CHOCOLATE & BOSTON CREME DOUGHNUTS! It's Daring Baker's time once again!

T
here was a time when I could live only on doughnuts.Our college canteen sold the best ever doughnuts in the city plus it was sugar coated. Not that I needed a sugar high in college, but it was fun eating it as the sugar used to stick all over our mouth and our college stray dog(s) used to wait under our open mouths hoping they would get some piece of it and if they didn't, they would jump up, scare us and make sure we drop it for them. That's how 'Jumpy' got it's his name. Then there were eagles swooping down from the roof to snatch it from our hands! It was an adventure!

Here in US, after every Sunday Mass all of us would gather in the Church basement for 'Coffee & Rolls'. They would keep a variety of doughnuts,cinnamon roll, coffee etc and we can have a share of it. I wait for it everyweek because I get to pick my favourite Boston Creme Doughnuts.

A few days ago, I had a bad craving for the same but I didn't get a chance to buy and eat it. So while I was planning for the DB challenge, I knew what variety I had to make. And trust me,it came out exactly the same way! I have made Sugar Doughnuts and Perfect Chocolate Doughnuts before, but nothing's like this one.This recipe is a keeper .

The October 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts.She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

BOSTON CREME DOUGHNUTS
Recipe source for the doughnuts: Alton Brown




Ingredients:
For the doughnuts:
Milk- 1 1/2 c
Unsalted butter-1/3 c
Yeast-4.5 tsp
Warm water- 1/3c
Eggs-2 large, lightly beaten
Sugar-1/4c
Salt-1 1/2 tsp
Flour- 4 2/3 c
Oil for deep frying. You need about 3 inches of oil in the pan.

For the chocolate glaze:
Recipe by Lara Ferroni . I got this recipe from Kamran's blog


Powdered sugar- 11/2 c
Cocoa powder- 4 tbsp
Milk/Water- 6-7 tbsp (or as needed)
Vanilla Extract-2 tsp

1 portion Creme Patissierie 

Method:
For the doughnuts:

• Place the butter in a large mixing bowl.Heat the milk just to warm it through. Pour over the butter and mix together so that the butter melts with the heat from the milk.
• In the meantime, add the yeast to the warm water and set aside for 5-10 mins or till foamy.
• Add the yeast mixture, eggs, sugar, salt and half the flour to the butter-milk mixture and mix using the paddle attachement of your stand mixer or with a wooden spoon.
• Once it's all mixed together, add in half the amount of flour and mix till incorporated.
• Add in the remaining flour and knead/use the dough hook and mix for 3-4 mins of till the dough leaves the side of the bowl.
• Place the dough in an oiled bowl and allow it to rise for 1 hour or till doubled in size.
• Once it has doubled in size, dump it onto a well floured surface, roll and cut it into the shape you want.For Boston Creme Doughnuts, make plain rounds.
• Arrange all the cut dough on a lightly floured cake tin/plate/chopping board, cover with a tea towel and allow it to rest for 30 mins.
• Heat the oil to 360F/180C. Deep fry the doughnuts giving 1/2 a minute on each side.
• Drain and reserve.

For filling:

• Transfer the cooled creme pattisierie into a piping bag/ketchup bottle.
• Poke a hole into the side of the doughnut and squeeze out some custard into it. You will feel the doughnut becoming heavy. Stop it there.
• Dip it in chocolate glaze and allow it to set.

For the chocolate glaze:

• Sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder to avoid any lumps.
• Add in the milk/water and vanilla extract and mix to form a glaze . The consistency is upto you.
• This glaze will thicken if you leave it unattended.You just need to add a few drops of milk/water to loosen it.
• Dip the doughnuts in the glaze and allow it to set for 10 mins.

Verdict:
Soft as cotton would be the best way to describe these doughnuts. I couldn't resist so I had a bite of just-out-of-the-oil doughnuts. When I told Jobin that I am going to make doughnuts for DB today and asked for his preference, he said he wanted it plain. But the sometimes-creative-person in me went crazy with chocolate frosting and Boston Creme Doughnuts.

The recipe said it would make 24 doughnuts and 24 doughnut holes. But I got 48 of them!!! I immediately called him and asked him whether I could pack some for his office  and he obliged. When I asked him how it was recieved in the office, he said,' It got over in less that 5 mins,next time make some more :-)' Though he wanted only the plain ones, he ended up eating every variety :-) So did I.

Now,what are you waiting for? Try these immensely easy,delicious, hassle free doughnuts today!

FINNEGAN'S CHOCOLATE CREAM CAKE...for me from him :)

Baking a cake is so much fun, I have been seeing my Mom and Sister bake cake ever since I was a child. My Mom was well known for her Christmas cake and Lamingtons in the place I grew up. My Sister took up baking as a subject and won the President of India's award for baking. Though I never baked a cake all my life, the closest I came to baking a cake was to stir the ingredients, that’s how my Mom used to motivate me. Stir well and you get a yummy cake. As a child I used to always think the women in my family were the best bakers, and it turned out to be true, my wife is an amazingly wonderful baker. I am sure there are many people who stand as a testimony for my Ria’s baking skills. That’s just another reason to have Ria as my life partner.

Ria turned 25!! Yeah 25 this year, a milestone in one’s life. I think that’s a better way to calculate you are getting old. When asked what she needed for her birthday, one of her wishes were to have me bake a cake for her birthday. My reply was an instant yes, at that time I dint know what I just signed up for. And till a couple of days before she turned 25, she again reminded me about the cake. The only thing I was a little apprehensive about was how do I mix the ingredients? Very soon I realized Ria has all the fancy tools to bake a cake. So there I was all ready to make it for her. I dint have to bother about what cake to make as Ria figured it all out.

Finnegan’s chocolate cream cake is what I made, this is not a regular chocolate cake, but this is something which just melts in your mouth. The cake calls for the usual ingredients along with Irish cream, and chocolate chips.  Detailed ingredients are given below. Ria loved this cake and that’s all I wanted. I am glad I was able to bake this for her. Though I don’t see myself baking regularly, I am ready for her next birthday for another round. I enjoyed baking and had a wonderful day with Ria on her Birthday.  I hope you bake this as well and have a good time enjoying it.

FINNEGAN'S CHOCOLATE CREAM CAKE
Recipe Source: A passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman, pg:236

Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups brewed warm coffee
1/3 cup Irish cream liqueur or milk

Chocolate Cream Glaze
3/4 cup whipping cream/fresh cream
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur or strong coffee

Method:

Cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 deg.F. Generously grease a 12-cup Bundt pan or a 10" tube pan with shortening. 

• In a mixer bowl, cream butter with both sugars.Then add eggs and vanilla. Blend on low speed for 1 minute until smooth. Add flour,cocoa,baking powder,baking soda and salt. Stir briefly ;then drizzles in coffee and Irish Cream, stirring at the same time to make a smooth,somewhat loose batter.

• Spoon batter into prepared pan.Bake 55-65 minutes or until the cake springs back when gently pressed with fingertips. Cool cake well and then invert onto a serving platter.

Chocolate Cream Glaze:

• Bring whipping cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Add chocolate chips,reduce temperature to low and whisk to blend and melt chocolate.Add Irish Cream .
• Remove from heat after 1-2 minutes and stir until smooth.Let cool to room temperature before using.If you cannot glaze right away, refrigerate glaze and gently rewarm and then drizzle over cake.

Verdict:
What more can I ask for? This was truly one of the best birthday's I have ever had! This one had many highlights: Me hitting quarter century, my first birthday with Jobin and Jobin baking his first cake...that too for me! I absolutely loved the cake and the whole experience is precious.I will cherish this all my life!To another happy quarter! :)

CROQUEMBOUCHE...mounted pillows of absolute delight!

If I am asked to describe a Croquembouche I would say they are mounted pillows of absolute delight! They are served during weddings,baptisms etc. I never knew it would be so easy and simple to create this tower of joy! When the challenge was announced, I felt kind of lazy thinking of all the steps involved. But , after taking a 6 month break from DB, I was sure I am not going to let that repeat, not in the near future, hopefully atleast.
I made this during a weekend so that I could finish my DB challenge as well as take it over to our friend's place as a dessert.

The recipe consisted of 3 parts: Pate a Choux , Creme Patissiere and a Glaze. We had to make all the 3 components, but the mounting could be done with the help of a store-bought cardboard tower or make one at home OR use the glaze as glue and build the tower (I did this).

I loved piercing and filling the choux because when you do so, you can feel the feather-light choux becoming full and heavy in your hands.

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.

CROQUEMBOUCHE / PIECE MONTEE

Pate a Choux
Ingredients:

¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs ( I used only 3 as I felt the batter was loose enough)
For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Method:
Preparing batter:

• Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
• Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
• Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
• Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. 
• As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.  
• It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.

Piping:

• Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
• Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
• Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).

Baking:

• Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
• Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool. 

Pastry Cream- Coffee flavoured

Ingredients:
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter
1 Tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 Tsp Instant espresso powder
1 1/2 Tsp boiling water


Method:

• Dissolve cornstarch in ¼ cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
• Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
• Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking.
• Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
• Dissolve 1 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.
• Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.

Chocolate Glaze

Ingredients:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)

Method:

• Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. 
• Use immediately.

Filling:
When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.


Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.
Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up.

My Experience: I made the choux during lunch time and when Jobin came home for lunch, he saw them and was quite inquisitive. It intruiged him too much that he popped one right away, and I was left with my mouth wide open. I knew he liked it by his looks and I was very worried about the whole thing vanishing in no time. So I deftly put them all away in a bag and waited till he left to do the mounting.

The pastry cream was delicious and I loved the croquembouche to the last bite.