Daring Bakers Challenge: Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

Valentine's Day Supper ~ Part 4

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Aren't those candy hearts cute? 

Finally we come to the dessert course of our Valentine’s Day Supper! We had the Panna Cotta and Florentine cookies that were this month’s Daring Bakers challenge.  It was the perfect end to our meal. I did not want to have quite so many sweets in the house, so I cut the recipes in half. The following recipes reflect this change. 

For the Panna Cotta you could choose the vanilla or chocolate version. Since it was Valentine’s Day I made the chocolate version. I have not worked a lot with gelatin, so I made a fairly major mistake when making this. I was only supposed to heat the gelatin for a few seconds or so, I ended up heating it for about a minute or so. That made the panna cotta quite thick. Quite Thick. It was tasty, but it was wrong. Really it is a very easy recipe and I would try it again. I just got carried away.

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Chocolate Panna Cotta (Adapted from Bon Appétit)

Recipe adapted to serve two.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 tablespoon unflavored powdered gelatin

1 cups whipping cream (30+% butterfat)

1/4 cup sugar

2.5 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Pour milk into a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over the top, set aside for 2-5 minutes.

Place a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, sugar and vanilla. Bring to a low boil.

Add chocolate and whisk until melted. Whisk the milk/gelatin mixture into chocolate cream mixture. Whisk until gelatin has dissolved.

Transfer to ramekins, or nice glasses for serving.

Cover and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight

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To go with the panna cotta we were to make Florentine cookies. I have never made or eaten this type of cookie, but the recipe is quite simple. I used light corn syrup because I did not have dark corn syrup in the house and I was not going to buy it when such a small amount was needed, especially since I cut the recipe in half. Also, I decided to use some of the leftover frosting from my niece’s birthday cake as the filling. I thought that it worked quite well as a filling. I think I made the cookies way too big, but they were good and went well with the panna cotta.

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Florentine Cookies (Adapted from Nestle)

This is a half recipe of the original with my changes noted.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup unsalted butter

1 cups quick oats (I used thick oats and wizzed it in a food processor.)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup plain (all purpose) flour

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/8 cup whole milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

2/4 cups dark or milk chocolate (I used a delicious chocolate frosting.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to moderately hot 375°F (190°C) (gas mark 5). Prepare your baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan, then remove from the heat.

To the melted butter add oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla, and salt. Mix well. Drop a tablespoon full, three inches (75 mm) apart, onto your prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of your tablespoon, or use a spatula.

 

Bake in preheated oven for 6-8 minutes, until cookies are golden brown. Cool completely on the baking sheets.

While the cookies are cooling melt your chocolate until smooth either in the microwave (1 1/2 minutes), or stovetop (in a double boiler, or a bowl that fits atop a saucepan filled with a bit of water, being sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl).

Peel the cookies from the silpat or parchment and place face down on a wire rack set over a sheet of wax/parchment paper (to keep counters clean).

Spread a tablespoon of chocolate on the bottom/flat side of your cookie, sandwiching another (flat end) cookie atop the chocolate.

This recipe will make about 1 – 1 1/2 dozen sandwiched Florentine cookies. You can also choose not to sandwich yours, in which case, drizzle the tops with chocolate (over your wax paper).

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Happy Valentines Day!

Ah, Valentine’s Day, a day to express your love and to eat chocolate. I intend to do both today. I have a wonderful supper planned to celebrate the day. Sadly, I can not share that supper with the blog today. All of the components are either from Daring Bakers or French Fridays with Dorie. I promise that by the end of the month I will be able to post about that complete meal.

I can tell you about the rest of the day, however. Rodney has the day off today, so we are going out for a nice lunch. I think we are going to Origami for sushi and sake. (I love sake!). I will post more about that meal this afternoon. Until then I hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day!

Best laid plans and all...

Today was supposed to be a big posting day. I was going to make the French Friday’s With Dorie Chicken B’stilla for supper last night and the Daring Bakers challenge of Biscuit Joconde Imprime/Entremet for a friend’s birthday today. My plan had been to start both on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I was not able to prepare either dish, for it has been a hectic week in Ronda-land!  There have been bad backs, electronics to set up and other weirdness’s to deal with; some of them mine, some of them other people’s. Today I am off to watch my niece/God-Daughter #1 play basketball. I should be back to normal posting by Sunday. That is God willing and the creek don’t rise!

Daring Bakers Challenge: Christmas Stollen

A month or so ago I came upon the website for the Daring Kitchen. I had heard of their site before, but I did not think I was up for the challenge. Well this month I decided it was time for me to give it try. You can sign up as a Daring Baker and/or a Daring Cook. I am a better baker than I am a cook, so I only signed up as a Daring Baker.

I was very excited to see that the challenge for this month was Stollen.  Avery seasonal choice by Penny from Sweet Sadie's Baking. I had never had Stollen before, so I was not really sure what to expect. My family makes a bread that is similar called Jul Kaga, but it has some different flavors in it.

I followed the recipe that Penny provided pretty closely. The following is basically her recipe showing the ingredients I chose. The only change I made was to use green cherries instead of red. I just could not find red ones. Next time I would like to make my own candied peel.  I have given quarters of this away to friends and family. I am looking forward to seeing what they thought of it!

Stollen

¼ cup lukewarm water (110º F)
4 1/2 teaspoons
1 cup milk
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
5½ cups all-purpose  flour
½ cup sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract or orange extract
¾ cup mixed peel
1 cup firmly packed raisins
3 tablespoons rum
12 green glacé cherries (roughly chopped) for the color and the taste.
1 cup flaked almonds
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Powdered Sugar for dusting wreath

Directions:

Soak the raisins
In a small bowl, soak the raisins in the rum and set aside.

To make the dough

Pour ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water into a small bowl, sprinkle with yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.

In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup (240 ml) milk and 10 tablespoons (150 ml) butter over medium - low heat until butter is melted. Let stand until lukewarm, about 5 minutes.

Lightly beat eggs in a small bowl and add lemon and vanilla extracts.

In a large mixing bowl (4 qt) (4 liters) (or in the bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment), stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange and lemon zests.

Then stir in (or mix on low speed with the paddle attachment) the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.

Add in the mixed peel, soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!

Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mixing with the dough hook) to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes (6 minutes by machine). The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn't enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge (since the butter goes firm) but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.

Shaping the Dough and Baking the Wreath

1. Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
2. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
3. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4 with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
4. Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick.

Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.

Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.

This was before I pinched it together

Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.

Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.

Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.

Update 1-2-2011-- I was supposed to include the following lines in this post:

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.