August Daring Bakers: Baked Alaska

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Yay! An excuse to make more ice cream!!! And an excuse to use a blow torch!!!

YES!!! This is as close as my boyfriend would get to me with the blow torch.

Actually we had the choice between Baked Alaska and Petit Fours (those tiny little fancy cakes that are drenched in chocolate.) But I don't do fancy well, and this was a chance to use open flame, so I went with the Baked Alaska. I'm not a huuuuge pound cake fan, to be honest, and I've never understood the hoopla for browned butter (I know, blasphemy.) But I was pretty blown away and was happy to have scraps to snack on the rest of the day. This cake is more coffee cakelike- it's sturdy, rich, nutty; a tiny bit drier than your average cake. Which makes it a perfect compliment to ice cream. And delicious marshmallowy meringue that gets toasted with the blow torch.

This was just before I dropped my camera/phone into the batter. Awesome.

I went with a peach ice cream from David Lebovitz (of course) that's made with sour cream. It's a more grown up ice cream- not overly sweet custard that would just turn this whole dessert into one pile of sugariness. It's also a little harder than your average ice cream (although that might be because I accidentally bough fat free sour cream.) The tanginess really gave it that extra umph to round out the dessert.

One lesson I learned the hard way- never use egg whites from a carton when making a meringue. I've never had trouble getting a meringue to come together before. I wanted to take a shortcut this time because I have so many egg yolks on standby that I didn't want to add any more. But after 30 minutes of mixing and waiting for the egg whites to fluff up, I broke down and just separated some eggs. That time it came together in minutes. At least I got a good arm workout, though, and now I have four more excuses to make more ice cream!
Here's the recipes. I halved the meringue recipe since I was just making a smaller dessert for 2 and just stored the leftover ice cream and cake (and by stored, I mean put back in the fridge, only to come back to an hour later. And then again two hours after that.) If you want to give the Petit Fours a try, go here!

Peach Ice Cream
The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

3 large peaches, peeled, pitted, chopped
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice

Cook peaches and water in a covered saucepan on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until soft. Give it a stir a few times. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Let mixture cool to room temperature. Purée mixture in blender with remaining ingredients (leave some chunks if desired). Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator or over an ice bath then freeze in your ice cream maker.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter
2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring) (See “Note” section for cake flour substitution)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan.

2. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes.

3. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract.

5. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined.

6. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.

7. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Meringue

8 large egg whites
½ teaspoon (3g) cream of tartar
½ teaspoon (3g) salt (I omitted this)
1 cup (220g) sugar

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt on high speed in an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Beat in the sugar gradually in a slow stream until stiff peaks form.

Assembly Instructions – Baked Alaska

1. Line four 4” (10cm) diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid.

2. Level the top of the brown butter pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler. Cut out four 4” (10cm) diameter circles from the cake. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.

3. Make the meringue (see above.)

4. Unwrap the ice cream “cups” and invert on top of a cake round. Trim any extra cake if necessary.

5. Pipe the meringue over the ice cream and cake, or smooth it over with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.

6. Burn the tips of the meringue with a cooking blow torch. Or, bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 500°F/260°C oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

Daring Cooks August: Pierogi

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

I never had a real pierogi until today, except for one that was frozen from a box. It might as well have been the box for all its cardboard flavor. I always wondered why people rave about them, except that they look so cute; kinda like pockets. So I was pretty excited to have a chance to do it right with this challenge.

Pierogi, for those who might not know, are kinda like a dumpling/ravioli hybrid. They're pieces of dough stuffed with a myriad of fillings (most traditional is potato and/or cheese, but anything from meat to fruit are used) which are boiled and then fried. (I can't believe I haven't tried these before.) I decided to keep this one pretty traditional by using a potato and cheese filling. And I went all out with the nationality of this dish and served it with kielbasa and sauerkraut.

Ok, so I'm not very good at making piergoi. My dough was a little on the sticky side, most of them apparently had holes that leaked all the filling out during boiling, and they in no way resembled the adorable pockets of carbohydrate I've seen in pictures. But they are good. Indulgent, tasty, carby goodness in a deformed lump. Topped with a little sour cream and some tangy salty kielbasa and sauerkraut, I'm still stuffed hours later. These are a true comfort food. I'd like to try them again with maybe some ground beef in the middle.

Potato and Cheese Pierogi

For the dough:
3c All Purpose Flour
1/2t salt
1/4c sour cream
1 egg
1c water

Combine flour, salt, sour cream, egg and water in a large bowl. Mix until dough comes together. If dough is dry, add more water 1T at a time, until it's moist and springy.

On a floured work surface, knead dough for 3-4 minutes until elastic. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.


For the Filling
1-1 1/2 lbs baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1in slices
2 T unsalted butter
1T olive oil
1 small sweet onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4t dried thyme
3/4c farmer's cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Put the potatoes in a medium pot and add enough salted water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.

While the potatoes cook, melt the butter and oil over medium heat in a large saute pan. Add the onion, garlic and thyme. cooking until the onion turns translucent. Lower the heat and continue cooking until onions caramelize slightly. Season with salt and pepper to taste and set aside to cool.

When the potatoes are soft, drain in a colander. Return them to the pot, remove from heat and add the cooled onion mixture and the cheese. Mash them just until blended and large lumps are gone. Season again with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside to cool while you roll out the pierogi dough.

Assemble-
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil over high heat. With lightly floured hands, pinch off tablespoon sized portions of the dough and roll them into balls.

On a well floured surface, gently roll each ball with a rolling pin until about 1/8in thick. Cover the finished rounds with a damp towel so they don't dry out.

Once your rounds are rolled out, hold each in the palm of your hand, filling the center of it with a generous tablespoon of the potato mixture. Gently fold the round in half, pulling the edges away and pinching them firmly shut to enclose the filling. Be sure the edges are sealed by working from one end to the other.

As you work, set your filled pierogi aside on a floured surface and cover them with plastic wrap.

Working in batches, drop no more than 6 pierogi at a time into the boiling water. After they float back to the surface, allow them to cook another 2-4 minutes. Remove the pierogi with a slotted spoon and place on a towel to drain and cool.

Just before serving, heat a tablespoon of butter in a pan over medium heat and briefly saute them in batches until they are slightly crispy and brown on the exterior.