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.

Imagine an office, filled with the tapping of a cache of keyboards, the twitter hushed phone conversations. Suddenly infiltrated for the day by the twinkling haze of balloons and streamers. The commemoration of another birthday. Another year shared with workmates, not of your choosing, fittingly celebrated with a dry, overwhelmingly sugary, fluffed up slice of fake cake. The kind of dessert that requires a cool glass of water, or two, to wash the unpleasant coating from the your insides.

Obviously, they didn’t spring for a Dobos Torte birthday cake.

Though, honestly, I didn’t love this decadence wholeheartedly. Sponge cake and I are old enemies, back from the days of the old wood stove, all my forays into the world of the sponge have resulted in cakes that are more like sea sponges. Chocolate buttercream and I, on the other hand are fast friends. Not overtly sweet, deeply chocolately, smooth and shiney makes the best icing ever. Now, here is another thing, since when did Australian’s start calling icing ‘frosting’? It niggles at me, and I blame cupcakes. There I said it. Yeah, cupcakes and I don’t get along, either. 

This is a layer cake with a difference, the sponge is cooked in layers, instead of as a whole cake and sliced as is usual, then sandwiched together with a swoon of chocolate buttercream. The cake is crowned with a final layer of sponge burnished with interestingly citrus scented caramel. I fear that I failed to cook the caramel sufficiently, leaving it a sticky mess of teeth binding sugar glue.

I took my Dobos Torte to the park, and fed it to friends, new and old. Opinions were varied, most didn’t like the jaw clogging viscosity of the caramel, but the cake itself was well enjoyed. By me, too.

Dobos Torta

Sponge cake
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
162g icing sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour sifted together)
pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream
4 large eggs, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
110g dark chocolate, finely chopped
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Caramel topping
200g caster sugar
180 ml water
40 ml lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

Finishing touches
a 7” cardboard round
12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted
½ cup (50g) peeled and finely chopped hazelnuts (I used flaked almonds).

For the Sponge:
1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).

2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9″ (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn’t touch the cake batter.)

3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner’s (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don’t have a mixer.)

4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner’s (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.

5.Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet. Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8″ springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)

For the chocolate buttercream:
1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.

2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.

3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.

4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.

5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

For the caramel topping:
1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.

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.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn’t just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.

Assembling the Dobos
1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.

2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.

3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.

4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.

Biscuits remind me of home, family. My Grandma makes wonderful biscuits, my favourites are buttery and crisp with a dark chocolate round pressed into the top. The smell of anzac’s baking transport me to my childhood, in fact biscuits seem to be the first thing youngsters learn to bake, not as difficult as a cake, and ever-so rewarding.

The sweet crunch of a good biscuit is heavenly, but I rarely cook them so it was a nice surprise when this months Daring Bakers’ challenge forced me back to childhood memories, back to biscuits. I chose to make the Milan Cookies, and I admit I changed the recipe a little.

Also, I hate piping. Fiddly, messy and time consuming, I hate piping as much as I used to hate rolling. I’ve since gotten over my fear of rolling pins, but my distaste for piping bags continues, so I spooned the batter for this biscuit (hence the random shapes and their flatness). Despite this, the recipe was easy and resulted in thin, crisp, sweet and light biscuits, which paired wonderfully with the thick ganache filling.

These biscuits are nothing like my childhood experiences, they are a more adult version, especially as I used lindt 80% dark chocolate for the ganache. Bittersweet, just like getting older.

Milan Cookies
Recipe courtesy Gale Gand, from Food Network website

170g unsalted butter, softened
312.5 icing sugar
7/8 cup egg whites
2 tablespoons vanilla extract*
2 tablespoons lemon extract**
187.5g plain flour
Cookie filling, recipe follows

* I only added 2 teaspoons of the vanilla extract, because 2T seems like way way too much
** I used 2 teaspoons, and replaced with lemon juice.

Cookie filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream
225g chocolate, chopped
1 orange, zested

Cream the butter and sugar. Gradually add the egg whites, when combined stir through the vanilla and lemon. Fold in flour.
Pipe 2.5cm lines of batter onto a baking paper lined tray. These biscuits spread, so be sure to place them with plenty of room.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 10 mins or until golden around the edges, then leave to cool on the tray.

For the filling:
Heat cream in a small pan until almost boiling. Break chocolate up and place in a bowl. When cream is hot, pour over the chocolate and stir to melt the chocolate. Stir through the zest and set aside to cool. This ganache will thicken as it cools, and be very difficult to work with if it gets too cold.
Spread a thin layer of the ganache on the bottom of one biscuit and join with a second biscuit. Repeat for the remainder of the biscuits.

Writing doesn’t come as naturally to me as cooking, or more visual pursuits (and my backlog of posts is proof of this). I am a little bit of a perfectionist and if I tweaked and tinkered as much as I would like this blog wouldn’t exist. This is an exercise in letting go more than anything else. 

Sometimes I sit down here to write and can barely string two sentences together. On a day like today, the posting day for the latest Daring Bakers challenge, this is a very bad thing. No words = no post, so what do I do? Get distracted. By my latest new cookbook, other peoples blogs, pretty internet nibbles or, as happened today, facebook scramble. 

My pMum is wonderful with words in an artisticly bizarre way. She famously noticed that my netball club’s proposed new name had the aconym WANC. We would have forever been called the WANCers were it not for her, though AWNC certainly doesn’t have the same ring to it. So you better believe that she is a scramble master. Thats right, I’ve nothing to write about so I tried all morning to beat her. And failed. So I am back again trying to think of something to say about Bakewell Tarts.

There are many words to describe them: Historic, boring, easy, unenticing, plain. That is what I thought before I made them, at least. I don’t like jam, and I find frangipane boring which leaves little to love in this little tart. So I only made a half mixture, not wanting to be haunted by some sad little lifeless treats hanging around for days. 

Fresh from the oven, these tarts are just the opposite, what a happy surprise. Crisp pastry slathered with homemade tart quince and vanilla jam topped by light and fragrant frangipane, these tarts turned into more than the sum of its parts. Happily, bakewell tarts are now tasty, comforting, interesting and pleasant to me. Now, to beat that scramble high score.

Bakewell Tart…er…pudding
This recipe was provided by the Daring Bakers. I used a half recipe and made 4 individual tarts.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

225g plain flour
30g sugar
½ tsp salt
110g  unsalted butter, cold (frozen is better)
2 egg yolks
15-30ml cold water

Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Grate butter into the flour mixture, using the large hole-side of a box grater. Using your finger tips only, and working very quickly, rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Set aside.

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the almond extract (if using) and quickly mix into the flour mixture. Keep mixing while dribbling in the water, only adding enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough.

Form the dough into a disc, wrap in cling and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. I made mine the day before and left it on the bench for a while to come up to temperature before rolling it out.

Frangipane

125g unsalted butter, softened
125g icing sugar
3  eggs
½ tsp almond extract
125g  ground almonds
30g all purpose flour

Cream butter and sugar together for about a minute or until the mixture is primrose in colour and very fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The batter may appear to curdle. In the words of Douglas Adams: Don’t panic. Really. It’ll be fine. After all three are in, pour in the almond extract and mix for about another 30 seconds and scrape down the sides again. With the beaters on, spoon in the ground nuts and the flour. Mix well. The mixture will be soft, keep its slightly curdled look (mostly from the almonds) and retain its pallid yellow colour.

Assembling the tart:

One quantity sweet shortcrust pastry 
Bench flour
250ml jam or curd, warmed for spreadability (I used quince and vanilla jam, recipe follows)
One quantity frangipane

Place the chilled dough disc on a lightly floured surface. If it’s overly cold, you will need to let it become acclimatised for about 15 minutes before you roll it out. Flour the rolling pin and roll the pastry to 5mm thickness, by rolling in one direction only (start from the centre and roll away from you), and turning the disc a quarter turn after each roll. When the pastry is to the desired size and thickness, transfer it to the tart pan, press in and trim the excess dough. Patch any holes, fissures or tears with trimmed bits. Chill in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Remove shell from freezer, spread as even a layer as you can of jam onto the pastry base. Top with frangipane, spreading to cover the entire surface of the tart. Smooth the top and pop into the oven for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the tart is done, the top will be poofy and brownish. Remove from oven and strew flaked almonds on top and return to the heat for the last five minutes of baking.

The finished tart will have a golden crust and the frangipane will be tanned, poofy and a bit spongy-looking. Remove from the oven and cool on the counter. Serve warm, with crème fraîche, whipped cream or custard sauce if you wish.

When you slice into the tart, the almond paste will be firm, but slightly squidgy and the crust should be crisp but not tough.

Quince and Vanilla Jam
Unfortunately I don’t really have a recipe for this as I made it up (cook this at your own risk!). But here is what I did.

You will need poaching liquid from poached quinces (see this recipe), 1 litre’s worth or more. Taste it, you may need to add a little more sugar along the way. Place in a saucepan, add one split vanilla bean pod and simmer until reduced and syrupy. It needs to set, so be sure that you include the skins and cores of the quinces when you poach them. To test place a few drops of the liquid on a plate that has been in the freezer. If it sets then it is ready, if not continue reducing. If it doesn’t work, sorry.

In my mid teens I escaped the boring farm life and headed to the big city for the Xmas holidays. My uncle had given me a job wrapping presents in his bustling Bondi Beach gift shop, how exciting for a small-town girl. One evening my uncle asked whether I liked Schnitzel. Now, you know I had had schnitzel before, but only the pre-prepared revoltingly dry chicken variety, not the hanging off the edge of the plate tender veal kind, with creamed spinach and sauerkraut. This was obviously a problem that needed immediate rectification, so after the shop closed we wandered around the corner to the Gelato Bar and sat under the stars on a beautiful summer night and eating schnitzel. I’m sure it was pretty decent, but I had eyes only for the strudel. 

The Gelato Bar is a funny place. I’ve never had gelato here but you can get Matzo ball soup, if you’re willing to put up with backpacker service and high prices. But strudel is the reason to come here. Thick slices of hefty strudel, the pastry crisp and flaky, layered with nuts and dusted with a generous amount of icing sugar. But for me, the pastry in strudel was always secondary to the filling. Gelato bar sells dense, rich poppyseed, sweet and smooth walnut, sour cherry and lemon zest spiked cheese, and chocolate with hazelnut. The last two are my favourites, and I buy them pretty much any time I ever go to Bondi (the outlet at Bondi Junction often sells the strudel for half price on weekday afternoons, a steal!)

Honestly, I knew that I could not reproduce my Gelato Bar favourites for this Daring Bakers challenge, but I gave it a try regardless. I make cherry and cheese (delish!), vanilla poached pear with semolina cream, and chocolate with walnut. They were ok, with the bitter sweet chocolate and nut version winning by far, but I can’t help but feel that there was something wrong with the pastry, it seemed tasteless and quick to get soft. I don’t know if it was just me, and my technique or the the recipe but it just wasn’t a winner for me. Whatever, though – this challenge was fun, but now I am dying to go back to bondi for a big slice of cherry and cheese.

Strudel Dough
(recipe via Daring Bakers website, from “Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague” by Rick Rodgers)

I made this recipe twice, the first time it was really wet, because I used Australian Tablespoons (20mL) – when the recipe was in fact using some other measure. I have removed this from the recipe so that most measurements are by weight.

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
105 ml water, plus more if needed
30 ml vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.

2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).

3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.

4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it’s about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Filling:
150g Chopped walnuts
4T raw sugar
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped.

Mix all ingredients together and fill pastry as desired. This amount can also be halved for a less rich version.

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

I have to admit that I was initially a bit disappointed that my first Daring Bakers Challenge would be cheesecake. I thought that it was a bit boring, too easy and not really a challenge at all. But then I thought some more, and realised that because it was really a clean slate, I could challenge myself to come up with something creative, novel and interesting. Daring, even. Happily I proved my initial reaction wrong, and after a little test run for flavours it all became clear. This recipe is amazing.

I’ve made lots of cheesecakes before and I think I can safely say that this recipe is the best I have ever used. I reduced it to 1/3, put different flavours in, cooked it in little souffle dishes, metal pans with no biscuit base, and non-springform pans and never once did it split or crack, even when I didn’t follow the cooling directions. It always stayed creamy and delicious.

There were two directions I wanted to go with this, but my first tests proved that middle-eastern inspired was the winner. Rose water flavoured cake, paired with ginger and cardamom poached plums and baklava inspired biscuits. The perfect dessert for a dinner party (except when you forget all about the biscuits come dessert time).

Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake – Rose Water Cheesecake with Baklava Biscuits and Ginger Cardamom Poached Plums
crust:
180 g marie biscuits, crushed to crumbs
115g butter, melted
24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
50g walnuts, finely chopped
 
cheesecake:
680g cream cheese,  room temperature
210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp. lime juice
2 tbsp. rose water

Preheat oven to 180C.

Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. I used a rectangular loaf pan, 12cm x 24 cm, buttered and lined with baking paper. Refrigerate crust.

Combine cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, lime juice, and rose water and blend until smooth and creamy.

Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If your cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

Baklava Biscuits
I made this recipe up myself, so use with caution and intelligence

1/2 packet filo pastry, store bought.
180g butter
65g almonds (i used flaked)
50g walnuts
1t cinnamon
50g brown sugar.

Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Once melted, cook a little longer until browned and nutty smelling, strain and set aside.
In a food processor or blender, whiz nuts until finely chopped, then add cinnamon and sugar and blitz until mixed.
Take your first sheet of filo pastry, place flat on bench and brush with butter. Top with another sheet of filo and brush with butter. Repeat one more time and then sprinkle over a layer of the nut mixture. Place the next sheet of filo over the top, brush with butter, then top with one more sheet, brush with butter. Cover with the remaining nut mixture. Repeat filo process so you have another two or three layers of pastry on top. This is not an exact science, you just want a bit of a pastry base, then a few layers of sweet nuts, then a few pastry layers on top. Cut into strips about 3 cms wide, and bake 180C until pastry is crisp and the bottoms are browned, and the whole kitchen smells like baklava.
Remove biscuits and cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container.

Ginger Cardamom Poached Plums
Experimental and delicious

1/4 c sugar
5 cardamom pods, crushed
thumb sized piece ginger
1/4 cup lime juice
6 blood plums
dates, sliced, to serve.
 

Make a caramel: In a small saucepan heat the sugar with a little water, brushing down the sides with a wet pastry brush to stop crystallisation. When caramelised, add 1 cup of water – be careful, this will spit and splatter. Dissolve caramel in water, add cardamom and ginger and boil for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, cut the plums in half and remove the seed. Cut each half into wedges, and place in a container with a lid.
When syrup is ready, pour over plums, cover and refrigerate. Leave for a few hours or overnight for the flavours to seep into the plums.
The next day, pour the liquid off into a small pan and reduce to a thick syrup over medium heat. Discard the ginger and cardamom.
To serve, drizzle the cooled syrup over the plums and slivered dates.