Daring Bakers Challenge #10: Cinnamon and Sticky Buns

September 30, 2007 | Filed Under Daring Bakers, Other, Baking | 41 Comments 

 

10 a.m. Sunday morning  (Paz waiting for her Cinnamon Buns dough to ferment.)

Paz, Paz, Paz.  *shaking head*  You silly girl, you.   What made you think you could be a Daring Baker? Yes, you.  You’ve seen some of the goodies they’ve baked in the past, here, here and here.  Nervous at the invitation to join the you group, you remember that you’re on a cooking "adventure."  So you decided to go for it and accept the invitation and challenge.  After all, daring equals adventurous.  Adventurous equals daring, right? 

This month, Marce of Pip in the City chose the baking theme.  So now, you’re tackling your first Daring Bakers Challenge — making Cinnamon Buns.  Never mind that it takes one day to make and requires fermentation, shaping, and proofing.  Proofing?  What does it mean to proof buns? You have no idea.  Oh, my goodness.  What have you gotten yourself into?

Actually, you had a good start preparing the dough — until you almost forgot to add the milk.  Okay, okay… You forgot to add the milk, only remembering it at the last minute.  Is that why your dough is tacky and sticky (the way it is NOT supposed to be) as opposed to silky and supple (the correct way)?

The instructions say to "lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl…"  What exactly does that mean?  What kind of oil?  Or do you use butter (which is what you ended up doing).

Now you wait for the dough to ferment.  And while you wait, you ponder your baking adventure.  <sigh>

 

11a.m.

Just checked the dough and it seems to be rising.  That’s a good sign, isn’t it?  After the buns are formed the instructions say to "proof" the buns. "Proof at room temperature for 75 to 90 minues…"  What the heck does that mean?  Leave the buns out on the tray to double in size?  Huh?  What?

 

 1:10p.m.

Congratulations!  You’re able to form the buns.  That was acually cool to do — rolling out the dough, then sprinkling the cinnamon sugar over the dough, then cutting the dough into cinnamon-sugar spirals.  So cool!  Now you have to "proof" the buns. 

 

1:53p.m.

You are not sure if the buns are doubling in size (is that proofing?) but you wait.

Later in the p.m. 

You bake the buns.  They come out nice and golden brown.  They smell so good.  While you wait for them to cool, you make the fondant glaze.  Unfortunately, you discover that you don’t have enough powdered sugar, the important part of the glaze recipe.  You make the glaze with what you have.  It’s light but you drizzle it over the buns. 

Tastes pretty good.

You did it, Paz!  You silly girl, you!  You survived your first Daring Bakers challenge and you did good (even if your glaze didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to or you almost forgot to add the milk).  You did good. 

 

*Ed. Note:  Thanks, Mischief Mari for explaining what "Proofing the buns" means.  Now, I can go to my grave happy.  Really!

 

 

New York Monday #89: First Day of Fall

September 24, 2007 | Filed Under New York Monday | 10 Comments 

Sugar High Fridays #35: The Beautiful Fig

September 23, 2007 | Filed Under Sugar High Fridays, Food Blogging Events | 16 Comments 

Novel Food: Peaches in Red Wine

September 21, 2007 | Filed Under Novel Food, Food Blogging Events | 7 Comments 

 

Simona of Briciole and Lisa of Champaign Taste are hosting the food blog event, Novel Food.  That’s foods mentioned in a novel you’ve read.  I didn’t get a chance to make anything new, so I’m reposting an old post about the food mentioned in one of my favorite novels, The Food of Love by Anthony Capella.  Peaches in Red Wine.  I also made Tiramisú, Coda alla Vaccinara (Oxtail soup), and Saltimbocca, which you can read about here, here, and here if you haven’t read them before (and are interested in reading them).

This was first posted August 20, 2005.  In the story, the main character emails his girl friend suggestion  of Peaches and Red Wine for dessert.  It’s so simple to make that even the girlfriend, a non cook, can prepare it.  And apparently, so can I.

Paz

 

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After my success with the tiramisù, I decide to try another dessert recipe from The Food of Love – Peaches in Red Wine. Fresh peaches, red wine, and sugar are all that the recipe calls for.

It was very simple and the only change that I made with the recipe is that I used Dole bottled peaches instead of fresh peaches.

I liked that it’s a light and simple dessert, not to mention nice to look at before eating.

Peaches in Red Wine

Just pour boiling water over the peaches to help you skin them, then slice them into bowls, sprinkle them with sugar, and pour red wine over them. They’re ready to eat after about 1 hour in the fridge.

Now, how easy is that!? If I can make this anyone, can!

Paz

 

New York Monday #88: I Miss…

September 16, 2007 | Filed Under New York Monday | 13 Comments 

New York Monday #87: West African Wedding in NYC

September 10, 2007 | Filed Under New York Monday | 12 Comments 

Announcement: Novel Food Event

September 9, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements | 6 Comments 

 

Have you ever been curious about or tempted to replicate a food you’ve read about in a novel?  I have.  The very first recipe I recreated happened after reading The Food of Love by Anthony Capella.  I enjoyed that book so much and stunned myself when I found out that I could actually prepare the food mentioned in it. 

After discussing the foods mentioned in the Montalbano novels by  Andrea Camilleri (books I’ve been meaning to read), Simona of Briciole and Lisa of Champaign Taste have come up with the idea to  co-host a Novel Food event.

Here are the guidelines:

1. Prepare a dish of your choosing that has a connection to a novel.
2. Post it on your blog by midnight on September 21, 2007.
3. Send an e-mail to either Lisa (webrina AT gmail DOT com) or myself (simosite AT mac DOT com) and include your name, blog name and blog address, and a link to your post.

To read more about the event, go here.

Sounds like fun, Simona and Lisa!

Paz

Announcement: World Bread Day 2007

September 8, 2007 | Filed Under Announcements, World Bread Day | 5 Comments 

 

Hi Folks,

Last year, Zorro of Kochtopf hosted the very first World Bread Day event among food bloggers.  She’s doing it again.  This year, it’ll take place on October 16, 2007.  Below is  your invitation to participate.  Come join in the fun!

Paz

 

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Last year’s World Bread Day was such a great and successful event. Thanks to all the participants I could present a huge basket of bread filled with breads from 6 continents!

So I’m very happy to announce the second World Bread Day, which again takes place on October 16th.

The original World Bread Day - an event created by UIB International Union of Bakers and Bakers-Confectioners - wants to provide an opportunity to talk about bread and bakers, to find out about their history, their importance as well as their future.

Let’s bake and talk about bread on this day again! Everybody is cordially invited to participate.

The theme is open, just bake a bread with or without yeast, use sourdough, experiment with different flours, add some seeds… It’s up to you!

You never have baked a bread before? Well, give it try! It’s easy and once you have this smell of your own fresh bread in your kitchen, there is no way back. If you have no time to bake a bread, you can buy one at your favorite bakery and write about the bread and also the bakery.

No idea what kind of bread you should bake? You don’t need to reinvent the wheel bread! Inspiration you find e.g. here, here and here.

I’m looking forward to see a huge basket filled with breads from all over the world again!

How to participate:
Please read and follow carefully the instructions below. email and link back are mandatory, if one of them is missing your entry will not appear on the roundup. Thank you for your understanding.

• Bake or buy a bread, take pictures (if possible) and blog about it on Tuesday, 16th October 2006.

• Please link back to this announcement in your post, and eventually to the roundup.

• Send an email to worldbreadday(at)gmail(dot)com including


- your name
- your blog’s name and your blog’s URL
- the recipe name and the post’s URL
- your location (region and country)

• Submissions can only be accepted until Wednesday, October 17.

I try to post the roundup (incl. your pics) on the following weekend (October 20/21).

If you have any question or suggestion don’t hesitate to contact me.

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NOTE:  You can reach Zorra with questions or suggestions here:  WorldBreadDay [@] gmail [dot] com

 

New York Monday #86: Brazil Day 2007

September 3, 2007 | Filed Under New York Monday, Festivals | 14 Comments