ugh. However the texture was fantastic and Justin already wants me to make them again. Since I tasted them before I fried them I knew they were off so fortunately I had a package of the mix in the pantry. It was funny because even though those didn’t taste too cilantro-y hands down we reached for the from scratch ones.

Falafel Pre Chop

You can sort of see which is which in this picture

Grilled Chicken

My last dish was some grilled chicken because Justin just won’t eat a meal without meat of some kind. I did a variation of the marinade I use for chicken tikka masala but with more of a middle eastern slant. It’s yogurt with various spices, some lemon, ginger and garlic. Then I grilled them off. They were fantastic just a bit hot with lots of flavor. We loved them.

Chicken swimming in its yogurt spice bath

Tasty Grill marks

Final Thoughts

Enjoyable and tasty! Will definitely make again. Particularly next time I have people over.