Rita The Beater

Those of you who read my last post will know that my first DB challenge didn't exactly go smoothly. Which resulted in me being short a mixer in my kitchen. I jokingly told my boyfriend that "our son" would just have to get me a kitchenaid for a mothers day present. Well, it's not a kitchenaid, it is a much cheaper version of one. However I was, and still am over the moon about it because I now own my very first stand up mixer. Plus I am positive this is the best one he could afford at the moment (we are living on one income and have a baby so I'm sure many of you know how that goes). It has all the attatchments (whisk, beaters and dough hooks) plus it has a scale that pops out the front that measures in kgs, lbs and ozs which means a lot less conversions for me! w00t!!

Yeah I know it's not mothers day yet but I got my present a week early thanks to my bitching about not being able to make cupcakes and my constant asking to be taken to the store to buy an el' cheapo hand mixer because "that's better than nothing".

I have dubbed my pink beauty "Rita the beater" (yes I know I am lame) and within a couple of hours of opening her I was making lemon butterfly cuppies from a recipe in my 500 Cupcakes book. Rita works a dream compared to my old hand mixer and the scales on the front really are a massive help. I am much less intimidated about taking on future DB challenges too!

I think my next personal challenge however, will be to finally make myself some bagels now that I have a mixer with dough hooks. It's hard to find good bagels here in Australia so I really want to make my own. Plus boiling dough sounds exciting. Should be fun!

Long story short I have a very sweet boyfriend and a new best friend in the kitchen. Yay!

My First Daring Bakers Challenge!

And of course I'm late. Don't take it personally DB, I'm late for every- thing!

The challenge this month was chosen by Elle - Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah - Taste And Tell. The recipe was taken from the cookbook Sticky, Gooey, Messy, Chewy by Jill O' Connor. So what was I to be baking? Cheesecake pops!

Honestly I almost seized up in fear when I read this, I have NEVER made a cheesecake before, let alone a baked one. I have never baked anything in a waterbath. I have never melted chocolate over water, only in the microwave. I have never dipped anything into chocolate and I have never heard of this so called "vegetable shortening" the recipe calls for. I guess it is called a "challenge" for a reason though right? I mean how hard can it be?

Hah! How hard can it be? Yes as you may have guessed the recipe was a disaster. It was a disaster from the very first step, which of course was mixing together the cheesecake ingredients. Well my 20year old hand mixer didn't exactly "power through" the cream cheese. In fact after about a minute of mixing my nose pinched up, I looked around the room "is that smoke?...What the?.....Oh crap, SMOKE"! Yes indeedly, my mixer was smoking. I promptly unplugged it and placed in on the counter repeating to myself "please don't catch, please don't catch". After I unplugged it however the smoke started to billow out! Sweet merciful crap! My first DB challenge and I'm going to set my kitchen on fire!! Thankfully after a few minutes the smoke died down, I calmed down and the mixer went into the bin. A few minutes later my partner walks in the door, "is that smoke I smell?"...."don't ask, just don't ask". Needless to say the rest of the mixing was done with a wooden spoon and good old fashioned man power. I envy those of you with a kitchen aid!

The next issue was baking time. Everyone had thankfully already said on the DB forum that it was going to take a lot of extra time. I baked mine for close to 75mins, I wasn't sure if it was long enough but it had been double that which was stated on the recipe so I thought I should be OK. I let it sit until it reached room temperature then placed it in the fridge to chill.

Next came rolling the balls. The first couple were pretty easy and my confidence began to rise. This new found confidence however was promptly crushed when I reached the middle...gooey cream cheese. It was the same consistency as when I placed it in the oven! This proved to be a tad (extremely) difficult to roll. I may or may not have ingested my weight in uncooked cream cheese at this point. After rolling I popped in the sticks, felt a sting of shame looking at how ugly and distorted they were and placed them in the freezer to chill.

Next came the dipping. This is the part were I needed this strange ingredient "vegetable short- ening". After much research on the internet and going backwards and forwards between butter and copha one lovely lady mentioned on the DB forum that she used copha and that it worked well. Thank goodness because I really had no clue. Melting the chocolate was easy enough, however dipping...not so much. Seems my pops weren't really cold enough even after a few hours of chilling and I had no time to wait because we had guests coming around in less than 30mins. I did what I could and the first 20 or so got a whole coating of chocolate. After that however the chocolate began to seize so the rest of the pops only got their bottoms dipped in chocolate. It's OK though kids, I covered the rest in chocolate sprinkles!

As problematic as these were and as ugly as they turned out to be, they were in fact delicious. Last night I said I would never make them again but after mulling it over I think that I probably would. However I would halve the recipe and I wouldn't try to make them in a day. Also, I will probably wait until winter rolls around because even though it is autumn here in Queensland, Australia, the days are usually still a little too warm to handle the cheesecake. Hell our winters aren't even really that cold.

Anyway, thanks Daring Bakers! I learnt a lot and look forward to the next challenge. I promise not to procrastinate and be on time for the next one too!

If you would like to see what these were supposed to look like simply click on the daring bakers logo on the top right of my page to see a blogroll of other DB members who also completed these. Oh, and for those of you who would like to attempt the recipe here is the original (with a couple of tweaks). I'm sure you will all rush to do it because I made it sound oh so easy!

Cheesecake Pops

Makes 30 – 40 Pops

5 8-oz. packages cream cheese at room temperature (1125 grams)

2 cups sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream

Boiling water as needed

Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks

1 pound (450 grams) chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 1 pound of flavored coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionery coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colors, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening (or copha here in Australia)

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)


Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, colored jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, dragees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Set some water to boil.

In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

Grease a 10-inch cake pan (not a springform pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes (this is seriously going to take a LOT longer).

Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.

When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose it’s shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.

Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.

Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting color of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionery chocolate pieces) as needed.

Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

"Beef" And Stout (Sensitive) Man Pie

My partner is completely obsessed with home brewing at the moment and he is always on this home brewing forum looking for new recipes, techniques etc. Anyway about a month or so ago he showed me a recipe he found on said forum called "beef and stout man pie" and was saying how good it sounded. Well of course I don't cook with beef but thanks to the wonders of TVP I managed to make something that tasted freakin awesome anyways. So I give you the "beef" and stout pie for the sensitive man.

Ingredients

300g re-hydrated TVP
200g vegetables, chopped (I used carrot and potato but after tasting thought mushrooms would be amazing)
1 1/2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small brown onion, chopped
2 sprigs thyme
2 tsp worcester sauce
1 tsp curry powder
3/4 tbsp tomato paste
3/4 cup vegetable stock
3/4 cup stout
2 sheets puff pastry
1 egg whisked
a pie tray (mine was 18cm in diameter and 4cm high, this fit perfectly, if you have a large pie dish just double the recipe)

Method

In a medium saucepan add thyme leaves, onions and garlic to olive oil and brown for a few minutes. Add vegetables and sweat off for 5 mins. Toss TVP in flour and add to saucepan. Brown for a couple of minutes. Add worcester sauce, curry powder and tomato paste. Stir and cool for one minute.

Add stock and stout, scraping the bottom of the saucepan with a wooden spoon to remove any build up. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 mins or until vegetables are tender and sauce is thick. (If the sauce thickens but the vegetables are still not tender add a little extra stock or water and continue simmering.) Add salt and cracked pepper to taste. Allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcuis. Place a sheet of pastry in the bottom of pie tin, trim edges and prick a few holes in the bottom. Place in oven and cook for a few minutes until bottom starts to harden and pastry begins to rise a little. Fill with cooled "meat" mixture and cover with another sheet of pastry, trim and pinch edges, prick top with fork and decorate if desired. Brush with egg, and bake in oven for 15-20mins or until pastry is brown and fluffy.


There you have it. Hope you all enjoy this recipe. It tasted really good and was my first attempt at any kind of pie so I was pretty pleased with the results.