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The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

The Daring Kitchen

The Daring Kitchen

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Some people made other sorts of strudel, spinach and feta sounds kind of nice, doesn’t it? That didn’t occur to me, though.

The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

I opted for apples.

Strudel dough
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

This piece of cloth was newly washed and right in front of my eyes when I started to look for a table cloth. Hardly traditional strudel-baking equipment, but it did the job.

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

To my amazement, the dough actually behaved the way the recipe says it should. It stretched. It only formed holes when I was particularly careless.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it’s about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

Transparency, I haz it. Tissue thin? Uhm, perhaps not. I suspect I should have stretched more. Problem was I was running out of space. Also, though the dough didn’t break, it did spring back. More elastic than flexible. Must find out why. So instead of 60×90 cm I gave up around 50×80.

Apple strudel
from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

However, I don’t agree very well with walnuts, so hazelnuts it is.

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.

2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.

3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.

4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.

The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

The Daring Bakers: Apple Strudel

Eaten warm with ice cream. Nice, but not mind-blowing. I might try it again and drop the nuts entirely, add more raisins and rum and probably more sugar and cinnamon (I already used more cinnamon than the recipe called for).

Or perhaps try a savoury version.

The Daring Bakers: Cheeeeeeeeesecake!

The Daring Kitchen

The Daring Kitchen

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

I have no idea why, but I have never made a cheesecake. It is obviously high time, so this is one challenge I’m grateful for.

Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake:

crust:
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil “casserole” shaped pans from the grocery store. They’re 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.

Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!

Since I’ve never made a cheesecake before, I thought I’d go with the basic variety, though I had to do some minor adjustments (we might get graham crackers at Ultra, but I wouldn’t swear to it). Mind you, I might have opted for “plain” in any case, because the best cheesecakes I’ve been served have been the plainest of the plain. Some sort of berryish sauce will be necessary, though.

So I stocked up on Kornmo (can you belive Sætre doesn’t have a product page for it?) and set to it.

Daring bakers: Cheeeeeeeesecake

Cheese and sugar, just getting started.

Daring bakers: Cheeeeeeeesecake

Adding and incorporating the eggs one by one.

Daring bakers: Cheeeeeeeesecake

I cheated. It cracked anyway, so I didn’t let it rest in a cooling oven for an hour (more like half an hour). Then we started digging in before it was even cold. It was still good.

Daring bakers: Cheeeeeeeesecake

Ever so slightly warm cheesecake with berries.

I settled for the really easy option as far as the sauce goes. I added a tablespoon of Old Pulteney Liqueur to the cake mixture and the sauce is simply frozen forrest fruits thawed out with some more of the liqueur mixed in.

This all worked really well. I think to deserve the name cheescake it really ought to taste more like cheese, but this was very, very good, even if not very cheesy, and I will quite probably make it again.

The Daring Bakers: Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna

The Daring Kitchen

The Daring Kitchen

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

Pasta? Oh yay and oh no. Oh yay because it’s my favourite food, more or less, oh no because, well, home made pasta? That sounds like hard work. But then, I am a Daring Baker, right? Best live up to the Daring part, then.

#1 Spinach Egg Pasta (Pasta Verde)

Preparation: 45 minutes

Makes enough for 6 to 8 first course servings or 4 to 6 main course servings, equivalent to 1 pound (450g) dried boxed pasta.

2 jumbo eggs (2 ounces/60g or more)
10 ounces (300g) fresh spinach, rinsed dry, and finely chopped; or 6 ounces (170g) frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and squeezed dry
3&1/2 cups (14 ounces/400g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour (organic stone ground preferred)

Working by Hand:

Equipment

A roomy work surface, 24 to 30 inches deep by 30 to 36 inches (60cm to 77cm deep by 60cm to 92cm). Any smooth surface will do, but marble cools dough slightly, making it less flexible than desired.

A pastry scraper and a small wooden spoon for blending the dough.

A wooden dowel-style rolling pin. In Italy, pasta makers use one about 35 inches long and 2 inches thick (89cm long and 5cm thick). The shorter American-style pin with handles at either end can be used, but the longer it is, the easier it is to roll the pasta.
Note: although it is not traditional, Enza has successfully made pasta with a marble rolling pin, and this can be substituted for the wooden pin, if you have one.

Plastic wrap to wrap the resting dough and to cover rolled-out pasta waiting to be filled. It protects the pasta from drying out too quickly.

A sharp chef’s knife for cutting pasta sheets.

Cloth-covered chair backs, broom handles, or specially designed pasta racks found in cookware shops for draping the pasta.

Mixing the dough:
Mound the flour in the center of your work surface and make a well in the middle. Add the eggs and spinach. Use a wooden spoon to beat together the eggs and spinach. Then gradually start incorporating shallow scrapings of flour from the sides of the well into the liquid. As you work more and more flour into the liquid, the well’s sides may collapse. Use a pastry scraper to keep the liquids from running off and to incorporate the last bits of flour into the dough. Don’t worry if it looks like a hopelessly rough and messy lump.

This is going to be pasta, so it is.

I cheated, I used the blender to chop the spinach and to get it chopped I needed liquid, so the eggs are in there, too.
 

Kneading:
With the aid of the scraper to scoop up unruly pieces, start kneading the dough. Once it becomes a cohesive mass, use the scraper to remove any bits of hard flour on the work surface – these will make the dough lumpy. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes. Its consistency should be elastic and a little sticky. If it is too sticky to move easily, knead in a few more tablespoons of flour. Continue kneading about 10 minutes, or until the dough has become satiny, smooth, and very elastic. It will feel alive under your hands. Do not shortcut this step. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and let it relax at room temperature 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Pasta dough. Or as close as it gets this time.

My mistake, I think, was to use durum wheat meant for pasta in a recipe asking for ordinary plain flour… In any case, the dough did not really behave as it was supposed to. I kept having to add flour or it would stick to everything and no matter how long I kneaded it never seemed to change it’s texture. Though I might just have lost patience a bit too soon. Did I mention I have very little patience? Patience is, most emphatically, NOT my middle name.

Stretching and Thinning:
If using an extra-long rolling pin work with half the dough at a time. With a regular-length rolling pin, roll out a quarter of the dough at a time and keep the rest of the dough wrapped. Lightly sprinkle a large work surface with flour. The idea is to stretch the dough rather than press down and push it. Shape it into a ball and begin rolling out to form a circle, frequently turning the disc of dough a quarter turn. As it thins outs, start rolling the disc back on the pin a quarter of the way toward the center and stretching it gently sideways by running the palms of your hands over the rolled-up dough from the center of the pin outward. Unroll, turn the disc a quarter turn, and repeat. Do twice more.

Stretch and even out the center of the disc by rolling the dough a quarter of the way back on the pin. Then gently push the rolling pin away from you with one hand while holding the sheet in place on the work surface with the other hand. Repeat three more times, turning the dough a quarter turn each time.

Repeat the two processes as the disc becomes larger and thinner. The goal is a sheet of even thickness. For lasagne, the sheet should be so thin that you can clearly see your hand through it and see colours. Cut into rectangles about 4 by 8 inches (10 x 20 cm). Note: Enza says that transparency is a crucial element of lasagne pasta and the dough should be rolled as thinly as possible. She says this is why her housekeeper has such strong arms!

Not having a pasta machine thing, I used a rolling pin. A normal one, too.

Pasta. Does holes qualify as transparency?

I know transparency was stressed, and holes are transparent, right? Actually, the structure was quite obviously not what it should have been. I tried stretching and ended up with holes. If I hung the rolled out pasta over a chairback, it would develop holes and parts would drop to the floor. I settled for rolling it out as thinly as I could and hoping it would not taste like glue. Oh, and the picture is out of focus, but believe me, you’re not missing anything.

Dry the pasta at room temperature and store in a sealed container or bag.

#2 Bechamel

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) unsalted butter
4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) all purpose unbleached (plain) flour, organic stone ground preferred
2&2/3 cups (approx 570ml) milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Using a medium-sized saucepan, melt the butter over low to medium heat. Sift over the flour, whisk until smooth, and then stir (without stopping) for about 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk a little at a time and keep the mixture smooth. Bring to a slow simmer, and stir 3 to 4 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens. Season with salt, pepper, and a hint of nutmeg.

And I did.

#3 Country Style Ragu’ (Ragu alla Contadina)

Preparation Time: Ingredient Preparation Time 30 minutes and Cooking time 2 hours

Makes enough sauce for 1 recipe fresh pasta or 1 pound/450g dried pasta)

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (45 mL)
2 ounces/60g pancetta, finely chopped
1 medium onion, minced
1 medium stalk celery with leaves, minced
1 small carrot, minced
4 ounces/125g boneless veal shoulder or round
4 ounces/125g pork loin, trimmed of fat, or 4 ounces/125g mild Italian sausage (made without fennel)
8 ounces/250g beef skirt steak, hanging tender, or boneless chuck blade or chuck center cut (in order of preference)
1 ounce/30g thinly sliced Prosciutto di Parma
2/3 cup (5 ounces/160ml) dry red wine
1 &1/2 cups (12 ounces/375ml) chicken or beef stock (homemade if possible)
2 cups (16 ounces/500ml) milk
3 canned plum tomatoes, drained
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Working Ahead:
The ragu can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate. It also freezes well for up to 1 month. Skim the fat from the ragu’ before using it.

Browning the Ragu Base:
Heat the olive oil in a 12 inch (30cm) skillet (frying pan) over medium-high heat. Have a large saucepan handy to use once browning is complete. Add the pancetta and minced vegetables and sauté, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, 10 minutes, or until the onions barely begin to color. Coarsely grind all the meats together, including the prosciutto, in a food processor or meat grinder. Stir into the pan and slowly brown over medium heat. First the meats will give off a liquid and turn dull grey but, as the liquid evaporates, browning will begin. Stir often, scooping under the meats with the wooden spatula. Protect the brown glaze forming on the bottom of the pan by turning the heat down. Cook 15 minutes, or until the meats are a deep brown. Turn the contents of the skillet into a strainer and shake out the fat. Turn them into the saucepan and set over medium heat.

Reducing and Simmering: Add the wine to the skillet, lowering the heat so the sauce bubbles quietly. Stir occasionally until the wine has reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Scrape up the brown glaze as the wine bubbles. Then pour the reduced wine into the saucepan and set the skillet aside.

Stir ½ cup stock into the saucepan and let it bubble slowly, 10 minutes, or until totally evaporated. Repeat with another ½ cup stock. Stir in the last 1/2 cup stock along with the milk. Adjust heat so the liquid bubbles very slowly. Partially cover the pot, and cook 1 hour. Stir frequently to check for sticking.

Add the tomatoes, crushing them as they go into the pot. Cook uncovered, at a very slow bubble for another 45 minutes, or until the sauce resembles a thick, meaty stew. Season with salt and pepper.

I deviated again. I’ve been wanting to try Finny’s Best tomato sauce ever. Yep. for a while, and thoought I’d grab the chance now.

Tomatoes mentally preparing themselves to become sauce

So I did.

Ex-tomatoes, now sauce, added to the meat and veg

And I used high-end minced beef rather than mincing my own, but mostly followed the rest of the Ragu recipe. I should have bought more tomatoes, so the sauce (which was, indeed, quite delicious) did not really suffice, so I added a tin of tomatoes, too, and there was my second mistake, I should have realised this meant I needed more salt and pepper. Somehow I never got around to tasting the ragu, being too worried about the state of the pasta.

Cooking the Pasta:
Bring the salted water to a boil. Drop about four pieces of pasta in the water at a time. Cook about 2 minutes. If you are using dried pasta, cook about 4 minutes, taste, and cook longer if necessary. The pasta will continue cooking during baking, so make sure it is only barely tender. Lift the lasagne from the water with a skimmer, drain, and then slip into the bowl of cold water to stop cooking. When cool, lift out and dry on the paper towels. Repeat until all the pasta is cooked.

Pre-boiling the pasta

Pre-boiling the pasta. Enjoy this wonderful picture where you can see my spotlessly clean stove…

Assembling the Lasagne:
Spread a thin layer of béchamel over the bottom of the baking dish. Arrange a layer of about four overlapping sheets of pasta over the béchamel. Spread a thin layer of béchamel (about 3 or 4 spoonfuls) over the pasta, and then an equally thin layer of the ragu. Sprinkle with about 1&1/2 tablespoons of the béchamel and about 1/3 cup of the cheese. Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used, finishing with béchamel sauce and topping with a generous dusting of cheese.

Baking and Serving the Lasagne:
Cover the baking dish lightly with foil, taking care not to let it touch the top of the lasagne. Bake 40 minutes, or until almost heated through. Remove the foil and bake another 10 minutes, or until hot in the center (test by inserting a knife – if it comes out very warm, the dish is ready). Take care not to brown the cheese topping. It should be melted, creamy looking and barely tinged with a little gold. Turn off the oven, leave the door ajar and let the lasagne rest for about 10 minutes. Then serve. This is not a solid lasagne, but a moist one that slips a bit when it is cut and served.

Well, it sure looks like lasagna

I didn’t cover it at all. I like my lasagna brown and slightly crisp on top. I’m such a rebel.

Done, browned just the way I like it

See? Browned. And crispy.

It was edible, too. Though the sauce could have been spicier.

The pasta worked out quite well, actually, despite all my worries. If I’d just remembered to taste the ragu and added salt, pepper and spice accordingly, this would have been the perfect lasagna, or close to it, anyway. As it was? Well, a little disappointing, really. Adding pepper after the fact helps, but it can’t really make up for the lack of proper attention while making the sauce, I’m afraid.

Still, at least the experience didn’t scare me off making pasta.

Leftover pasta

Leftover pasta. What to do with it?

I’ll be making pasta again, that’s for sure. Next time I’ll aspire to achieve flexibility and thereby transparency. I think I’ll put a pasta machine on my birthday wishlist. There is a pasta attachment set available for the Bosch, but it looks like it’s plates that you add to the grinder attachment so that the pasta is squeezed out through little slits, rather than rolled, out, and that can’t be right, surely? Will it work? Perhaps I need to do some investigation.

This was fun. I’m sure looking forward to the April challenge.

The Daring Bakers: For the love of chocolate

This is my first Daring Bakers challenge, and I was very exited at the beginning of February to see what my first assignment might be. Well, it involves chocolate. This made me happy, I mean, how could something that starts with this:

Daring bakers: For the love of chocolate

be anything but good?

I meant to do the hard work (ok, not so hard, but whatever) last weekend, but was laid low with a throat infection. This weekend rolled around, and I was all set, but had shipped the husband and lass off to Hitra in order to do some serious tidying of the flat (though you wouldn’t know it from how it looks), and thought it would be a pity to make this heavenly chocolatey concoction and have no one to share it with. Hence I’m a day late, but I hope I may be forgiven…

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The cake is straight-forward enough, I opted for a mix of chocolates, partly because of bad planning (I’d have used all Fair Trade chocolate if I’d remembered to buy it from my usual source): 100 g Änglamark Fairtrade dark (70% cocoa), 100 g Freia 70%, 200 g Freia Dronningsjokolade and some leftover Lindt 70% to make up the pound. The eggs were fresh organic ones, which might, for all I know, make a difference (the organic bit, the freshness does make a difference, I know that).

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time:  20 minutes

16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

So much for the cake. Wendy and Dharm provided two different recipes for vanilla ice cream, but I ended up using a recipe from the main dairy producer in Norway to make sure I got the right recipe for the type of cream we get here (no such thing as double cream in Norway) – though the cream I used was actually from their main competitor. Never mind. I halved the recipe, and couldn’t find real vanilla, so cheated with the good vanilla sugar. And the sugar I use is Fairtrade, and has a more distinct taste than ordinary refined sugar.

4 egg yolks
75 g sugar
3 dl kremfløte (cream)
1 tsp vanilla sugar

Whip the egg yolks and sugar, add the vanilla. Whip the cream and add to the mixture. Freeze, taking the bowl out every half hour or so and stirring it.

Since we had a bag of mixed berries in the freezer and I love sorbet, I thought I’d make that as well. No fancy ingredients here. I whirred the berries in the blender, with a little pineapple juice to make it go round, then pressed the pure through a strainer to get the seeds out and ended up with 7 dl pure. To which I added a sugar solution made with 1,4 dl of water and 1,8 dl sugar brought to the boil and cooled a bit. Stuck that in the freezer and took it out to stir every half hour or so as well. Easy peasy.

The result:

Daring bakers: For the love of chocolate

The “cake” was heavenly, more a sort of mousse with a brownie crust. The sorbet and ice cream went well with it, and it’s all bound to disappear quite quickly, I suspect. I need to work on my food photography skills, though. The above is the best I could do before the ice cream melted. I had a bit of a disagreement with my flash, so it’s not as sharp as I could wish.

The taste was just right, though :) Looking forward to the March challenge already (will try not to fall ill at the critical moment this month…)