0 Rocky Road Bars

My mom always felt that ice cream flavors with vanilla or fruit were better choices than ones with chocolate. So when mom was in charge, it would be vanilla, banana nut or strawberry ice cream for me and my brothers. Orange or rainbow sherbet were acceptable choices as well. But whenever I was allowed to choose (usually when dad was in charge), I would pick rocky road ice cream. Traditionally, rocky road ice cream is a chocolate ice cream with marshmallows and nuts. It was my favorite flavor for as long as anything is a favorite when one is a young child. So I eventually grew out of the rocky road phase and moved on to other flavors like swiss orange chip.

These rocky road bars from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion cookbook really capture the nostalgia of rocky road and will definitely satisfy your inner child. A chocolate cookie base filled with chocolate chips and walnuts, topped with more chocolate and marshmallows and then finished off with a generous drizzle of chocolate. There's absolutely nothing grown up about it, but these bars will please you no matter your age.



Rocky Road Bars
(adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion)

1 2/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks/8ounces) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1/2 cup (firmly packed) light brown sugar
1/2 granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups semi or bittersweet chocolate chips
(or 18 ounces semi or bittersweet chocolate, chopped the size of chocolate chips)
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 to 2 cups miniature marshmallows (depending on how much you like)
Optional drizzle: 1-2 ounces chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly butter a 9x13 inch pan (or line with parchment).

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Cream butter and both sugars until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture, 2 cups chocolate chips and walnuts.

Pat the dough into your prepared pan. Bake at 350F for 15 minutes until the edges are set but still soft in the center. Sprinkle with remaining 1 cup chocolate chips and then marshmallows. Bake about 3-5 minutes more.

Drizzle with melted chocolate if desired. Allow bars to cool completely before cutting. I cut mine into 32 bars.

0 Buns in the Oven

The month is quickly coming to an end and that means it's Daring Baker time again. The group has already survived ten other monthly challenges to date and for this month's recipe, hostess Marce of Pip in the City chose Peter Reinhart's cinnamon buns and/or sticky buns. I've never made cinnamon or sticky buns before. And I haven't baked with yeast since I made bagels for the June DB challenge (which also happened to be the very first time I've ever used yeast). So I'm glad Marce picked a yeasted recipe. We could make cinnamon buns or sticky buns or both. I chose to make just cinnamon buns.

A couple things worried me right off the bat. For some reason I thought the recipe called for active dry yeast but upon re-reading the ingredients I realized that it said instant yeast. Since I didn't want to run to the store, I hoped the recipe would work fine with the active dry yeast. I used about a third more active dry yeast than amount of instant yeast required.

I wasn't sure if just adding the yeast granules straight into the mixing bowl with the sugar, butter, egg, flour and buttermilk would work. Maybe it's a misconception of mine, but I thought I had to let yeast sit in some warm water for about 5-10 minutes before using it. But since I'm inexperienced with yeast, I just followed the recipe and added it as instructed. I kept my fingers crossed.

I decided to let my Kitchen Aid stand mixer do the kneading for me. During the 10 minute knead, the dough was getting slapped around in the bowl pretty loudly. My stand mixer even slightly moved around the counter top from the force. I hope that's normal when kneading dough with a KA. Otherwise I'm giving KA customer service a call. After 10 minutes the dough was exactly as the recipe said it should be - silky and supple, tacky but not sticky.

While my dough was kneading, I warmed my oven to 150F then turned it off so that I could use it to proof my dough. I put my bowl of dough in the oven and hoped it would rise. It didn't rise too much during the first hour but rose very quickly during the second hour. It had doubled in size in exactly two hours. Yippee!

Rolling out the dough was so much easier than I expected. It wasn't sticky so I hardly needed any flour for the rolling pin and the marble top. The dough was elastic but never "snapped" back when I was rolling it out. My only issue was that I couldn't quite get my dough rolled into a rectangle (just like I can never roll my tart/pie dough into a circle). But I decided to just trim off the ragged ends after filling and rolling it into a log. I must say that I loved working with this dough. I used my oven again for the second rise and it went off without a hitch. Then a quick bake and voila – cinnamon buns! There is nothing like a warm cinnamon bun fresh from the oven. They were absolutely delicious!



By the way, I cut back on the volume of milk and made the white fondant glaze with meyer lemon juice since I didn't have any lemon extract. Also, the recipe made an enormous amount of glaze. Even if I dunked all the cinnamon buns in glaze and covered every centimeter of bun, I wouldn't have been able to use up all of it. The lemon juice really helped to cut the sweetness in the glaze and also complemented the meyer lemon zest in the dough. I also decreased the amount of cinnamon in the filling. Thanks to Marce and the Daring Bakers, I now have a great keeper recipe. I will definitely make these buns again.



I was trying to get a photo of the cinnamon inside the bun, but someone got in the way! If you'd like to see what my cat Hobie does when he's not stealing food, check out this video. Sometimes you have to press play twice. I'm trying out Google video. I hope it works.




Cinnamon Buns and Sticky Buns
(from Peter Reinhart´s The Bread Baker´s Apprentice)
Yield: Makes 8 to 12 large or 12 to 16 smaller cinnamon or sticky buns

Dough:
6 1/2 tablespoons (3.25 ounces) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
5 1/2 tablespoons (2.75 ounces) unsalted butter
1 large egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon grated zest of 1 lemon
3 1/2 cups (16 ounces) unbleached bread or all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons instant yeast*
1 1/8 to 1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk

Cinnamon Sugar Filling:
6 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For cinnamon buns:
1 recipe for white fondant glaze

For sticky buns:
1 recipe for caramel glaze
walnuts, pecans, or other nuts
raisins or other dried fruit, such as dried cranberries or dried cherries (optional)

*Instant yeast contains about 25% more living cells per spoonful than active dry yeast, regardless of the brand. Instant yeast is also called rapid-rise or fast-rising.

1. Cream together the sugar, salt, and shortening or butter on medium-high speed in an electric stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a large metal spoon and mixing bowl and do it by hand). Whip in the egg and lemon zest until smooth. Then add the flour, yeast, and milk. Mix on low speed (or stir by hand) until the dough forms a ball. Switch to the dough hook and increase the speed to medium, mixing for approximately 10 minutes (or knead by hand for 12 to 15 minutes), or until the dough is silky and supple, tacky but not sticky. You may have to add a little flour or water while mixing to achieve this texture. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

2. Ferment at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

3. Mist the counter with spray oil and transfer the dough to the counter. Make filling by combining the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Proceed to fill and roll the dough as follows:

(A) Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, lightly dusting the top with flour to keep it from sticking to the pin. Roll it into a rectangle about 2/3 inch thick and 14 inches wide by 12 inches long for larger buns, or 18 inches wide by 9 inches long for smaller buns. Don´t roll out the dough too thin or the finished buns will be tough and chewy rather than soft and plump.
(B)Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the surface of the dough.
(C) Roll the dough up into a cigar-shaped log, creating a cinnamon-sugar spiral as you roll. With the seam side down, cut the dough into 8 to 12 pieces each about 1 3/4 inches thick for larger buns, or 12 to 16 pieces each 1 1/4 inch thick for smaller buns.

4. For cinnamon buns, line 1 or more sheet pans with baking parchment. Place the buns approximately 1/2 inch apart so that they aren't touching but are close to one another.

For sticky buns, coat the bottom of 1 or more baking dishes or baking pans with sides at least 1 1/2 inches high with a 1/4 inch layer of the caramel glaze. Sprinkle on the nuts and raisins (if you are using raisins or dried fruit.) You do not need a lot of nuts and raisins, only a sprinkling. Lay the pieces of dough on top of the caramel glaze, spacing them about 1/2 inch apart. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a food-grade plastic bag.

5. Proof at room temperature for 75 to 90 minutes, or until the pieces have grown into one another and have nearly doubled in size. You may also retard the shaped buns in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, pulling the pans out of the refrigerator 3 to 4 hours before baking to allow the dough to proof.

6. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) with the oven rack in the middle shelf for cinnamon buns but on the lowest shelf for sticky buns.

7. Bake the cinnamon buns for 20 to 30 minutes or the sticky buns 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown. If you are baking sticky buns, remember that they are really upside down (regular cinnamon buns are baked right side up), so the heat has to penetrate through the pan and into the glaze to caramelize it. The tops will become the bottoms, so they may appear dark and done, but the real key is whether the underside is fully baked. It takes practice to know just when to pull the buns out of the oven.

8. For cinnamon buns, cool the buns in the pan for about 10 minutes and then streak white fondant glaze across the tops, while the buns are warm but not too hot. Remove the buns from the pans and place them on a cooling rack. Wait for at least 20 minutes before serving. For the sticky buns, cool the buns in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes and then remove them by flipping them over into another pan. Carefully scoop any run-off glaze back over the buns with a spatula. Wait at least 20 minutes before serving.

White fondant glaze for cinnamon buns

Cinnamon buns are usually topped with a thick white glaze called fondant. There are many ways to make fondant glaze, but here is a delicious and simple version, enlivened by the addition of citrus flavor, either lemon or orange. You can also substitute vanilla extract or rum extract, or simply make the glaze without any flavorings.

Sift 4 cups of powdered sugar into a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of lemon or orange extract and 6 tablespoons to 1/2 cup of warm milk, briskly whisking until all the sugar is dissolved. Add the milk slowly and only as much as is needed to make a thick, smooth paste.

When the buns have cooled but are still warm, streak the glaze over them by dipping the tines of a fork or a whisk into the glaze and waving the fork or whisk over the tops. Or, form the streaks by dipping your fingers in the glaze and letting it drip off as you wave them over the tops of the buns. (Remember to wear latex gloves.)

Caramel glaze for sticky buns

Caramel glaze is essentially some combination of sugar and fat, cooked until it caramelizes. The trick is catching it just when the sugar melts and lightly caramelizes to a golden amber. Then it will cool to a soft, creamy caramel. If you wait too long and the glaze turns dark brown, it will cool to a hard, crack-your-teeth consistency. Most sticky bun glazes contain other ingredients to influence flavor and texture, such as corn syrup to keep the sugar from crystallizing and flavor extracts or oils, such as vanilla or lemon.

NOTE: you can substitute the corn syrup for any neutral flavor syrup, like cane syrup or gold syrup.

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature.
2. Cream together for 2 minutes on high speed with the paddle attachment. Add 1/2 cup corn syrup and 1 teaspoon lemon, orange or vanilla extract. Continue to cream for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
3. Use as much of this as you need to cover the bottom of the pan with a 1/4-inch layer. Refrigerate and save any excess for future use; it will keep for months in a sealed container.

0 Fig Walnut Loaf (SHF35)

When Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice announced "The Beautiful Fig" as the theme for this month's Sugar High Friday, I really wanted to participate in this month's SHF and support my fellow Daring Baker Ivonne. Sugar High Friday, the brainchild of Domestic Goddess Jennifer, is the food blogosphere's travelling sweet tooth event. Every month a new host picks a theme ingredient and anyone can create something sweet incorporating the theme.

Fresh black mission figs seem to say "autumn" to me and are readily available this time of year. It almost seemed like a shame to bake the wonderfully sweet fresh figs, so I made sure to buy extra figs for snacking too! When combined with walnuts, this fig loaf turned out to be a perfect autumnal treat.



Fig Walnut Loaf
(makes one 8x4-inch loaf OR three 3x5-inch mini loaves)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
6 ounces unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temp.
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup chopped fresh figs
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325F. Butter and flour one 8x4 inch loaf pan (or three 3x5 inch mini loaf pans). Sift together flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Stir butter and both sugars until combined. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Mix in figs and walnuts.

Pour batter into the 8x4 inch loaf pan (or divide batter evenly among the three mini loaf pans). Bake at 325F until cake tester comes out clean (a few dry crumbs are okay but it shouldn't be wet), approximately 75 minutes for the 8x4 inch loaf (or 30-40 minutes for the three mini loaves). Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

0 Lime Sugar Cookies

I haven't really been baking much lately. I could say I've been swamped with work or I've been out enjoying the great weather but, really, I have no good reason. I have no excuses. I've just been taking it easy. Many of my coworkers remark that it's amazing I have time to bake in the evening after a full day's work, a long commute, cooking dinner and various nightly chores. And, honestly, sometimes all this baking does take its toll. So every once in a while I need to take a breather from baking. But I did manage to whip up some easy drop cookies.

I needed some lime juice to marinate the steak for our fajita dinner and I just couldn't bear to toss out the lime rinds. So I zested the limes before juicing them and decided to substitute lime and dried pineapple for the orange and ginger in this recipe. The idea for using dried pineapple in this manner came to me a while back when I was snacking on some dried pineapple chunks and I realized how similar in texture it was to the Australian crystallized ginger I use for various recipes.

I could taste (and smell) the lime in these cookies, but the pineapple bits were lack luster. Some tasters wouldn't have known it was pineapple if I didn't tell them. So this was one cookie idea that was better in theory than in practice. Oh well, live and learn.



Lime Sugar Cookies with Dried Pineapple
(makes 36 cookies)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp.
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp finely grated lime zest
1 large egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup finely chopped dried pineapple
3-4 tbsp granulated sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and lime zest on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the egg and vanilla.

On low speed, add the dry ingredients slowly, mixing until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in pineapple.

Form 1 inch balls and roll them in granulated sugar. Place on parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake 12 to 15 minutes until golden around the edges. Cool.

0 Found Recipe

I've been doing a bit of organizing around the house lately. My two latest "projects" have been to (1) clean out and reorganize my closet and (2) file/recycle my magazines. Since I'm a bit OCD, my most recent magazine issues are in one neat pile, but that pile has grown pretty tall in the last few months. I subscribe to about 10 magazines and I haven't organized that pile in about 4-5 months. I always keep certain magazines like Fine Cooking, Cook's Illustrated and Saveur, so they go straight to their respective magazine sleeves on my bookshelf. With the other magazines, I spend some time flipping through the issue again to decide if it's a keeper or for recycling.

If the entire issue is great, it's a keeper and I file it away neatly on my bookshelf. Sometimes I don't see anything worth keeping so I'll toss the issue in the recycling bin or give it to a friend or family member. And other times there will be one or two recipes worth saving like this brownie recipe from the June 2007 issue of Gourmet. I don't remember seeing it when I first got the magazine back in May. Or maybe I did see it and my memory just isn't as good as it used to be. Either way, it's on my radar now.

I love these brownies. I added some grated bittersweet chocolate to the brownie batter to increase the chocolate factor. For the cheesecake part, I used mascarpone instead of cream cheese so my version was a bit creamier and less tangy than the original. Like many brownie recipes, these are quick and easy to make. But the addition of the cheesecake batter swirled into the brownie batter really made these special.

Cheesecake Marbled Brownies
(adapted from Gourmet magazine, June 2007 issue)

For brownie batter
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 ounce unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
pinch of salt
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, grated (or very finely chopped if you prefer)

For cheesecake batter
8 ounces mascarpone, well softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

Make brownie batter:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan.

Heat butter and unsweetened chocolate in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat, whisking occasionally, just until melted. Remove from heat and whisk in sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt until well combined. Whisk in flour and grated chocolate until just combined and spread in baking pan.

Make cheesecake batter and bake brownies:
Whisk together cheesecake batter ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Dollop over brownie batter, then swirl in with a knife or spatula.

Bake until edges are slightly puffed and center is just set, about 35 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

~.~ But wait, there's more...

If you want to use up the 1 egg white that's leftover from making the above cheesecake marbled brownies, try these super easy amaretti. I use unblanched (skin-on) almonds, but blanched almonds would be much more refined and very "tea with your pinky finger up".



Amaretti
(adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2)
(makes 12 cookies)

3.5 ounces (100 grams) ground almonds
1/2 cup granulated or superfine sugar
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 egg white
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract

Preheat over to 350F.

Whisk together almonds, sugar and flour in a bowl to combine. Then mix in egg white and both extracts until well combined.

Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls and place on a parchment line cookie sheet. Flatten the balls of dough slightly. (Note: I like my amaretti soft so I don't flatten the balls of dough too much. If you want the cookies to be less soft, flatten the balls more.)

Bake at 350F for 13-14 minutes or until lightly golden.

0 Summer in the City

Like most of California, San Francisco has been experiencing a heat wave during the past few days. And when I say heat wave, I mean temperatures in the 80s. You may laugh, but 80 is considered hot in these parts. "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco" is a quote (mistakenly) attributed to Mark Twain. Regardless of the origin, there is some truth to the saying (just ask any tourist), that is, until late August or early September. That's when the San Francisco summer really begins. We can bask in some summer warmth during these final summer days and into the start of autumn as well.

What better way to celebrate the season than to throw a party? That's exactly what Ivonne of Cream Puffs In Venice and Lisa of La Mia Cucina are doing. La Festa al Fresco is a virtual patio party and they've invited everyone. All they ask is that guests bring a party dish featuring a fresh, seasonal ingredient. I chose black friar plums and blackberries for my upside down polenta cake. The polenta adds a nice crunch to this not too sweet cake from the August 2007 issue of BHG. The original recipe called for an assortment of berries, but the plums were too good to pass up. But feel free to use blueberries, raspberries or even huckleberries (if you are lucky enough to find some). See you at the party!



Upside Down Polenta Cake
(adapted from Better Homes & Garden August 2007)

Cake
3/4 cup fresh plums, chopped
1/2 cup fresh blackberries
1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup polenta
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp lemon or orange zest
2 large eggs, at room temp
2/3 cup whole milk, at room temp
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Icing (optional)
1/3 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp lemon or orange juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan. Line bottom with a parchment paper circle and butter paper.

Arrange blackberries and chopped plums in the bottom of your prepared pan. In a large bowl, stir together flour, polenta, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk sugar and zest. Whisk in eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Add egg mixture to flour mixture all at once. Stir until just combined.

Pour batter over fruit and spread evenly. Bake at 350F for 40-45 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Run a thin knife around edge of pan to loosen cake. Invert onto a cake rack. Remove parchment paper.

Optional icing: Whisk sugar, milk and juice until smooth. Spoon over or lightly brush on warm cake.

0 Just A Bunch Of Sassy Tarts

The Daring Bakers are back and this time we're bringing you a milk chocolate and caramel tart! Who are the Daring Bakers you may ask? Well, we're a group of rogue operatives strategically placed all over the world and secretly trying to conquer our baking fears one recipe at a time. At least that's how I see it. In actuality, we're a group of food bloggers who, once a month, make the exact same recipe and then blog about our experience on the same day. It's a fun way to try new recipes and techniques. Everyone has such a unique experience preparing the same recipe and the posts are always interesting to read.

I have to admit that I wasn't overly excited when this month's challenge of Eric Kayser's milk choclate and caramel tart was announced. No offense to kind hostesses Veronica of Veronica's Test Kitchen and Patricia of Technicolor Kitchen, but I'm just not a big fan of milk chocolate or caramel. But being the obedient Daring Baker that I am, I put my personal preferences, and perhaps even food prejudices, aside, and tried my very best with the assigned recipe. [And on a side note, I was so excited to meet Veronica for dinner when she was visiting San Francisco a couple weeks ago. She's super sweet and super smart!]

Like with most of our challenges, there were some positives about this challenge. Once again I would be tackling caramel like I did for the Gateau St. Honore challenge. I'm still not completely over my fear of caramel making, but I'm slowly finding my way to a comfort zone. But I think one can never get too comfortable with making caramel. I always have a big bowl of ice water within arm's reach. And to complicate matters a bit, the caramel would be turned into a caramel cream sauce which is then turned into a caramel cream "custard". Hot molten sugar! Furiously bubbling cream! Potential clumping from the eggs and flour! Oh, the dangers we face as a Daring Baker! And to top it all off, I still have trouble rolling out tart and pie crusts into a circular shape. It always looks so easy on television. So here was another wonderful opportunity to practice my rolling skills. This is why I love these challenges. I always find something new to learn, techniques to refine or discover an appreciation for an ingredient or certain component of the recipe.

MILK CHOCOLATE
I don’t normally use milk chocolate but since I vowed to follow the rules, I tried to find some high quality and, hopefully, high cacao percentage milk chocolate. I found a couple of milk chocolates at my Whole Foods market that seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Michel Cluizel's Grand Lait 45% and El Rey's Caoba 41%, which is, according to El Rey's website, "a fluid, smooth 'dark' milk chocolate with wonderful caramel, nut and earthy flavors. Its notable flavor is the result of increased cacao content, among the highest of any milk chocolate on the market". The combination of the two milk chocolates for my chocolate mousse layer would be nice. With my milk chocolate secured, I was ready to move forward with the recipe.

CRUST
I had no clue how thick to roll out the shortbread dough for my crust or how high the sides should be to hold both fillings. The chilled shortbread dough rolled out nicely but transferring the rolled dough to my springform pan in one piece was a total pain. So I just patched and pressed the dough into the pan as evenly as possible until I had no more dough left. So that's how thick and how high it ended up.

To blind bake my crust, I lined my crust with parchment paper and filled it with pie weights. After baking for 15 minutes the bottom dough was still uncooked and actually stuck to the parchment paper as I lifted it away. I really, really didn't want to roll out another disk of dough since the other two-thirds of the shortbread dough were frozen. Instead, I tried to save my swiss-cheese looking crust. So I removed my pie weights, scraped the dough off the parchment paper, patched my bottom crust with the scrapings, returned it to the oven for a few more minutes and hoped that I managed to salvage the crust. It ended up a tad lumpy and bumpy but at least it didn't have any more holes. I guess it was okay, but I wouldn't know for certain until I cut into the finished tart.


lumpy and bumpy crust

CARAMEL
I have to say making the caramel wasn't too scary this time. I used the wet method by adding 1/4 cup of water and 2 teaspoons of corn syrup to my 1 cup of sugar. I placed my saucepan with the lid on over medium heat for about 4 minutes and then removed the lid and increased the heat to high until my desired color and temperature. The lid traps some of the condensation and actually "washes" down the sides of pan so I wouldn't need to do that with a wet pastry brush.

Sadly I think I let my caramel get too dark before adding the cream. My goal was to let the caramel get to 335F (per Veronica's recommendation) to 350F (per Sherry Yard's "The Secrets of Baking"). But I don't think I got an accurate temperature reading since I couldn't immerse my thermometer more than 1 cm into the caramel without touching the bottom of my saucepan. I guess I can call this a burnt caramel.

Also, my caramel cream custard refused to set in the oven after 15 minutes of baking. So I actually continued baking it until the edges were set and the center still wiggled a bit. I think it took a total of 30 minutes. At this point the top of the baked caramel was pretty dark (and I mean as dark as black coffee). So this meant that my caramel could be doubly burnt. The outlook was grim.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
From the chatter during the days prior to posting, some Daring Bakers had issues with their cream deflating when the melted milk chocolate was added. I had the opposite problem. My melted chocolate seized up a bit when I folded the cream and chocolate together. So if you look closely, you may see little bits of chocolate speckled throughout the chocolate mousse. So now I may have to call this a double burnt caramel and mini milk chocolate chip mousse tart.



THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
So after the required chill, I finally cut into my tart. I was really afraid that the caramel layer would be dark all the way through and be completely inedible. I told myself that I could still salvage dessert if I scraped off the chocolate mousse and serve the mousse in cups. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that the caramel was not black but a rich caramel brown. Thankfully, the caramel didn't taste burnt either.

I liked how the crust held together nicely when the tart was sliced and was very tender. Sadly I felt it was a bit flavorless though. The crust was neither chocolaty nor hazelnutty nor buttery. The flavors were a bit muddled. I did like the hint of cinnamon. (BTW, I only used 1/2 tsp cinnamon in the dough since 2 tsp seemed overwhelming.)

I expected the finished tart to be super sweet. But surprisingly, it wasn't as sweet as I thought it would be. Perhaps it's because the caramel was a bit darker and the milk chocolate had a high percentage of cacao (and therefore less sugar). The mousse was delicious even with the tiny random bits of chocolate I encountered and the caramel was pretty delicious. The two fillings definitely made a nice pairing. So overall I would call this challenge a wonderful success. I would definitely make both fillings again, but I would probably use a different tart dough. The tart was an excellent breakfast with my morning coffee. (Yes, I am admitting to having a slice for breakfast.)

And as always, you can find links to the other Daring Bakers' tart posts on our blogroll.


Milk Chocolate and Caramel Tart
(from Eric Kayser’s "Sweet and Savory Tarts")

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Baking Time: 30 minutes
Refrigeration time: 1 hour
One 9-inch (24-cm) square pan or one 10-inch (26-cm) round baking pan

Ingredients
Crust
1/2 lb (250 g) chocolate shortbread pastry (see recipe below)
Caramel Layer
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
1 cup (250 g) heavy whipping cream (30-40 percent butterfat) or crème fraiche
1/4 cup (50 g) butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 1/2tablespoons (15 g) flour
Chocolate Mousse Layer
1 1/4 cups (300 g) heavy whipping cream
1/2 lb (250 g) milk chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 325 °F (160 °C).
2. Line the baking pan with the chocolate shortbread pastry and bake blind for 15 minutes.
3. In a saucepan, caramelize 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar using the dry method until it turns a golden caramel color. (Or alternatively, caramelize using the wet method by adding 1/4 cup water + 2 tsp corn syrup.) Incorporate the heavy whipping cream or crème fraiche and then add butter. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs with the extra egg yolk, then incorporate the flour.
5. Pour this into the cream-caramel mixture and mix thoroughly.
6. Spread it out in the tart shell and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
7. Prepare the milk chocolate mousse: beat the whipping cream until stiff. Melt the milk chocolate in the microwave on low or in a bain-marie, and fold melted and slightly cooled chocolate gently into the whipped cream.
8. Pour the chocolate mousse over the cooled caramel mixture, smoothing it with a spatula. Chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

Optional decoration: melt 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar in a saucepan until it reaches an amber color. Pour it onto waxed paper laid out on a flat surface. Leave to cool. Break it into small fragments and stick them lightly into the top of the tart.

Chocolate Shortbread Pastry

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Refrigeration: overnight
To make 3 tarts, 9 ½ inches (24 cm) square or 10 inches (26 cm round)

Ingredients
1 cup (250g ) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (150 g) confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup (50 g) ground hazelnuts
2 level teaspoons (5 g) ground cinnamon (optional)
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups (400 g) cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons (10 g) baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoons (10 g) cocoa powder

Prepare dough at least one day before you need the dough.
1. In a mixing bowl of a food processor, cream the butter.
2. Add the confectioners’ sugar, the ground hazelnuts, and the cinnamon, and mix together
3. Add the eggs, one by one, mixing constantly
4. Sift in the flour, the baking powder, and the cocoa powder, and mix well.
5. Form a ball with the dough, cover in plastic wrap, and chill overnight.