The Daring Bakers Make Milan Cookies
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.
The Daring Bakers have made all sorts of challenging desserts, some before my time and some since I joined two years ago. I’ll never forget my first, the Strawberry Mirror Cake, which challenged both my skills and patience; or last year’s Filbert Gateau, which tasted fabulous but took me 15 hours to make; or the Opera Cake and the weeks I spent planning and practicing for it. Yes, we have done our share of difficult challenges. This month the challenge was easier though no less enjoyable, and actually it couldn’t have come at a better time as I need a little breathing room until summer vacation time is over and the kids are back in school. Read more
Volcano Birthday Cake
For Top Gun’s fifth birthday, he requested a volcano birthday cake with dinosaurs. For some reason, he associates volcanoes with dinosaurs, so we obliged and made a chocolate volcano birthday cake with chocolate frosting and colored vanilla frosting with five toy dinosaurs—one for each year—strategically placed on top, making a sort of volcano diorama. He was so excited when he came home from school and found the cake sitting in the kitchen, though he felt we had not included enough dinosaurs in the diorama, so he ran upstairs and pulled another from his collection and plopped it down exactly where he thought it should go. Read more
The Daring Bakers Make Cheesecake: Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Cheesecake
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
The infamous cheesecake recipe comes from Jenny’s friend Abbey, and in this challenge we were given lots of room for creativity. We had to use the cheesecake recipe as is, though we could flavor it any way we wanted to. We also had freedom to choose the crust and anything else to go with it. I chose to make a variation on my mini chocolate pecan pies and spotted a recipe in one of my mother’s cookbooks that gave me the idea for how to put it together. Bourbon and pecans are a classic combination, so it seemed natural to flavor the cheesecake and the pecan topping with bourbon.
After being on hiatus for several months, I was glad to get back into the fun of the challenges and enjoyed it thoroughly, especially since cheesecake is my favorite dessert. We liked the combination of flavors, and the cheesecake was a hit with all my neighborhood friends. Read more
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Peanut Butter Bars with Chocolate Chips
I first made these oatmeal peanut butter bars about six years ago, and they were an instant hit at home and at parties and picnics. The rich flavor belies their simplicity—an oatmeal peanut butter cookie crust with chocolate chips sprinkled on top then drizzled with peanut butter glaze—and they always garner “ohs” and “ahs” when served to peanut butter and chocolate lovers. Because I’m trying to switch over to whole grains in all our baking, I’ve swapped out the all-purpose flour for whole wheat pastry flour, but you can use unbleached all-purpose flour if you cannot find whole wheat pastry flour in your area.
The dough is pretty sticky and will even cling to silicone spatulas, so I just wet my hands and press the dough into the pan with my fingers, and it doesn’t stick to me. Read more
Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream
“I would have never guessed,” Michael said after sampling the custard for the Guinness chocolate ice cream.
It wasn’t an ice cream flavor that immediately came to mind for me, either, but I wanted to make some easy and tasty treats for St. Patrick’s Day using Guinness, and the recipe jumped out at me from the pages of my favorite ice cream book, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.
The flavor is rich with a slight hint of yeast. I noticed the yeast aroma was strong when I opened the container with the unfrozen custard, but it wasn’t as noticeable after churning. After churning and freezing, the ice cream had a soft serve consistency, probably due to the alcohol which doesn’t freeze as quickly as water or dairy products. It was melting as fast as I could shoot with my camera.
David mentions a variation with oatmeal praline that would add a delicious crunch to the soft ice cream, and we would enjoy a scoop on top of Guinness Gingerbread.
More Ice Cream Recipes
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Guinness Gingerbread
I realize this is not a traditional St. Patrick’s Day recipe by any means, but it is a tasty way to use Guinness Stout, the king of Irish stouts, in your baking. Guinness and chocolate are a perfect pair, and they work especially well with the spicy ginger, pepper, and smoky cinnamon. The gingerbread only takes a few minutes to mix up, so it’s a quick and easy dessert to serve at a St. Patrick’s Day celebration or any time of year.
The gingerbread was a hit at our house and Michael even said it was the best gingerbread he’d ever tasted as he went back for seconds. The flavor and moistness kept us coming back for more.
