Julie | July 27, 2010
The July 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was a Swiss roll-lined ice cream bombe. I chose to go with an almond and summer fruit theme, making almond cake, boysenberry jam and caramel, and apricot and honey-almond ice creams.
Julie | June 27, 2010
The June 2010 Daring Bakers challenge featured chocolate pavlovas or meringues topped with chocolate mascarpone mousse and a creme anglaise drizzle.
Julie | May 27, 2010
The May 2010 Daring Bakers challenge featured the croquembouche, a tower of cream puffs glued together with caramel or chocolate ganache. I filled my choux puffs with chocolate and vanilla praline pastry cream based on a Julia Child recipe.
Julie | March 27, 2010
The March 2010 Daring Baker’s challenge featured homemade orange marmalade, pate sablee and caramel sauce in a French dessert called an orange tian. My variation used sweet Cara Cara oranges, a buckwheat-tinged crust, and a to-die-for creamy orange caramel.
Julie | February 27, 2010
The February 2010 Daring Baker’s challenge featured that coffee-lover’s dream, tiramisu, with homemade ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese. My version substituted vanilla and chai teas for the coffee and Marsala wine, since we don’t drink either.
Julie | January 27, 2010
The January 2010 Daring Bakers challenge featured nanaimo bars, an iconic Canadian bar cookie that combines graham cracker crumbs, chocolate, coconut, almonds, and frosting. Very nearly too sweet, even for me, but still oddly addictive.
Julie | November 27, 2009
The November 2009 Daring Bakers challenge featured a classic Italian dessert, cannoli. I dipped the edges of my crisp cannoli shells in chocolate and coconut, and filled them with vanilla, chocolate and banana cream made from fresh ricotta cheese.
Julie | October 27, 2009
The October 2009 Daring Bakers challenge featured that delicate and refined French confection, the macaron. My ganache-filled chocolate macarons in no way resembled the classic cookie, but they still tasted great.
Julie | September 28, 2009
The September 2009 Daring Bakers challenge featured homemade puff pastry baked up into little cups called vols-au-vent. I filled mine with scrambled eggs, sauteed spinach and mornay sauce, in a breakfast-for-dinner riff.
Julie | August 27, 2009
The August 2009 Daring Bakers challenge featured a classic Viennese pastry, the Dobos Torte, in which five thin layers of sponge are stacked with chocolate buttercream and topped with a decorative caramel-glazed cake layer.
