Daring Bakers Interesting Loaf

Late again!

So I've missed the release date by 4 days and they'll have probably kicked me out by now. But here is my effort at this month's Daring Bakers Challenge.

This month's challenge was set by Jamie of Life’s a Feast and Ria of Ria’s Collection and it was to bake a Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake. Tricky for a vegan baker!

I would have normally just used a basic sweet bread dough recipe, but I found in the Daring Kitchen forums a post from a fellow vegan baker with their recipe for this month's challenge. The dough used tofu in it's recipe and as I'd never tried this before I thought I'd give it a go. You'll have to wait until the end to see the results...but I wasn't too keen!

This is the recipe and instructions for the tofu dough…

1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1 TBS 110-115˚ water
2 c. + 3 TBS unbleached flour
1/4 c. almond meal
2 TBS cane sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 c. non-dairy milk
1/4 c. vegan butter, melted
1/4 c. + 2 TBS silken tofu (Mori-Nu brand only)

Lightly oil a medium-sized bowl; set aside. Combine yeast and water; let sit for 15 minutes (or until foamy). In a large bowl, combine flour, almond meal, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Create a well in the center and pour in milk, butter, tofu and yeast; mix thoroughly. Once combined, knead for 2-3 minutes. Place dough in prepared bowl and cover with a damp towel; keep in a warm place for 60 minutes to rise.

*

What struck me first about this recipe was the very small amount of water that was called for to activate the yeast in. But I thought "Hey, if it worked for her I'll give it a go!"

It didn't work for me.

Mix that dough, tofu dough.

Yummy vegan ingredients ;)

For this challenge I also attempted to make a marshmallow fluff to use inside the cake. For this I got out my giant tube of VersaWhip and put to use a recipe I had found here. Yummy!

The hand whisk was out, the marshmallow was fluffing and everything was as it should be.

But my dough didn't rise.

Fluff!

My (unrisen) dough is rolled out into a rectangle ready to receive upon it yummy

vegan delights.

Marshmallow Fluff…

…chocolate chips, chopped pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and vanilla sugar!

It's then all rolled up into a delicious vegan log...

…made into a ring and snip snip snipped.

The ring was then left for an hour in the hope that it would rise again. But all the waiting was in vain, nothing rose!

So in the oven it went at 175℃ for 25 minutes, and there was no rising to be had.

A squashed snipped tyre that I found.

So in conclusion…

• the dough did not rise, not one little bit
• the marshmallow fluff was tasty pre-cooking but seemed to melt away in the oven
• the cake was compact and had a texture similar to that of a cake that had been flattened and then cooked again

(I made a jammy fruity version too which tasted a lot nicer but still had the squashed texture!)

Do try the marshmallow fluff, don't try the dough ☠

Bisous bisous xxx

Lu Flux Final Images

This week I got out my mega tub of VersaWhip and had a go at some recipes I'd found online. I also managed to complete the Daring Bakers challenge way ahead of time, so it's just fingers crossed that I remember to post it on the right day!

I'm just sorting out the VersaWhip photos, so here are the final images from the Lu Flux shoot that I worked on a few months ago.

I really love them, they are so pretty and Harriet (the model) looks beautiful. It was such a nice relaxed day, despite the freezing cold weather and everyone worked really well together. Enjoy :)

Styling, Concept and Direction: Sophie Surridge

Photography: Melodie Roulaud

Make Up: Me

Hair: Su Jin Jung

Model: Harriet Tebbutt

Bisous bisous xxx

Mixed Up Tart

A while back The Daring Bakers challenge was to bake a crostata. At the time I made two with different fillings but only posted one with an apple filling on my blog.

I also made a crostata with couscous cream, bananas and chocolate, this is it's story…

The pastafrolla recipe and directions are exactly the same as those for the apple crostata, but the fillings were an experiment.

I had read somewhere that if you cook couscous and make it into a creamy custard paste then the texture is very similar to the set custard that you would find in a sweet tart. And with couscous being one of my favourite foods I thought I'd give it a go.

So I set my couscous to boil. I sweetened the water slightly and dropped in some lemon rind in the hope of infusing the couscous with a sweeter, dessert appropriate taste.

The best way to get a sticky soft couscous is simply to overcook it, this will

help to make a smooth and silky 'custard'.

Next I pushed and poked and pressed the cooked couscous through a fine sieve. I did

this a couple of times to make sure that the mixture was smooth and lump free.

This sticky mess then went into a saucepan with half a carton of Oatly cream, vanilla seeds and sugar

and then slowly heated until the 'custard' reduced down and became a nice thick creamy texture.

And then into the pastfrolla cases…

Slices of fresh banana on top…

Then lots of melted chocolate and a pecan, just for the look of it!

Conclusion:

A rather strange mix of flavours since I didn't think it through and just made it up as I went along, a dangerous past time. The dark chocolate and lemon flavour in the pastafrolla and couscous didn't really blend together very well, I had hoped that the freshness of the lemon would nicely cut through the rich chocolate. This was not so, it resulted in a strange strange taste.

The couscous cream had a very good set custard texture, squishy and thick. I think that coconut cream would probably be a better substitute for the Oatly, it has a richer and fattier texture, and next time I'll leave out the lemon!

I wouldn't make a tart with the same flavour combinations again (who would?!), but I will definitely take the couscous cream idea and run with it, I think it would probably work well sandwiched between two perfect macaron shells, *sigh*.

Something I just found out, dolphins sleep by resting half of their brain at a time. This allows them to keep one eye open and surface for air! Well I never!

Bisous bisous xxx