Going to L'Opéra

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was a bit scary. We had to make Opéra cakes! I have never heard of an Opéra cake before and it was a very long recipe that involved lots of folding, something I have ruined many a dessert from not doing right.

I made these over the weekend. It was perfect timing because my sister's birthday was on Monday and I made mini Opéra cakes so everyone could try a bit.

Usually Opéra cakes are chocolate in flavor, but the hosts for this month, Fran of Apple Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Shea of Whiskful, and the co-founders Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice and Lis of La Mia Cucina, wanted these cakes to be in honor of the blog event "A Taste of Yellow" and the season of spring, for the northern hemisphere! We had to make sure our cakes were light in color. I decided to make a raspberry flavored cake.

I didn't see almond meal at my local grocery stores and I didn't feel like hunting for a health food store, so I just bought some almonds, blanched them, and put them in the food processor with a bit of flour to make my own almond meal. I felt like the joconde had a bit of a grainy texture, which is because I couldn't get the almonds fine enough, so I would prefer a finer grain, but it turned out well.

I love having my Kitchen Aid for this! I also love Alton Brown!

Kitchen Aid+Alton Brown=Robyn actually being able to fold!!!

With the Kitchen Aid, I was able to walk around and do other things while it was mixing, so I didn't get bored and I may have given up too early when mixing it with a hand mixer. I saw an episode of Good Eats when Alton Brown was doing some food that needed to be folded, and I saw him add the folds in thirds. I decided to try that for the joconde and the mousse and it worked a treat! I actually had a lot of air still in both and it didn't flatten.

I'm not a fan of white chocolate, so I ended up making a flavored glaze that didn't taste like white chocolate at all. It turned out fantastic and wasn't too runny at all. It actually cooled a bit too thick, so I had to heat it up before pouring it on the cakes. I didn't get the glaze as smooth and to the edges as I wanted, but it still looked nice.

For the assembly, I really feel it was easiest to make the cupcakes. I don't have any biscuit cutters, or round cookie cutters, so I used an egg ring to cut the joconde. It worked just fine. I put the buttercream in a pastry bag and piped it onto each layer of cake. It seemed piping would be the easiest way to get the buttercream neatly on the cakes. I also did this in another bag for the mousse. It didn't seem to flatten the mousse much, but the mousse did flatten once the glaze was poured on top and it set in the fridge.


The taste? These were really good! I thought it had a bit too much raspberry flavor, but apparently that was just me. Nobody else had that complain, even when I said I thought that and would change it next time.

For the original recipe and the techniques, you can visit any of the hostess's websites. I am posting the recipes I used for the glaze and mousse (for the buttercream, all I did was add some puréeed raspberries until it had a good color and flavor).

Raspberry Glaze (Thanks, Sandra!)

200g heavy cream, divided (13.5 Tbsp or 3/4 cup + 1.5 Tbsp or 6.71 fl oz)
50g sugar (1/4 cup)
40g glucose or corn syrup (2 Tbsp)
50g white chocolate (1.76 oz)
5g unflavored gelatin (2.15 tsp)
1 tsp aroma or liquor of your choice
40g fruit pulp or puree
a drop of food coloring (optional)

1. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/5 cup (40g) of the cream in a small bowl and let stand for 10 minutes to soften (allow to soften while making the syrup).
2. Mix cream, sugar and glucose or corn syrup in a saucepan, bring to boil. Continue cooking for 4 - 5 min stirring continuously.
   
3. Add the chocolate and stir it in to melt completely. Remove from heat and add the gelatin/cream mixture, stirring until dissolved.
   
4. Add the aroma or liquor, the fruit puree and the food coloring. Mix well and let cool until smooth and almost creamy.
   
5. Refrigerate to set.

Raspberry Mousse

1	lb ripe raspberries
2	tablespoons granulated sugar
1	tablespoon Raspberry Twisted Smirnoff (or similar)
1/2	cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/4	cups heavy cream (or whipping cream)

1. Puree the raspberries together with the confectioners' sugar in a blender.
2. Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
3. Carefully fold the cream into the pureed raspberries.
4. Place in refrigerator to set.
   

Amish Friendship Bread

I'd never heard of Amish Friendship Bread before, but a girl at work brought some in and I got to try it. It was delicious! Apparently, it's the chain letter of the baking world. You get some sourdough starter and let it ferment for 10 days. You then split the starter into four parts and keep one to bake, one to start fresh, and two to pass on to others. Done righggt, you can have you and your friends baking forever! The recipe my colleague used tasted like a sugary corn bread. Definitely something I'll have to try to make myself sometime.

Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Chips

To carry on with trying a few new variety of chips, I tried some Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper chips. MUCH better than the sea salt and vinegar chips! There was a distinct red pepper taste, but it wasn't overwhelming. I actually kind of like it and I don't usually like chips.

Mac and Cheese, Third Time the Charm?

I decided to try another mac and cheese today. I had some evaporated milk in the cupboards and it had a recipe for spicy broccoli mac and cheese. Lee has gotten to the point where he doesn't mind the cheese as much if there is something else to balance the taste. I thought the broccoli might help.

Well, the brocoli did help him out, but I accidentally substituted too much mozzarella cheese (putting in 16 oz. when all I needed was 2 oz. to make up for having only 6 oz. of cheddar because for some reason I thought I needed four cheeses) and the macaroni was too cheesy and stringy. I'll have to try this recipe another time with the right ingredients! Even I didn't want the leftovers.

Here is the correct recipe from the can of Carnation® Evaporated Milk:

Spicy Jack Mac & Cheese with Broccoli

2 cups dry elbow macaroni
2 cups chopped frozen or fresh broccoli
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Pepper Jack cheese
1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
½ tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp. bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Bring water for pasta to a boil. Add macaroni and cook per package directions. Add broccoli for the last 3 minutes of cooking.
   
3. Drain.
4. While the pasta is cooking, mix the cheddar, Pepper Jack, evaporated milk, ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, and black pepper in a buttered casserole dish.
   
5. In a small bowl, combine the rest of the Parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs (I did more bread crumbs for a more bready coating).
6. Add drained macaroni and broccoli to the cassrole dish with the cheeses. Mix well.
   
7. Pour the bread crumb mixture over the macaroni, cover with aluminum foil and cook for 20 minutes.
8. Remove aluminum foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the bread crumb topping is golden brown.
   

Sea Salt and Vinegar Chips

I don't like to try things that are meant to taste like vinegar. I don't like the smell of it, so I figure I won't like the taste either. Well, Lee was eating some sea salt and vinegar chips, and I tried one. YUCK!!! Note to self: don't try chips that are meant to taste like vinegar, because they really do have a big vinegar flavor!

Texas Roadhouse Smokehouse Burger

For Mother's Day, we went to the Texas Roadhouse. I usually get the smothered BBQ chicken, but I decided to have a burger for a change. I wanted barbecue sauce, so I got the smokehouse burger which has sautéed mushrooms, onion, lettuce, and tomato on it. I decided to have it with just the BBQ sauce, two cheeses, and mushrooms. I'm glad I didn't get the onion, lettuce, and tomato on it. The burger was HUGE!! I could barely get my mouth on it to bite in.

The mushrooms were great, but the cheese was too thick. I liked the taste of the cheeses, but would have liked it better if they were a bit thinner.

Grilled Chicken and Vegetables

One excellent thing about Friday is that our new grill came! I've complained before about our George Foreman being too small and the fact that it seems to burn the outside in order to cook the inside of the meat. Plus, it cooks so fast, the food just can taste a bit dry, a little better than being microwaved.

So, how 'bout this indoor grill? The only thing I don't like is there isn't a cover for it, but I can live with that. You can adjust the temperature, cook just like you do on an outdoor grill, and the food just tastes so much better! The size of this thing is the same size as my parents' full-sized outdoor grill, so there is plenty of cooking space. On Friday I made cheeseburgers, but on Saturday I decided to so something a little more involved.

I decided I would try my hat at grilling vegetables on it. I have never grilled vegetables before, so this was a bit of a challenge. I read that you can cut them up and wrap them on foil before putting them on the grill, so that's what I did. I added a bit of the marinade (Lawry's Carribean Jerk) to the mix, closed it up, and placed it on the grill. I should have cooked it a bit longer. I placed the pouch on the grill after I turned the chicken the first time, but I was making four carrots and a head of broccoli, so it wasn't long enough. Some of the vegetables were cooked through, but others tasted raw. Next time, I'll put them on the grill at the same time as the chicken and see if that helps. I'm also wondering if there wasn't enough moisture in the pouch since I only put in a drizzle of the marinade over the top of the vegetables. I will tinker around with that next time too. I'm not posting a recipe since I haven't gotten it right yet, I'll do that another time.