vegilicio.us

August Daring Bakers Challenge: Dobos Torta

This month's challenge was one I hadn't heard of. (No surprise there. I think "cheesecake" is the only one with which I've actually had prior experience.) I did hear from a Hungarian friend that it's pronounced with an "sh" sound at the end, and that it's delicious. All I needed to hear!

So the Dobos Torta is a layered sponge cake, filled with a chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. I decided from the get go to do a miniaturized version, as I knew this was destined for the office, and having everyone hack into a round layer cake just sounded like a bad idea. 

I did not have the energy to play with the original recipe as handed down by the Daring Bakers hostesses myself, so I kindly borrowed Brynna Clark Grogan's, with minor changes: 

Sponge Cake

• 2 1/2 Cups plus 2 T. pastry flour
• 1 1/2 Cups Granulated Sugar
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 3/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 Cup plus 2 Tbs Earth Balance
• 2 Tbs Fresh Lemon Juice 
• 1 Cup Water
• 3/4 Cup Soy Milk
• 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350º F. Brush a jellyroll with a light layer of oil. Use a sheet of parchment to cover the bottom. (The oil helps the parchment stick to the pan.)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Add Earth Balance, water, and lemon juice and beat well (with an electric mixer) for a minute or so. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again. Pour the batter into the jellyroll pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the top is lightly browned, and the center springs back to your touch. Set aside to cool. 

While the sponge layer is cooling, mix the chocolate buttercream. This version is courtesy of Daring Baker Mahima, and it was delicious:

• 1 cup Earth Balance
• 1 tbsp soymilk or little more, if needed
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled)
• 1 and a half cup confectioner sugar 

Mix all ingredients together with an electric mixer. Pour into a bowl to set aside. Lick beaters.  

 

Next, release the cake from the pan. I then cut off the crusty edges (and ate them), and then cut the cake with a serrated knife into small squares, about 2 inches by two inches. I then sliced each of those squares into 2 layers. I stacked 4 layers of the small squares together, spreading chocolate buttercream in between. Then, ice the tortas. I realized early on I didn't have enough icing to ice the entire exterior of every mini-torta. So, half of them were fully iced, while half only had icing on the top and between the layers. I sprinkled toasted, chopped hazelnuts around the sides. Be sure to leave a few top-layer squares to use as caramel-covered wedges for garnishing the top. 

 

Next, make the caramel topping. This portion of the recipe I took straight from the original, although I definitely made a couple missteps here. After previous kitchen disasters, I'm a little gun-shy about melting sugar on the stove. My fear of burning meant that I took the syrup off the stove too early, and never really reached the caramel color or texture. It tasted fine, but never achieved what the recipe calls for. 

Caramel topping

• 1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
• 12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
• 8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil 

Directions for the caramel topping:

1.Cut the leftover squares into smaller-sized wedges. 

2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.

3.Pour the caramel over the wedges, let cool. 

Finally, take each of the caramel-coated wedges, and prop them up against a toasted hazelnut atop each torta. 

The tortas were definitely yummy, and I got compliments from my coworkers. The only bummer was that without the proper execution of the caramel-coated wedges, instead of tasting like an incredibly special, traditional Hungarian dessert handed down over generations (as if I know what that is supposed to taste like), they sort of tasted like birthday cake with extra-yummy icing. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.)

The Hostesses for this challenge have requested that we include the following message: 

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

March Daring Bakers Challenge: Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake

 

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was a little more my speed, in that it was actually a dessert this time. The challenge recipe was for a cheesecake, but considerable latitude was given in terms of style. With spring in full swing, I wanted to do something bright and fresh. Although I'm no enemy to chocolate, with warmer days upon us, I just wasn't in the mood for some kind of turtle something or other.

I have always heard of meyer lemons and seen them used in various recipes, but I had never actually tried them myself. Knowing them to be sweeter than conventional lemons, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to take them out for a spin. And, a citrus approach seemed just the kind of thing I had in mind. Luckily, my local specialty market had some in stock, so I grabbed some and headed home to begin. I settled on the idea of a meyer lemon cheesecake with a rosemary shortbread crust. To me, rosemary is a lovely addition for spring, and I just happened to have some growing in my windowsill.

I thought that doing some candied lemons would give me something to use as a decoration on top, while also adding a different flavor dimension and contrasting texture to the soft cheesecake.

Candied Lemon Slices

Ingredients

• 2 meyer lemons

• 2 cups sugar

Directions

Slice the lemons into 1/8" - 1/4" slices. Combine 2 cups water with 2 cups sugar in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium. Cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove pan from the heat and let the lemon slices cool in the syrup.

Next, on to the crust. I love shortbread crusts, and I thought that adding the rosemary would give it a little extra interest - something unexpected. I used a basic shortbread recipe, then just added minced rosemary and some of the zest from the meyer lemons.

Meyer Lemon Rosemary Shortbread Crust

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Earth Balance, room temperature
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t minced fresh rosemary
• 1 t meyer lemon zest

Directions

Preheat over to 400°F. In a stand mixer with an electric mixer, beat mix sugar and butter until fluffy. Stir in flour until mixture is crumbly in appearance.

Add rosemary and zest. Gather dough into a ball.

Press firmly into a spring form pan, lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate 10 minutes. Bake crust for about 15-20 minutes or until golden and firm. Set aside until cool.

Because I was using small-sized springform pan, I had some dough left over from the crust. Refusing to let the extra dough go to waste (we are in a recession after all!), I formed the dough into small cookies. I baked them in the same 400 F oven for 14 minutes. They were golden and buttery and crisp and fantastic. They would make wonderful tea cookies. 

I had made a vegan cheesecake in the past, and so I went with my standard approach and just added some of the juice of the meyer lemons.

Cheesecake Filling

Ingredients

• 1 -14 oz package firm silken tofu
• 1 -8 oz package Better than Cream Cheese (the version without trans fat)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup meyer lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp cornstarch

Directions

Reduce oven to 350 F. Place tofu and cream cheese in the food processor. Blend for 1 minute, then add sugar. Process until smooth, 3-5 minutes. In a small bowl, combine lemon juice and vanilla extract. Whisk in cornstarch until no lumps remain. Pour mixture into the food processor and process until very smooth. Pour into prepared crust. Set pan in large casserole pan and fill with hot water to the half-way point of the springform pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Turn off oven, and allow cake to sit in cooling oven for 1 hour. Allow to cool at room temperature for 2 hours, then refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Once cooled, I decorated the top of the cheesecake with the candied lemon slices, and springs of sugared rosemary. The cheesecake had a bright flavor and nice texture. The meyer lemons did give it that perfect mix of sweet and tangy-sour. I do think I should have cooked it just a few minutes longer -- the very center of the cake never completely set. It tasted very good, but it made the cutting and presentation a little messier than I would have liked. And, despite my best tinfoil-wrapping efforts, a little water did still seep into my springform pan and get the crust wet. Amazingly it crisped up well after cooling and sitting in the fridge overnight. The crust was my favorite part. I definitely think those lemon-rosemary shortbread cookies will make a future appearance in my kitchen.

Our Daring Bakers hostesses have requested the that we include the following message:

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

Doesn't tofu make you happy?

In a recent study, which measured people's "emotional response" to various foods, three of the "lowest happiness" scores went to tofu, soy, and avocado. The highest, on the other hand, included ice cream, chocolate, cake, and pizza.

The study did not report how many vegans were included, but I'm guessing not many.

Seriously, people! What gives? Tofu is like the happiest food ever! See?!

Vegans May Eat Like Rabbits, But It Doesn't Mean They Eat Like Birds

I recently read an article about a year-old, all-vegan bakery in Baltimore. Awesome! Always glad for some vegan sugary goodness within driving distance. And the operation is run by a woman named Charmane Baker -- perfect, mais non?

I'm sure she is a lovely person and a fine baker, but she has one warped notion of serving sizes. The photo below is of her chocolate cake, which she describes as being "large -- nine inches in diameter and three inches high," and, as serving 20 to 30 people. 20 to 30. I am hoping she's pushing that ridiculous idea just to try to make the $40 price tag sound more palatable, because who in their right mind thinks a typical two-layer, nine-inch cake serves 20 to 30 people? 20 to 30 infants maybe, or mice. But not 20 to 30 full-grown humans. Seriously! Just imagine for a second how small that is. Say, for example, normal people would cut this cake into 12 pieces. Okay, picture one of those already-modestly-sized pieces. Got it? Okay, now, cut that piece in half. Guess what? That piece is still too hefty for the 30-serving plan. Interestingly, the piece shown in her photo below looks to be about one-eighth of the thing.