The Daring Bakers recipe this month, hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks was strudel, and while the original recipe was apple, we were allowed to fill it however we wanted.  I decided to do a savory version, based on a filling from a mushroom barley pie from Smitten Kitchen.  It turned out pretty well, although the filling could use a little more oomph.  Matt suggested it needed sausage, which I think would be a good idea.

The strudel dough was actually easier to make than I was expecting.  You just mix flour and salt, water, oil, and a bit of vinegar.  The dough has a very nice feel and is easy to knead — not sticky at all.  However, stretching it was a little harder.  I pretty easily got it out to about a foot by a foot.  But, as I continued to stretch it, it started to get holes, especially on the edges, and I never was able to get it as big as the 2 foot by 3 foot recommendation.  This may partly have been because the directions suggest stretching it on a floured tablecloth, but I don’t have any tablecloths, so I just used my kitchen counter.  At any rate, it was still tasty, but I think it would’ve been better if it had been thinner.

I’m not sure it’s quite worth the trouble of making the dough again, but I did like the concept and the filling, so I think I might try it again sometime, but take the easy way out and just use pre-made phyllo dough or even puff pastry.

It was definitely a fun challenge, and thanks again to Linda and Courtney for hosting!

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers. (more…)

So this dish isn’t going to win any beauty contests, but it sure was tasty.  As a general rule, I’m not a huge cauliflower fan.  But after seeing a couple versions recently of a cauliflower gratin, it seemed worth a try.  I took what I liked best from both versions.  It’s a little more trouble thana normal side dish, but it still comes together pretty quickly.  It’s definitely worthwhile to roast the cauliflower instead of just blanching it — it adds much more depth of flavor to the dish.

Really, despite the picture — give this one a try.

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Well, I’m a day late and a dollar short, but here’s my best effort at this month’s challenge.  Wendy at wmplesblog and Dharm at Dad – Baker and Chef hosted this month’s challenge, the Chocolate Valentino from Chef Wan.  This was an unusually simple challenge with only three ingredients — eggs, butter, and chocolate.  It makes a dense, fudgy, brownie-like but crumbly, rich cake, and as we were warned, it tastes just like the chocolate you use to make it.  We were also supposed to make homemade ice cream to go with the cake, and I had it all planned out to make this almond cherry chocolate ice cream.  I had bought the ingredients and everything, but I ended up at work all day on Valentine’s Day, and I had time to make the cake but not the ice cream.  In the end, it was so rich on its own, I don’t think it suffered too much from not having ice cream to go with it, although I do still want to try that ice cream sometime.

I added a couple extra ingredients to my cake — flaky sea salt and Kahlua.  I thought the coffee flavoring would be tasty with the chocolate, although if I did it again I’d either add more or leave it out, as I couldn’t really taste it. However, I did think the salt really added to the flavor of the cake. (After discovering World Peace Cookies, I’m pretty much in love with the salty-sweet combination.)

Thanks to Wendy and Dharm for a delicious Valentine’s day treat!  Finally, here’s the fine print for the blog-checkers:

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

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Sorry I’m late! My post should be up tomorrow, so please come visit then!

So as you can see, we a had a busy, fun, food-filled weekend — Mom and Dad came over for dinner on Friday, we hosted a potluck graduation party on Saturday, and I did the baking for a brunch on Sunday! I’ll fill you in on the details (and links will appear on this post) as I get the time to write things up, but until then, enjoy the spread, more or less in chronological order: