January Daring Bakers Challenge: O Canada!

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca. 

I'm a day late, so I'm going to get right into it.  The first challenge was to make graham wafers/crackers from scratch.  I struggle with baking in general as I am largely more into the creative process and less into exact measurements.  That's why I do these challenges.  Needless to say, my graham crackers came out less than perfect, although this time I'm not 100% sure where I failed.

I prepared the dough with all-purpose flour (I skipped the gluten-free aspect of the challenge this time around) and exactly as the instructions indicated.  The first place I might have run up against an issue was that my 1-inch cubes of butter were not quite so precise.  They were a bit bigger and not super even.  I had a hard time mixing the dough due to the frozen blocks of butter sending things flying.

I set the dough to chill overnight and came back to it the next day.  Here's where I knew there was a problem.  The dough was pretty sticky as suggested, but not all that wet and was in fact crumbling under my rolling pin.   As such, I couldn't quite get it rolled out to the 1/8 inch thickness indicated in the recipe.

That said, my graham crackers came out as pretty tasty graham cookies that my husband gobbled up freely before I reminded him that there was more to come and I needed at least some crumbs leftover

The second part of the challenge was to turn our graham crumbs into Nanaimo Bars which apparently are a hit in Canada.  I'd heard of these creatures and they look decadent, so gladly took on the challenge.

I must say that this part of the challenge turned out remarkably better than the graham cracker portion.  I had two issues, neither of which stopped me from making a decent Nanaimo Bar.  The first was that I'm really trying to focus on getting healthy and eating "clean" and preparing the bars really brings home the amount of butter that I had to soften to room temperature.  The second issue was that when I hear 8x8x2 pan, I use this one specific pan that we have.  But it's really more like 8x9x3 roughly.  The ingredients probably fit perfectly in an 8x8x2 pan, but I had some problems with the pudding mixture, so it ended up more thin than some of the lovely pictures that I saw on others final posts.

Alas, these minor issues not withstanding, it all came together.  After I spread the cocoa, butter, sugar, coconut, hazelnut (I have a potential almond allergy that I don't like to push) and graham crumbs mixture in and topped that with pudding butter and melted chocolate, I came up with a cute little Nanaimo Bar.  They were tasty.  Very sweet.  Very un-"clean".  But a nice little indulgence  And I figure that the thin layers mean that maybe my version is not quite so bad after all!

November Daring Bakers Challenge: Cannoli!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

The challenge was extremely flexible this month, which I greatly appreciated, allowing for a variety of fillings, decorations, and even cooking methods.  The traditional shape for cannoli is the round tube filled with pastry cream.  Though the shape is inoffensive, I have never gotten into gobs of creamy filling in most pastries unless it is primarily chocolate.  Lisa suggested a variety of fillings including ricotta-based fillings which I like much better and she even created a pumpkin filling to make the cannoli timely and tasty.

But I am getting ahead of myself.  First, I had strong intentions of getting the cannoli tubes in the event that I suddenly loved these and would make them all the time.  Rather than do that, I decided to take up Lisa on her offer of Cannapoleons or stacked cannoli to test the waters, and cannoli tubes may be in my future.  Not to mention, I've got loads of rarely used circle and cookie cutters screaming for clever uses.

I started out with the dough first which is a nice mixture of spice, masala wine, flour and sugar.  I wonder if this is what made me dislike cannoli in the past, but I am glad to say that it intrigued me now.  The making of the dough itself was relatively uneventful and was left to rest overnight.

Once rested, the next step was to roll the dough into very thin rounds and cut out the cannoli shapes.  A method for the pasta machine was included in the recipe which excited me greatly.  I haven't used my pasta rollers yet, so out they came.  I'm not sure if it was a function of my dough or the speed/setting combo, but I had a hard time getting the dough to roll out in one piece.  I decided to continue using the roller to help knead the dough to a nice smooth consistency and then resorted to the old rolling pin. 

I think the rolling process got me on the whole process because some of my shapes turned out on the thick side.  This may also have been due to letting the cut-outs sit while I heated the oil.  Some seemed to shrink and I was afraid to roll out lest I ruin the adorable pumpkin shapes that I settled on for the stacks.

As you can see, the frying process was sort of a mixed bag.  I think the thickness of the dough definitely played a role in the inconsistent blistering.  I also definitely had an issue with the pumpkins puffing up in the oil.  I addressed that by piercing the bubble mid-fry (though a little voice told me I shouldn't) and ended up with a couple of extra greasy pumpkins.  I managed to get a few nice looking ones, however, with a decent texture, and this was reward enough.

The pumpkin shapes were selected because I also came upon a fabulous Barefoot Contessa dessert via my friend's blog and decided that it needed to be my filling for the cannoli.  I will go into the mousse itself in a separate post, but needless to say, it was very festive!

The final touch after spooning mousse onto my pumpkin shapes was to garnish the stack.  I crushed some gingersnap cookies to sprinkle around the outside which wasn't easy.  I might rethink that process as well next time around.  A final touch of powdered sugar and voila! I found the cannolo quite edible and definitely visualling appealing.  There may be a repeat performance somewhere in the future for me and this recipe, although for now, I'm glad to be done and able to enjoy my results!

Lidisano’s Cannoli
Makes 22-24 4-inch cannoli
Prep time:
Dough – 2 hours and 10-20 minutes, including resting time, and depending on whether you do it by hand or machine.
Filling – 5-10 minutes plus chilling time (about 2 hours or more)
Frying – 1-2 minutes per cannoli
Assemble – 20–30 minutes

RECIPE NOTE: THE EQUIVALENTS FROM THIS RECIPE WERE PREPARED USING THIS CONVERSION SITE: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/index.asp.

CANNOLI SHELLS
2 cups (250 grams/8.82 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:
1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.

3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.

4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer's directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.

5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.

8. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.

9. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

Pasta Machine method:
1. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Starting at the middle setting, run one of the pieces of dough through the rollers of a pasta machine. Lightly dust the dough with flour as needed to keep it from sticking. Pass the dough through the machine repeatedly, until you reach the highest or second highest setting. The dough should be about 4 inches wide and thin enough to see your hand through

2. Continue rolling out the remaining dough. If you do not have enough cannoli tubes for all of the dough, lay the pieces of dough on sheets of plastic wrap and keep them covered until you are ready to use them.

3, Roll, cut out and fry the cannoli shells as according to the directions above.

For stacked cannoli:
1. Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 - 190 °C).

2. Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.