Hazelnut Tiramisu – DB’s September challenge

 

 

 

Hazelnut Tiramisu with Cardamom-Caramel sauce and Kahlua Jelly

 

It’s that time again for another Daring Bakers entry.  This one holds a special place for me, as Tiramisu was the first dessert my wife and I made together (we were dating then).  You’re going to think this a made up story, but it was while spending a week in a Tuscan villa just south of Florence.  Lazy mornings reading the Herald Tribune while sipping cappuccinos in town.  spend half the day shopping for dinner, then back to the house to cook with family and friends.  Seems almost unfair to get a taste of retirement before even getting into a career, but I digress…

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.  (recipes as always, listed below)

Craquelin

Other than some pizza dough, and the occasional english muffin, it’s been awhile since I’ve baked anything other than cookies and sweets.  It’s arguable that these sweet rolls could count as savory, but it’d be a stretch.  As with most projects, the inspiration came from a picture, this time from Francisco Migoya’s The Modern Cafe.  There’s a savory recipe I wanted to work on this weekend that requires brioche dough, but impatient baker that I am, I cut the dough in half to rip off something a little more straightforward.

Butterfly Birthday Cupcakes

My daughter is now 4, how did this happen?  We had a small party this morning, and I got to bake something for a crowd of kids.  She didn’t want a big cake, it had to involve the color pink, and she likes butterflies.  

Knowing she wasn’t up for anything funky like an olive oil buttercream, we went with a simple raspberry swirl with straight pink buttercream.  To make it a bit less ordinary, I piped some butterfly wings in milk chocolate onto parchment paper the other night, let them set, then topped each cupcake with a pair.  For this I get a two second, “wow cool” before it all gets smeared on faces hands and the floor, but that two seconds was certainly worth it.

Worth a smile

Checkerboard Icebox Cookies

My daughter turns 4 soon, and while we’re working on a small party for a her friends, her school does something called “the birthday walk”.  Each kid, on or near their birthday, walks in a circle around their class the number of years they are, singing, “the earth goes ’round the sun, the earth goes ’round the sun.  All year long, the earth goes ’round the sun.” 

…and then they give out cookies.

Cherry & Chocolate-Port Macs – MacAttack IV

Happy to have the MacTweet crowd out there as a monthly reminder to keep sharp and practice practice practice on my macaron technique.  The beauty and joy of this exercise is that after some of the more involved projects, it’s refreshing to come back to a two-note treat. What two flavors go well together in a two-bite cookie? 

Salzburg Nockrel

Let me state for the record, I’m not German, or Austrian for that matter.  There was a time when, backpacking through Asia and Africa, it was easier to just let people assume I was, but I can only guess it was the wire frame glasses and blonde hair that did it.  Rather, I can claim true mutt status, like any good American, and thereby savage the national desserts of  all countries without bias.  (Don’t worry India, or Croatia, your turn is coming).