Coconut Ice Cream with Passionfruit Caramel

Remember those passionfruit caramel filled chocolates from my last post? They might have been a bit of a disaster, but the very happy outcome was that I got a great recipe for passionfruit caramel sauce. Not that this sauce was immune to the struggles I had that day. The recipe stated 'dark amber caramel' and I thought my caramel was amber but the end result was much too thin and pale. I used golden syrup instead of corn syrup, giving it a darker colour to start with, so this may have been the problem. However, golden syrup has so much more flavour than corn syrup, so it was worth having to boil the caramel for another 10 or 15 minutes after adding all the ingredients. It still wasn't thick enough at room temperature. Oh well. It was so delicious that I was really happy to have almost 500 ml left after making the chocolates. Even though I tested it almost every day, there was still enough left to do something with. I decided to make ice cream and stuck with tropical flavours to make a knockout combination. This is a simple and tasty ice cream, but it makes a very small batch. 2 cups was perfect for me, but you may want to double it.

Coconut Saffron Ice Cream
Source: Delicious Days by Nicole Stich, via David Lebovitz
1 cup coconut milk
⅔ cup whipping/heavy cream
¼ cup sugar
scant ½ teaspoon saffron threads

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a small bowl and chill thoroughly.
3. Churn in an ice cream machine, transfer to a sealable container and place in the freezer to firm up. 

Passionfruit Caramel Sauce
Source: Adapted from CandyBarLab by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives
Makes 3+ cups!

¾ cup + 2 Tablespoon (210 ml/7 oz/200 gm) passion fruit puree
1½ cups (360 ml/12 oz/340 gm) sugar
½ cup + 2 Tablespoon (180 ml/5 oz/140 gm) corn syrup (I used golden syrup--yum)
1¾ cups (420 ml) whipping/heavy cream
6 tablespoons (90 ml/3 oz/90 gm) unsalted butter

1. Place the sugar, golden syrup and enough water so it’s like wet sand in a medium saucepan. Set over medium-high heat and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil and cook until dark amber in color, about 5 minutes. Use a pastry brush, dipped in water, to wash down sides of pan to prevent crystallization as the mixture boils. Remove saucepan from the heat and gradually whisk in the passion fruit puree, heavy cream and butter. Transfer to a medium bowl and let cool.
2. Serve warm or at room temperature with just about anything you can think of! I found this caramel sauce had a greasy mouthfeel when refrigerated, so I may skip the butter next time, and there will be a next time.

The Daring Bakers Go Candy Crazy!

Greetings from Ecuador! By the time this is posted I will have been here for a week or so. I am working on a course training English teachers, and living in a very rustic setting on a Pacific Coast beach. I have heard that internet access (and electricity) can be intermittent, so I have scheduled posts for the next 6 weeks, and I'll check in as often as I can and post pictures if possible.
Update! My laptop's hard drive crashed and died the day after I arrived! Some of the posts I had scheduled, but hadn't attached the pictures yet, so I've postponed those till I get back and get a new computer. Sp now I will post about once a week, but will be back in October. Ecuador is gorgeous, by the way, and the food, especially the fruit, is amazing.

Dark chocolates with passionfruit caramel filling

This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was fantastic because it didn't require me to turn on the oven. This month's Daring Bakers' challenge was not fantastic because tempering chocolate was required. I'm sure I've whined about this before in this space, but I am not a big fan of chocolate. There's something about the texture I don't like and I'm not crazy about the flavour either, but I do like chocolate cake and other baked goods more than plain chocolate. And yes, I've had the good stuff! However, I do like a challenge, so I jumped in as soon as I had a free day. Unfortunately that free day was one where the temperature was higher than the temperature I had to bring the melted chocolate down too, causing me no end of trouble.

My sweaty chocolates after their sojourn in the freezer

First of all, I had a hard time finding a chocolate thermometer. I called a local cake decorating supply store and they assured me that they had one for the bargain price of $6.95. I drove through heavy traffic to discover that it wasn't a chocolate tempering thermometer and didn't go as low as I needed. After coming home and making a number of calls I found a store in the other direction that did have one. I got it, but it only has Fahrenheit on it, and I am hopeless with Fahrenheit. I can barely spell it, in fact. 

I chose a heavy glass bowl to melt the chocolate in, and I think this was the wrong choice for the season. It held the heat forever and meant the chocolate did not cool down. I couldn't remember the temperature range and kept running to the living room to check my laptop. Even though I am very patient, I ended up sticking it in the freezer at one point. In the end, I did get it tempered, but then I had to fill the *^*%&^ molds! I lined them with chocolate, then overfilled them with the delicious, but too thin, passionfruit caramel (more on that in my next post), meaning it was impossible to get a nice thin, even base on them. I ended up with a thick layer of chocolate on the bottom and all the chocolates joined together. I did not foresee the trouble that was to come. Can you? When I went to unmold the chocolates, the base snapped off most of them and the filling ran everywhere. Out of 26 chocolates only about 6 survived. The rest? Garbage! I went to mope on the sofa in frustration and discovered that I had obviously stepped in some melted chocolate and left chocolate footprints all over the apartment. Sigh. And I was only half finished the challenge...

Luckily for me and my floors, the next part of the challenge was a non-chocolate candy. Yay! There were so many things I wanted to try, but I picked up a basket of Coronation grapes one day, and while I was eating them and admiring their tart, concentrated flavour, I decided to make pâte de fruit with them to see if I could capture that essence in a candy. The answer is a resounding yes! Coronation grapes are the Canadian cousin to Concord grapes and they are in the markets and grocery stores in Ontario right now. They are dark purple-blue, thin skinned, tart, seedless and with a strong taste. This is the first time I have done anything with them other than eating them out of hand, as I can easily finish a basket in a day. These were perfect little bites: tart, with a great texture and the coating of sugar was a great and necessary contrast. I used this recipe. Pâte de fruit has a reputation for being tricky, but I had no troubles with this one, and in fact sat in the living room with a friend, chatting, and only occasionally stirring the boiling mixture. I am much better at that than being focused and precise!

Thanks to Lisa and Mandy for a fantastically challenging challenge! You can find the entire text of the challenge, along with photos, links and recipes here. Please check out the slideshow of the amazing creations by candy makers more daring than me! I'll miss the next Daring Bakers' challenge, but will be back for October. Cheers!

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks athttp://www.chocoley.com offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!

Little lemon meringues, and passionfruit too!

These little cookies are a distant memory at this point. 3 weeks without cooking is just too long! Only one more week before I have a dramatic reunion with my stove. I can hardly wait, but for now I'll have to hope I can elbow my way into someone else's kitchen this long holiday weekend. In case I can't, I'll just have to be satisfied with the beautiful cakes and pastries from the 4 (!) French patisseries around the corner. Maybe being away from my kitchen is not so bad...

I made these little cuties with the leftover egg whites from the custard tarts. I also had leftover lemon curd from the yeasted coffee cake, and, well, I always feel better if I have passionfruit curd around. I baked the meringues till they were crisp, but didn't fill them until just before eating. The sweet crunch of the meringue combined with the tart creamy curd made these hard to leave alone. I have posted both curd recipes here before, so they are linked below. Happy Easter!

Crisp meringues

2 egg whites

1/2 cup fine granulated sugar

pinch salt

1. Preheat oven to 200℉/95℃. Line a large baking sheet with parchment. 
2. Beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Add sugar slowly, beating all the while, until very thick and glossy and will hold stiff peaks. Rub a bit of the meringue between your fingers--if you can feel sugar grains, keep beating until they dissolve. 
3. Pipe a bit of meringue under the corners of the parchment to attach it to baking sheet. Pipe or spoon small blobs (about 1"x1") on lined baking sheets. I use a star tip. Bake for about 2 hours, then turn oven off and let cool in oven until they are completely dry and crisp. When ready to serve, sandwich a pair of meringues with a bit of lemon or passionfruit curd. Plain whipped cream is also good. Serve immediately.

The Daring Bakers make fancy cake

Well, what we really made was a joconde imprimé and wrapped it around a filling, making an entremet. Fancy cake is a bit clearer, no? This was a fantastic challenge from Astheroshe of accro. I would never have made something so fancy-looking on my own, and I was thrilled to see the challenge and discover that it was not too complicated, though there were plenty of components. In fact, I was so eager to get started that I neither read all the instructions nor watched the video that was described as 'MUST WATCH THIS'. So, I was a bit disappointed with my results. It tasted amazing, but it just didn't look as nice as I wanted it to. If you were in a nice French bakery, your gaze would pass over mine, unless you're a real softie. Anyway, I'm being a bit melodramatic. If you decide to make one of these, please read the PDF and watch the video. No, I still haven't watched it.
:)

I used the passionfruit mousse from a couple of weeks ago to fill my entremets, and topped them with some passionfruit gelée (that's the fancy name for homemade Jell-O). The decor paste was tinted with cocoa, and the cake is an almond sponge. It was the construction where I messed up. I had it in my head that the entremets needed a cake base (they don't--it's in the instructions), but it just looks kind of stuck on. I also wrapped my molds completely in plastic wrap before lining them with parchment, meaning I mangled them a bit when trying to unmold them. Again, it was in the instructions not to do this. Like a few others, I discovered the gelée had run down the outside of the entremet, staining the cake a bit. Not tragic, but I definitely plan to make more of these, as I have so many ideas for designs and fillings. Stay tuned!

Thanks so much for a great challenge, Astheroshe! The Daring Bakers really went all out this month, so head over to The Daring Kitchen to see the slideshow of gorgeous entremets. 

Blog-checking lines: The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

Passion fruit mousse

I've had a hard time getting back into the swing of things since the holidays. I've been surprisingly busy at work this week, and daylight has been fleeting. I actually made this on Monday, and just managed to get some pictures today, so I can tell you that this mousse is a good keeper. Not that it'll last long once you try it. Isn't it just the dreamiest colour? Well, maybe not in Ottawa's dull light, but trust me, it was a beautiful pale orange.

I love passion fruit, but it's so expensive to buy them fresh here, and sometimes you get a dud, with almost no pulp inside it. I lucked out just before Christmas, because my aunt brought me back a shopping bag full of them from the Dominican Republic. I ate a lot over the holidays, but still got almost a kilogram of pulp from the rest. I've been sneaking spoonfuls and using it in smoothies, enjoying it thoroughly, but I wanted to make something I've never made before with passion fruit. When I was at my mother's over the holidays, I looked through some of the cookbooks I keep there and found a recipe for a bavarois, or Bavarian cream. Now, I'm not sure that it actually is a Bavarian cream, as they don't usually contain meringue. My Larousse Gastronomique is in storage, so I've just called this a mousse, and enjoyed it thoroughly. A rose by another name and all that.

This recipe started with a passion fruit curd, which got lightened with an Italian meringue and whipped cream and set with a bit of gelatin. Perfect: it would dirty all my dishes! I had also been loaned a set of small metal molds, by a friend who went hunting in her childhood home over the holidays. This recipe did indeed require lots of bowls, but the results were worth it. The texture is light, from the meringue, and tart, but still a bit creamy. It really is January diet fare, if you ignore the 7 egg yolks and cup of cream. That said, it made a lot! I filled all my ramekins, molds, and even set some aside for another dessert. According to The Cake Bible, it can even be frozen, so I'll try that with a few ramekins and let you know how it turns out.

Passion fruit bavarois
From The Secrets of Baking, by Sherry Yard
Serves 8

½ cup cold water, divided
1 ¼ ounce envelope powdered gelatin
1¼ cups granulated sugar, divided
3 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
¾ cup strained. pureed passion fruit pulp (can use frozen)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (I skipped this, as my passion fruit was very tart)
1 cup heavy cream
4 large egg whites

a 2-quart/litre decorative mold or smaller individual ones

1. Pour ¼ cup of the cold water into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over top. Set aside to soften. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a simmer over medium heat. 
2. Whisk together the egg yolks, eggs and ¾ cup of the sugar in a medium heatproof bowl. Place over the simmering water and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Whisk in the passion fruit and continue whisking until the curd reaches 160℉/71℃, or is the thickness of sour cream.
3. Melt the softened gelatin by heating for about 20-30 seconds in the microwave, and stir into the curd.
4. The recipe recommends straining and cooling over an ice bath, but I just put it in the fridge while I prepared the other components, and stirred it occasionally.
5. Whip the cream, then place in the fridge. Wash the beaters.
6. In a small saucepan, combine the remaining ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup water. Swirl to moisten the sugar, then cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Uncover and cook to 235℉/113℃. While you are waiting...
7. In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites to the soft peak stage. When the syrup is ready, drizzle it into the whites while you are beating. Be careful not to get the syrup directly on the beaters, as it will harden there, or be spun onto the sides of the bowl. Whip until stiff, shiny peaks have formed.
8. When the curd is cool (70℉/21℃), but not set, fold the meringue in with a spatula or a whisk. When it is almost incorporated, fold in the whipped cream. 
9. Immediately pour the mixture into the mold(s) and refrigerate. It will be set in about 2 hours. To remove from the mold, invert it onto a serving dish and rub the outside of the mold with a warm damp towel. Tap the mold to loosen the gelatin. This did not work for me! I had to dunk the molds into hot water before they would release. Perhaps I'll oil them lightly next time. If you wet your plate first, you will be able to slide the bavarian into place more easily. Stays fresh, refrigerated and covered with plastic wrap for up to 3 days. Garnish with extra passionfruit pulp, or other tropical fruit.

The Daring Bakers make crostata

This month's challenge was to make a crostata dough and fill it with our choice of anything at all. Time ran out on me, as it usually does, as I really wanted to make a savoury one. I did manage to make 2 small crostate, but I'll definitely have to come back to this one, especially as I still have some of the pastry in the freezer. The first one I made, shown above, was blind-baked and  filled with passion fruit curd and topped with raspberries. It tasted like summer, which is a treat, considering it's been alternating between freezing rain and snow here for the last 24 hours. You can find the recipe for the passion fruit curd here. 

The other one I made was filled with homemade applesauce and fresh blackberries. I find that a very English combination, but it was fantastic in the pasta frolla crust. I actually liked the crust better in this one--it was not as crisp and flaky, but very tasty from the filling. I topped it with a lattice and sprinkled it with raw sugar. I served this with whipped cream on the side, but it didn't need it at all. I had some warm and some cold and liked it both ways. 

Before topping and baking

Blog-checking lines:
The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

After a bite or two

Full challenge PDF here. Thanks for a great challenge, Simona! Take a look at the Daring Kitchen to see a slideshow of all the lovely crostate this month.

Daring Bakers: Pièce Montée (Croquembouche)

I was so excited when this challenge was revealed: cream puffs were a favourite childhood treat for my brother and I. No trip to Cantor's Bakery was complete without a giant cream puff. I have made them and éclairs, and even a Gâteau St-Honoré, but I had never assembled a croquembouche. It was tempting to jump in right away, as I had all the ingredients on hand, but I decided to wait and make it for my birthday. Of course, this also meant I could procrastinate a bit, which is always appreciated. 

One of the best things about this dessert is that it doesn't include chocolate! I decided to fill the puffs with vanilla pastry cream and passion fruit curd. For the glue, I used caramel. I wanted to make some spun sugar, but the day was a bit grey and drizzly, so I skipped it, though my first batch of caramel did spontaneously turn into spun sugar. I didn't have time at that point, as I didn't want to be late for my own brunch.

The pâte à choux was really easy to work with, and I got 35 puffs from the recipe given. I used about 30 to make the croquembouche, as that's all I could fill using the 2 batches of filling I made. I used the challenge recipe for the vanilla pastry cream, and the recipe for the passion fruit curd comes from Heavenly Cakes, by Rose Levy Berenbaum. The vanilla pastry cream was the perfect texture, but the passion fruit curd was runny, which made for some messy eating. You can find the recipe for this, as well as the rest of the challenge recipes at the end of the post.

I dipped the filled puffs in the molten caramel by hand, burning myself a number of times. Only one blister, though, which is not too bad, considering I dipped them top and bottom. It was quite easy to build the structure, as the caramel was like super glue. The croquembouche sat for a few hours while we ate our brunch, and the caramel got a bit too chewy in the humidity, but it was still delicious. I'll definitely be making this one again! Check out our host Cat's site here, and see the slideshow of creations from the Daring Bakers here.

Blog-checking lines: The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.


Recipes after the jump!