The July Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

Now, given we are a household of two and we don’t have family living nearby, I didn’t want to make two sets of cookies. Especially since the two recipes claimed that they would make about 5 dozen cookies all told.  I figured that 5 dozen was a little much for us to finish off, even if I did have Rich take some of the cookies in to work with him.

Hah! Little did I know that the recipe I did choose, the Marshmallow one, would make so many cookies. Way, WAY more than the recipe said.

Of course, as usual I couldn’t just make the recipe exactly as written. Marshmallow is typically made with gelatin, which I prefer to avoid as it is derived from animal skin and bones. Yuck. This vegetarian isn’t really interested in eating that, so I had to find a different solution.

On the Alternative Bakers forum, a fellow baker named ‘tastyTrifles‘ pointed us all at a recipe from a really cool book called Texture: a hydrocolloid recipe collection. That recipe replaced the gelatin with xanthan gum. While it still contained egg whites and therefore wasn’t vegan, it was certainly an option the vegetarians in our group could use.  So I picked up some xanthan from a local store and set about making my cookies.

The bottom of the cookies was pretty easy to make, just a simple dough with a bit of cinnamon flavour. I followed the instructions as written, using a shotglass to cut 1.5 inch rounds of dough.  The recipe was supposed to yield about 2 dozen cookies, but after I’d cut 2 dozen rounds, I was left with more than half the dough. Hmm. Well, I kept cutting rounds until I got to 3.5 dozen, then I got annoyed and started cutting larger shapes (like, umm, mooses and crabs), thinking we could have those to snack on while I finished the rest of the cookie components. Baking up the cookies was simple and they came out of the oven nice and golden brown.

Making the marshmallow was actually not too bad, but as I don’t have a candy thermometer, I had to really watch things to make sure I didn’t take the sugar mixture well into the ‘hardball‘ stage. I also learned something very important, something I should have remembered from making caramel back in November – always use a pot with nice high sides when making candy.  My caramel started to boil over at one point, so I had to remove it from the heat, dump it into a much larger pan (while wearing silicone oven mits to avoid burns!), and take 15 minutes to clean up my stove. Ooops. But in the end I did manage to get my sugar mixture to the proper stage and get it all mixed in with the egg whites.  Then I added the xanthan and, well, hoped. It was a tense few minutes, but soon I had a nice mixture that resembled marshmallow fluff!  Success!

Being without a decent pastry bag, I just scooped my marshmallow mixture onto the cookies with a spoon. Then I left them in the fridge to harden overnight, and covered them in semisweet chocolate the next day. One issue I did have with this marshmallow is that it doesn’t stay very solid at room temperature; you really need to keep these cookies in the fridge if they’re going to hold their shape. Which actually makes them tastier, especially on a hot summer day. The other issue I had with the final product is that the original recipe makes way too many cookie bottoms but not nearly enough chocolate glaze. So if you want to make these yourself, make double the amount of glaze.

As always this was a fun challenge! If you’d like to see what the other Daring Bakers did with this recipe, just head on over to the blog roll.

The June Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart… er… pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800′s in England.

Wait, what? Is it a tart or a pudding? Well, here’s the thing: Traditionally in the UK, ‘pudding’ just means dessert. You know that line from the good ol’ Pink Floyd song Another Brick in the Wall: “If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat?” I do believe they meant dessert, not what we North Americans think of as pudding. Although maybe they meant a Bakewell Tart. Hmm, someone get Pink Floyd on the phone and ask them?

Ahem, right, where was I? So the challenge was to bake a shortcrust pastry and top it with some jam or preserves and some frangipane. The shortcrust and frangipane needed to be from the recipes provided, the jam could be anything we wanted. I decided to make some simple ‘no cook’ sour cherry jam, using the recipe that came with my box of Certo.

To be completely honest, making the jam was the most difficult part of this experience. The jam involved pitting (by hand! I only found a cherry pitter at my local kitchen supply place a week later….) and chopping all those cherries and then getting the quantities just right to make real jam. But the pastry was delicious and not difficult to whip up, and the frangipane was pretty simple as well. I think as long as you don’t have a fear of pie crust/shortbread dough, you can totally do this recipe.

Rich and I enjoyed the tart but I’m not sure I’d make it again. We like almond well enough, but we don’t love it. That said, it was pretty addictive while we had it in the house. I kept sneaking little pieces here and there, since little slivers don’t have any calories, right?

If you’d like to make this yourself, pop by Jasmine’s blog for the recipe. And I encourage you to take a look at some of the other versions of this tart by visiting some of the Daring Baker’s blogs!

Mmm, cheesequake.

It’s Daring Bakers time again!

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I took one look at the challenge and knew I’d have to join the ranks of the alternative bakers this month. Some months I’m able to go with the recipe as written, but Rich can’t eat cheesecake (he can’t do that much lactose) and I can’t eat an entire cheesecake on my own. So my challenge was to find a suitable vegan substitute.

Fortunately, the Daring Bakers alternative forum is a great place to get ideas, and one baker suggested using Susan from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen’s Eggnog Cheesecake recipe as the base, modifying as needed.  Having had great success with Susan’s recipes in the past, I went with it, plus a graham cracker crust based on the original recipe Jenny had provided. My cheesecake was flavoured with frangelico instead of eggnog and rum, and topped with hazelnuts and dark chocolate.

Rich and I loved the cheesecake, and ate the entire thing over the long weekend in April. Ooops. At least it took us three days to polish it off instead of one? Funny enough, neither of us are big cheesecake fans, but we really did like this. I think I’d make it again, although next time in a smaller quantity, or maybe to take to a party or something.

One big tip before I give you the recipe: it’s way better if you leave it in the fridge at least a day after baking. That allows the flavours to develop and the yummy frangelico really comes out.

Vegan Hazelnut Cheesecake

heavily based on this recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. Thank you Susan!

Cheesecake filling:
1 12.3-ounce package extra firm light silken tofu
1 8-ounce package non-hydrogenated vegan cream cheese (I used Yoso plain cream cheese)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
1/4 cup frangelico
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup vegan butter substitute
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Mix together the crust ingredients and then spread into a pie plate. Bake for 8-10 minutes or just until very lightly browned. Set aside to cool.

Drain the tofu and put it and the soy cream cheese into a food processor (or a tall bowl if you want to use a stick blender to blend it). Blend until smooth. Add the sugar and soy milk and blend again until the sugar is dissolved, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and blend again, about 3 more minutes or until smooth. Pour into the crust and bake for 55 minutes. When done, the cheesecake should not be browned and should be just slightly jiggly in the middle – it will firm up completely once you refrigerate it.

Remove from oven and allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least a few hours, preferably a day to let the flavours meld.

Decorate with melted dark chocolate and sliced hazelnuts (optional, but tasty!).

For more cheesecake goodness, check out the Daring Baker’s Blogroll!

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the cheesequake: Cat & Girl is one of my favourite comics.

Yeah, I was as surprised as you probably are when I read what we’d be making this month.

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

This month also marked the launch of the new Daring Kitchen website, and also saw the launch of a sister group, the Daring Cooks. Quite a lot for a single month! Even though they told us all it wasn’t intentional, it seemed fitting to have this month’s Daring Bakers recipe be something that crossed that line between baking and cooking.

I’d been meaning to try making my own pasta for a few years now. In fact, my father-in-law and step-mother-in-law got us a pasta machine for Christmas, one that their friend who makes pasta all the time uses. I hadn’t yet had a chance to break it in, so this challenged seemed like as good a time as any.

I wish I could say that my first time making pasta was easy, but to be honest, it really wasn’t. The recipe just seemed to be wrong somehow. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get all the flour and chopped up spinach to combine nicely into the eggs. The recipe mentioned that we shouldn’t be worried if ‘it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump’. Uhh, yeah. Mine looked more like floury green sludge than pasta. I decided to add another egg, and then a bit of water and hoped for the best. Luckily the pasta did come together, and after letting it rest, I set about rolling it out with my pasta maker.

Well, that didn’t go so great either. The bits of spinach kept getting stuck in the rollers and the dough kept tearing, even though I followed the directions carefully and ran everything through at the largest thickness first, slowly working my way down to thinner and thinner noodles. But oh well, I figured, I’ll just let them dry and cook them and then see how that goes.

Well, after they were cooked they didn’t look a whole lot better. In fact, I’d even say they looked worse. But I decided to hell with it, I was going to make this lasagne, and if it takes like crap, oh well, at least I tried, right? So I layered on my Bechamel, noodles, grana padano and a vegetarian ragu I’d made earlier in the day. I topped the whole thing off with some mozzarella and tossed it in the oven, hoping that if the noodles were gross, at least we’d be able to eat the cheese, bechamel and ragu.

And then we tasted it. And it was good.

Two lessons here: First, that pasta recipe was just not quite right, since I’m one of many Daring Bakers who couldn’t get their pasta to form with the ingredients as written! And second, I fortunately do still know how to make something tasty out of something that could have been a disaster.

Since the pasta recipe really didn’t work that well, I won’t post it here, but please do check out the hosts’ blogs for the recipe if you’re so inclined. My bechamel was from The Silver Spoon, and my ragu I just made up as I went along. Usually I’m good about writing down exactly what I used, but it was a long day in the kitchen, so to be honest I forgot! But the ingredients included tempeh, a can of whole tomatoes (no sodium added), cremini mushrooms, an onion, three cloves of garlic, balsamic vinegar, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.

The new Daring Bakers blogroll isn’t quite ready to go yet, so I’ll link you to the old version, which is mostly up to date. Check out what other folks did with their lasagne!

For February, Daring Bakers hosts were Wendy at wmpesblog and Dharm at Dad – Baker and Chef. In keeping with the theme of Valentine’s day, this month’s challenge was to make a Chocolate Valentino, and pair it with some sort of ice cream of our choosing.

What’s a valentino, you might ask? Well, it’s a lovely flourless chocolate cake. The recipe consists of eggs, chocolate and butter, and that’s it. No flour, no sugar, no other flavouring. The end result is a dense, moist cake that tastes exactly like the chocolate you make it with, so it is important to choose one that you like. In my case, I chose Green & Black’s baking chocolate, which is organic and has 72% cocoa content. I wanted dark chocolate but nothing too bitter, so I figured that bar might do the trick.

The recipe itself is pretty easy to follow: melt your chocolate and butter together, separate the eggs, whip the whites, beat the yolks, then combine and bake in a buttered pan. In my case, I made only 1/3 of the recipe, which yielded 2 nice ramekin-sized servings.

As for my ice cream, I made a vegan coffee-flavoured version with soymilk. As I’ve mentioned before, Rich can’t eat regular ice cream, so making milk-free versions is best. The end result tasted like a soy latte. Next time I think I’d put more coffee into the batter, to give it a stronger flavour.

As always, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll for more versions of this month’s challenge! The flourless chocolate cake recipe and my soy latte ice cream recipe are both posted below.

Chocolate Valentino – From Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

These amounts make the full recipe (with a 7″ or 8″ square, round, or heart-shaped pan).  As mentioned, I found making 1/3 of the recipe yielded 2 ramekins worth.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Soy Latte ‘Ice Cream’ – Original recipe from Vegan Ice Cream Paradise, modified by me.

2 cups soy creamer (or any non-dairy milk)
1½ cups soy milk (or any non-dairy milk)
½ cup strong brewed coffee
¾ cup sugar
2 Tablespoons arrowroot
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix ¼ cup of soy milk with the 2 tablespoons of arrowroot and set aside.

Mix the soy creamer, soy milk, coffee and sugar together in a saucepan. When the mixture has just started to boil, take off the heat and stir in the arrowroot slurry. This should immediately cause the liquid to thicken (not a lot, but a noticeable amount; it will be thicker when it cools).

Stir in vanilla extract.

Put mixture into your refrigerator to cool, then freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.
The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

No, I’m not joking.

Fortunately for me, I wasn’t in the stage where the tooth is in such pain that you can’t function. We caught this pretty early, and while I had a few days where chewing was difficult, waiting for the root canal, and the root canal itself, wasn’t too bad.

However, running to and from dentists appointments and keeping things running at my business meant I didn’t have a lot of time for kitchen experiments. Fortunately for me, this month’s challenge was something easy to put together in a single afternoon – French Tuiles. We were asked to pair them with something light, and that immediately had me craving light, lemony desserts. I took one look at the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker attachment I got as a Christmas Gift and knew what I had to do. Sure, citrus sorbet might be better matched to July’s hot weather, but I can pretend, can’t I? Besides, the coldness of the sorbet was good for my poor gums and sore tooth.

This month’s challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

The inspiration for my sorbet came from Elise at Simply Recipes. Her recipe for Meyer Lemon Sorbet sounded so lovely that I had to give it a shot. Unfortunately, we don’t have Meyer lemons up here in the great white north, so I had to modify the recipe a bit to suit. I added in some orange juice and zest to cut the tartness of the regular lemons I used. Even then, it was pretty intense, if still delicious. I agree with her recommendation to only eat this in small amounts.

Tuiles (from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink)

Instructions are for butterflies, but that’s just an example. You can do whatever shape you like!

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice (optional)
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet (or use a silpat)

Oven: 180C / 350F

Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with your silpat or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the baking sheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. If decorating with colors/cocoa, mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from baking sheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped while still warm! You can use a rolling pin, broom handle, wooden spoon, cup (etc!) to bend them into your desired shape.

Citrus Sorbet (modified lightly from a recipe by Elise of Simply Recipes)

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 1 small orange)
2 teaspoons fine lemon zest
1 teaspoon fine orange zest

In a small saucepan on medium high heat, make a simple syrup by heating sugar and water until the sugar has completely dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Mix in the citrus juices and zest. Chill, either in the refrigerator, or by placing in a metal bowl over an ice bath.

Once the mixture has thoroughly chilled, you may wish to strain the mixture to remove the bits of citrus zest and any pulp that has landed in your batter. I like having the zest in the final product, but some people don’t.  Either way, at this point you want to freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can pour the mixture into a shallow pan and freeze in your freezer until semi-solid. Then take a fork and fluff it up, returning it the the freezer to freeze firm. Then put in a food-processor or blender to process until smooth.

Place sorbet in an airtight container and freeze until ready to serve.

Don’t forget to pop over to the Daring Bakers Blogroll to see what others have done!

This month’s challenge was a French Yule Log. If you’d like to check out what other members have done with the recipe, just head over to the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

As for what’s going on in my kitchen, I’ve got lots of stuff coming. Here’s a sneak peak: Christmas Dinner 2008

Sounds tasty, right? The recipe involved a great deal of butter, sugar, and making your own caramel syrup to be used as part of the cake.

Since Rich’s birthday is November 9th, I decided that this cake would make a good birthday cake. After all, how hard can making your own caramel be?

Yeah, actually the process of making your own caramel isn’t too bad, if you aren’t picky about the color or the depth of flavour, and as long as you are careful not to get any of it on you while it is cooking. I was fine on the safety part, but not so fine on the color part. Mine was a bit too light, and hardened way too easily. Guess I need much more practice making caramel, huh? Next time I’ll closely follow David Lebovitz’s tips for caramel making.

The cake itself, however, turned out quite lovely. As you can see from the picture, I baked it in an angel food cake pan, which resulted in what appeared to be a giant donut once iced with the delicious browned butter and salted caramel icing and dusted with cinnamon sugar. I think this made it an even better birthday cake myself.  Rich’s reaction was essentially ‘You made me a giant donut? Awesome!’.

Knowing the cake would be pretty sweet, I decided to serve it with an apple compote spiced with cardamom and nutmeg. It was pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.  The compote was also good on waffles the next day for breakfast.

The recipes for the cake, caramel sauce, and icing are all available directly from Shuna on the Bay Area Bites blog. The recipe for the apple compote I will post below.

Apple Cardamom Compote

Ingredients

* 2 cups water
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 tablespoon good rum
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
* Pinch salt
* 8 large apples, peeled, cored, and cubed

Directions

In a large saucepan, combine the water, sugar, vanilla, rum, spices and salt and bring to a boil. Boil gently until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the apples and return to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the apples are very tender and the mixture thickens, about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature before serving.

Thanks to this month’s hosts: Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity, Alex, aka Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo, and Jenny of Foray into Food. Awesome choice, guys!

If you’d like to see more versions of the cake, simply go to the Daring Bakers Blogroll!

This month’s Daring Baker’s challenge was something everyone loves – pizza!

What’s that you say? Pizza’s really easy? Well, I can’t really argue with that. But it was chosen for two reasons:

- A beloved former Daring Baker named Sher passed away a few months ago. She was supposed to be one of the hosts for this month’s challenge, and had suggested pizza as the theme. Rosa from Rosa’s Yummy Yums was our lone host this month, and decided to go with Sher’s request for pizza.

AND

- Pizza dough might be easy, but tossing pizza dough? Now that’s a challenge.

Ok, so clearly I’m not going to be as good as that guy, but I don’t think I did too badly!

And how was the recipe? Great! This makes a delicious thin crust pizza. I had some fun with alliteration with mine: Pear, Pesto and Provolone Pizza! Well, ok, I did also toss on some chopped shallots, but those don’t start with p.

For those of you who don’t have a large family (or a bunch of hungry friends) to feed, you can easily half this recipe. I did and got two slightly larger crusts. I froze one crust to use in a few weeks, and am looking forward to trying my hand at tossing dough again!

For more pizzas, just check out the Daring Baker’s Blogroll!

Basic Pizza Dough
Original recipe taken from “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” by Peter Reinhart.

Makes 6 pizza crusts (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Cups (20 1/4 ounces/607.5 g) Unbleached high-gluten (%14) bread flour or all purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Instant yeast
1/4 Cup (2 ounces/60g) Olive oil or vegetable oil (both optional, but it’s better with)
1 3/4 Cups (14 ounces/420g or 420ml) Water, ice cold (40° F/4.5° C)
1 Tb sugar
Semolina/durum flour or cornmeal for dusting

DAY ONE

Method:

1. Mix together the flour, salt and instant yeast in a big bowl (or in the bowl of your stand mixer).

2. Add the oil, sugar and cold water and mix well (with the help of a large wooden spoon or with the paddle attachment, on low speed) in order to form a sticky ball of dough. On a clean surface, knead for about 5-7 minutes, until the dough is smooth and the ingredients are homogeneously distributed. If it is too wet, add a little flour (not too much, though) and if it is too dry add 1 or 2 teaspoons extra water.
NOTE: If you are using an electric mixer, switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for the same amount of time.The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but stick to the bottom of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, sprinkle in a little more flour, so that it clears the sides. If, on the contrary, it clears the bottom of the bowl, dribble in a teaspoon or two of cold water.
The finished dough should be springy, elastic, and sticky, not just tacky, and register 50°-55° F/10°-13° C.

3. Flour a work surface or counter. Line a jelly pan with baking paper/parchment. Lightly oil the paper.

4. With the help of a metal or plastic dough scraper, cut the dough into 6 equal pieces (or larger if you want to make larger pizzas).
NOTE: To avoid the dough from sticking to the scraper, dip the scraper into water between cuts.

5. Sprinkle some flour over the dough. Make sure your hands are dry and then flour them. Gently round each piece into a ball.
NOTE: If the dough sticks to your hands, then dip your hands into the flour again.

6. Transfer the dough balls to the lined jelly pan and mist them generously with spray oil. Slip the pan into plastic bag or enclose in plastic food wrap.

7. Put the pan into the refrigerator and let the dough rest overnight or for up to thee days.
NOTE: You can store the dough balls in a zippered freezer bag if you want to save some of the dough for any future baking. In that case, pour some oil (a few tablespoons only) in a medium bowl and dip each dough ball into the oil, so that it is completely covered in oil. Then put each ball into a separate bag. Store the bags in the freezer for no longer than 3 months. The day before you plan to make pizza, remember to transfer the dough balls from the freezer to the refrigerator.

DAY TWO

8. On the day you plan to eat pizza, exactly 2 hours before you make it, remove the desired number of dough balls from the refrigerator. Dust the counter with flour and spray lightly with oil. Place the dough balls on a floured surface and sprinkle them with flour. Dust your hands with flour and delicately press the dough into disks about 1/2 inch/1.3 cm thick and 5 inches/12.7 cm in diameter. Sprinkle with flour and mist with oil. Loosely cover the dough rounds with plastic wrap and then allow to rest for 2 hours.

9. At least 45 minutes before making the pizza, place a baking stone on the lower third of the oven. Preheat the oven as hot as possible (500° F/260° C).
NOTE: If you do not have a baking stone, then use the back of a jelly pan. Do not preheat the pan.

10. Generously sprinkle the back of a jelly pan with semolina/durum flour or cornmeal. Flour your hands (palms, backs and knuckles). Take 1 piece of dough by lifting it with a pastry scraper. Lay the dough across your fists in a very delicate way and carefully stretch it by bouncing it in a circular motion on your hands, and by giving it a little stretch with each bounce. Once the dough has expanded outward, move to a full toss.

NOTE: Make only one pizza at a time.

During the tossing process, if the dough tends to stick to your hands, lay it down on the floured counter and re-flour your hands, then continue the tossing and shaping.

In case you would be having trouble tossing the dough or if the dough never wants to expand and always springs back, let it rest for approximately 5-20 minutes in order for the gluten to relax fully,then try again. You can also resort to using a rolling pin, although it isn’t as effective as the toss method.

11. When the dough has the shape you want (about 9-12 inches/23-30 cm in diameter – for a 6 ounces/180g piece of dough), place it on the back of the jelly pan, making sure there is enough semolina/durum flour or cornmeal to allow it to slide and not stick to the pan.

12. Lightly top it with sweet or savory toppings of your choice.
NOTE: Remember that the best pizzas are topped not too generously. No more than 3 or 4 toppings (including sauce and cheese) are sufficient.

13. Slide the garnished pizza onto the stone in the oven or bake directly on the jelly pan. Close the door and bake for abour 5-8 minutes.

NOTE: After 2 minutes baking, take a peek. For an even baking, rotate 180°.
If the top gets done before the bottom, you will need to move the stone or jelly pane to a lower shelf before the next round. On the contrary, if the bottom crisps before the cheese caramelizes, then you will need to raise the stone or jelly.

14. Take the pizza out of the oven and transfer it to a cutting board or your plate. In order to allow the cheese to set a little, wait 3-5 minutes before slicing or serving.

This month the Daring Bakers decided to go Vegan and/or Gluten-Free.  There are a number of members who are vegan or have to follow a gluten-free diet, who usually have to figure out a way to substitute 5 eggs or 4 cups of bread flour and yet come out with the same product on the other side.  Since this month’s challenge was hosted by two of those “Alternative” Daring Bakers (Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and Shel of Musings From the Fishbowl), it seemed only fitting that our recipe be vegan and/or gluten-free.  So what did they choose?  Crackers!  Lavash crackers, to be precise.

In order to allow for plenty of creativity, they allowed us to choose whatever shapes of crackers we wanted and the toppings and flavours we used.  They also asked us to make some sort of dip or spread to serve with the crackers, with the only limitation that it be both vegan and gluten-free.

For my part, I made crackers with fresh rosemary.  I cut them into silly shapes with my cookie cutters; as you can see from the photos, I made some crabs, dogs, moose, stars and hearts.  I also made some plain rectangles to use up the second half of the dough.  Some of the crackers were topped with fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt, while the rest were just plain.

The crackers are really delicious and I’d happily made the recipe again!  They were quick to whip up and easy to personalize.  My only complaint is that I had a really hard time getting the dough thin enough; most of mine came out a bit more bready and less crunchy than I would like from a cracker.  A tip I read on the Daring Bakers forum is to run the dough through a pasta roller before cutting your shapes.  I think if I had a pasta roller I’d do that for future batches.

The dip I made to go with them was a sundried tomato hummus, which I’ll post a recipe for below.

For more takes on Lavash, check out the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll!

Recipe for Lavash Crackers from:  The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering The Art of Extraordinary Bread, by Peter Reinhart. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA.  Copyright 2001.

Here’s a simple formula for making snappy Armenian-style crackers, perfect for breadbaskets, company and kids…It is similar to the many other Middle Eastern and Northern African flatbreads known by different names, such as mankoush or mannaeesh (Lebanese), barbari (Iranian), khoubiz or khobz (Arabian), aiysh (Egyptian), kesret and mella (Tunisian), pide or pita (Turkish), and pideh (Armenian).  The main difference between these breads is either how thick or thin the dough is rolled out, or the type of oven in which they are baked (or on which they are baked, as many of these breads are cooked on stones or red-hot pans with a convex surface)…

The key to a crisp lavash…is to roll out the dough paper-thin.  The sheet can be cut into crackers in advance or snapped into shards after baking.  The shards make a nice presentation when arranged in baskets.

Makes 1 sheet pan of crackers

* 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz) unbleached bread flour (or whole wheat flour)
* 1/2 tsp (.13 oz) salt
* 1/2 tsp (.055 oz) instant yeast
* 1 Tb (.75 oz) agave syrup or sugar
* 1 Tb (.5 oz) vegetable oil
* 1/3 to 1/2 cup + 2 Tb (3 to 4 oz) water, at room temperature
* Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, or kosher salt for toppings.

1.  In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, salt yeast, agave, oil, and just enough water to bring everything together into a ball.  You may not need the full 1/2 cup + 2 Tb of water, but be prepared to use it all if needed.

2. Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter.  Knead for about 10 minutes, or until the ingredients are evenly distributed.  The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 77 degrees to 81 degrees Fahrenheit. The dough should be firmer than French bread dough, but not quite as firm as bagel dough (what I call medium-firm dough), satiny to the touch, not tacky, and supple enough to stretch when pulled.  Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size. (You can also retard the dough overnight in the refrigerator immediately after kneading or mixing).

4.  Mist the counter lightly with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter.  Press the dough into a square with your hand and dust the top of the dough lightly with flour.  Roll it out with a rolling pin into a paper thin sheet about 15 inches by 12 inches.  You may have to stop from time to time so that the gluten can relax.  At these times, lift the dough from the counter and wave it a little, and then lay it back down.  Cover it with a towel or plastic wrap while it relaxes.  When it is the desired thinness, let the dough relax for 5 minutes.  Line a sheet pan with baking parchment.  Carefully lift the sheet of dough and lay it on the parchment.  If it overlaps the edge of the pan, snip off the excess with scissors.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit with the oven rack on the middle shelf.  Mist the top of the dough with water and sprinkle a covering of seeds or spices on the dough (such as alternating rows of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, paprika, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, kosher or pretzel salt, etc.)  Be careful with spices and salt – a little goes a long way. If you want to precut the cracker, use a pizza cutter (rolling blade) and cut diamonds or rectangles in the dough.  You do not need to separate the pieces, as they will snap apart after baking.  If you want to make shards, bake the sheet of dough without cutting it first. If you want to use cookie cutters, do it just as you would with cookie dough.

5.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).

6.  When the crackers are baked, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool in the pan for about 10 minutes.  You can then snap them apart (if needed) or snap off shards and serve.

Hummus

I sort of just threw this together without strictly measuring things, so consider these measurements approximate.

1 cup garbanzo beans
1 tablespoon tahini
5 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons oil (from the tomatoes, or use olive oil)
1 clove garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. If needed, add a little water to thin out the consistency. Makes about 1.5 cups.