Daring Bakers' February 2011 Challenge - Panna Cotta and Florentine Cookies

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen.  She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

All the information about the challenge can be found here.

I felt neither too creative nor too adventurous this month. Also, March 1 is the birthday of a close friend and his favourite dessert is the classical panna cotta, so I decided to stick with the basic recipe for vanilla panna cotta and raspberry gelée. I couldn't obtain powdered gelatin so I used sheet gelatin instead. Here's my recipe variation:

1st Layer of Panna Cotta

120ml of whole milk
360ml of whipping cream
20ml of honey
1 tbsp of sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean
4 sheets of gelatin

2nd Layer of Panna Cotta

120ml of whole milk
360ml of whipping cream
40ml of honey
1 tsp of sugar
1 vanilla bean
4 sheets of gelatin

I let the sheet gelatin soak in cold water while preparing the rest of the panna cotta. In a pan I combined the milk, cream, honey, sugar and salt. I added the seed from the vanilla bean and the empty vanilla bean and let everything simmer for 15min while whisking frequently. I removed the pan from the heat and added the gelatin after squeezing the water from it. Then I strained it to remove the vanilla beans and other vanilla bean particles and poured the panna cotta into prepared glasses. For the second layer I let the panna cotta cool to room temperature before layering it on top of the raspberry gelée.

Raspberry Gelée

250g of frozen raspberries
60ml of freshly squeezed orange juice
60g of brown sugar
2 sheets of gelatin

I let the gelatin soak in cold water. The raspberries, orange juice and sugar were puréed in a blender. Since the raspberries were not completely defrosted yet, I had to warm up the fruit purée in a pan to bring it to room temperature. I squeezed the gelatin and let it melt in a little pan before adding it to the raspberry purée and layering everything on top of the panna cotta.

I liked the end result. Although, for my taste, the panna cotta should have had a softer texture. While preparing the raspberry gelée, I had the impression, that I didn't use enough gelatin. It took a long time for the gelée to set and I was relieved that pouring a second layer of panna cotta onto the gelée was possible without any trouble. But when I sampled the end result I was delighted to find that the gelée almost turned into a purée again, therefore mixing all the better with the panna cotta.

For the Florentine Cookies I tried to stick to Mallory's suggested recipe but could not find dark corn syrup, so I used half honey, half molasses instead. Also, I reduced the sugar to 130g because some other Daring Bakers mentioned in the forums that they were quite sweet. I loved the chewy texture and the caramel flavour of the cookies. To coat them with chocolate, I poured a spoonful of chocolate on a parchment paper and pressed a cookie with the flat side down onto the chocolate. Unfortunately, the caramel flavour was a bit overpowered by the chocolate, but I still liked the cookies. 

Oh, and in case you are wondering about the decoration in the background of the picture: carnival season is about to start in Switzerland :-)

Decorated Sugar Cookies

The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of "What the Fruitcake?!" Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

It definitely was a challenge for me as I don't usually decorate with Royal Icing. I don't have a very steady hand so I prefer things that don't require too much detail in the decorating. But then, the Daring Bakers challenges are all about trying out things one wouldn't normally do.

A part of the challenge was to decorate the cookies to the theme of September, whatever that meant to us. Since I am invited to four weddings this autumn - three of them in September alone - I decided to do red, white and pink hearts. Also, I figured it would be a relatively easy shape to pipe the icing on.

After my disaster with the Not-So-Red Velvet Cake I was a bit hesitant to work with food colouring again. But all white cookies would have been a bit boring, so I tried a different brand and discovered that luckily enough I've discovered the real stuff this time.

The recipe for the challenge and extensive instructions on icing techniques can be found here. 

Butterscotch Cookies

After a longer period of non-baking and a lot of hen night organisations and wedding preparations I couldn't wait to hit the kitchen again. Also, after almost a year of helping organizing this big event I felt a bit lost in the aftermath. And what better comfort could there be than cookies fresh from the oven. So I decided to try this recipe from Not So Humble Pie.

Butterscotch Cookies with White Chocolate Chips
adapted from Not So Humble Pie
 

175g flour
0.5 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon salt
250g brown sugar
170g margarine, room temperature
1 teaspoon molasses
30g butter, room temperature
1 egg
seeds from one vanilla pod
225g white chocolate chips (or white chocolate, roughly chopped)

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl cream the butter, margarine, molasses and sugar together for 3-4min either using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer. The mixture will be light in colour and fluffy.

Add the egg and the vanilla seeds and continue beating until well mixed. Add the flour in several parts, mixing each portion until well combined.

In the end, mix in the chocolate chips.

Prepare a baking sheet with baking parchment and - using two teaspoons - place little heaps of dough on the parchment, leaving lots of space in between each ball (about 5cm).

Bake for 12-15min. Take out and eat immediately (or let them cool and share with your friends at work).

Chocolate Chip Cookies

For some time now I've wanted to try to make chocolate chip cookies. I really love them, but very often when I bought some they didn't taste exactly as expected. I've recently realized, that what I actually had in mind was not the classical chocolate chip cookie, but a shortbread with chocolate chips. This explains a lot...

Still, when I decided to make my own chocolate chip cookies, I decided to give the classical American chocolate chip cookie a try, and I'm really glad I did. But more on that later.

I researched some recipes on the internet and decided on the following four:

1. Chocolate Chip Cookie from chefkoch.de, on the picture in the middle, front.

2. Best Chocolate Chip Cookies from allrecipes.com, on the picture in the middle, back.

3. Shortbread Chocolate Chip Cookies from cooks.com, on the picture on the left side.

4. Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies from healthycooking.suite101.com, on the picture on the right side.

All recipes were relatively easy to make and all were edible :-)

My personal favourite was to my surprise the classical American chocolate chip cookie (no. 2). I loved the texture. It was not nearly as chewy as some of the store bought variety but soft and the taste was great.

I was a little disappointed by the shortbread chocolate chip cookies (no. 3). They didn't taste like shortbread at all. I probably should have let them bake for a few minutes longer (or flatten them more) which might have helped with the consistency. The taste was ok (kind of like stracciatella ice cream), but also a bit boring. Especially compared to the other cookies. Surprisingly, a lot of people at the office seemed to prefer them. It just goes to show that there's no accounting for taste...

No. 1 was ok, especially on the second day. They seemed a bit dry when just cooled down but developed a nicer, softer consistency on the second day. Don't know what would have happened on the third day - none of them survived as long...

A nice variation was no. 4 with orange zest, even though they didn't taste like shortbread very much. But still the texture was smooth and crumbly and the taste pleasant.

All in all, I'll definitely make no. 2 again, maybe no. 4. No. 1 was nice enough in itself, but compared to no. 2 they just didn't measure up. No. 3 was disappointing, but I might try a different recipe for shortbread at one point.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookie 
from chefkoch.de

200g butter (room temperature)
280g sugar
40g sugar syrup (you'll find a recipe to make your own sugar syrup at the end of this post)
16g vanilla sugar
2 eggs
400g flour
1 tsp baking soda
0.5 tsp salt
200g chocolate chips
100g walnuts, roughly chopped

Cream together the butter with the sugar, sugar syrup and vanilla sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at the time.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda and salt.

Combine the butter mix with the flour mix, add the chocolate chips and walnuts and quickly mix  everything together.

Let the dough rest in the fridge in an airtight container for one day.

On the next day preheat the oven to 180°C. Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Form about 50 little balls from the dough and distribute them on the baking tray leaving gaps of about 3cm between each ball.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 15min.

2. Best Chocolate Chip Cookies 
from allrecipes.com

115g butter (room temperature)
100g white sugar
110g brown sugar
8g vanilla sugar
1 egg
190g flour
2g baking soda
5ml hot water
2g salt
170g chocolate chips
50g walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Cream together the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg.

Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add to the dough along with the salt.

Sift in the flour and add the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper and drop large spoonfuls of the batter onto the baking tray, leaving large gaps between each cookie (at least 5cm).

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 10min until the edges of the cookies are nicely brown.
 
3. Shortbread Chocolate Chip Cookies 
from cooks.com

200g butter (room temperature)
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
0.5 tsp salt
4.5 cups flour
80g chocolate chips
130g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and salt.

Sift in the flour and mix until well blended.

Add the chocolate chips and hazelnuts.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Form balls of 2.5cm diameter and flatten to about 4cm diameter rounds.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 18min until light brown.

4. Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies 
from healthycooking.suite101.com

50g butter (room temperature)
0.5 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp orange zest
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tbsp coffee cream (fat content of 12.5%)
1 tbsp buttermilk
1.5 cups flour
0.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp salt
100g chocolate chips
50g walnuts, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 175°C.

Cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and orange zest. Beat in the egg, coffee cream and buttermilk.

In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and beat until well mixed. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Cover a baking tray with baking paper. Form balls of 2.5cm diameter and flatten to about 4cm diameter rounds.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 18min until light brown.

Sugar Syrup

250 ml water

250g sugar

Bring water and sugar to the boil, then reduce heat and boil lightly for about 15min.

Lime Cookies

I just love lemon and lime dishes. I discovered this recipe on one of my favourite blogs (Not So Humble Pie). It is a simple recipe, it can be prepared in advance and the taste is just fantastic! The acidic lime-flavour really comes through and the texture is light and crumbly. Might just be my new favourite cookie. And luckily I still have half of the dough in the freezer so I can make a new batch in an instant...


Lime Cookies

175g butter (room temperature)
60g powedered sugar
zest of 2 limes
2 Tbsp of lime juice
0.5 Tbsp concentrated vanilla extract
275g flour
20g corn starch
0.2 Tsp salt

Using a hand held mixer beat together the butter and powedered sugar until it is fluffy and becomes whitish. Add the lime zest, lime juice, vanilla extract and salt and continue to beat for a few moments until everything is mixed together nicely.

Combine the flour with the starch and sift into the bowl with the butter mix. Carefully blend everything with the hand held mixer until the dough comes together.

Form a roll of about 3-3.5cm diameter (easier if you part the dough into two portions) and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour. As mentioned before, the dough can also be frozen.

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C. Cut the roll into 5mm thick pieces and bake for about 15 min.

The cookies can be sprinkled with powedered sugar, but I prefer them without extra sugar (except for the pictures).


Oh, by the way - this is what happens if you mess up the whitebalance on your camera...