Wild Yeast

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

As far as I can tell, a tian is any layered dish. I’m not sure if there are other criteria, but the layers are key. They might be vegetables, or meat, or sweet things like pate sablee crust, orange marmalade, whipped cream, orange segments, and orange caramel sauce.

Personally, I like the sweet layers. And I’m always a sucker for a fruit dessert.

As is my wont, I stuck pretty close to the straight and narrow this month, following the challenge recipes mostly exactly. I did make a few modifications, so please give me a small pat on the head for being just a little bit Daring:

• I made pistachio pate sablee by replacing 20 grams of the flour in the recipe with 20 grams of pistachios ground finely with 8 grams of the sugar. I had extra dough, so I made it into little sablee cookies, which my daughter was happy to take care of with dispatch. I should have kept the crust circles in the rings while baking to prevent spread, but cutting them down was pretty easy while they were still warm.



• I infused the cold cream with 10 crushed cardamom pods for several hours before whipping.
• I folded three tablespoons of (homemade!) orange marmalade into the whipped cream, which was three times the amount called for in the recipe. Definitely a case of more is more.

More Daring Bakers tians here!

See this week’s yeast spottings…

I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but around here it’s getting pretty warm, and that means grilling. And that means you’ll be needing some buns.

I already have a great bun recipe, but I wanted some that are sourdough-leavened (since my starter has been feeling a bit neglected lately) and that contain a hefty portion (about 84%) of whole wheat. These were an experiment that turned out rather well. They are definitely soft (from the honey and the butter), but a bit denser — and more flavorful, if you ask me — than your average hamburger bun.

In case your grill is still buried under a foot of snow (I’m so sorry!), the buns are good for sloppy joes, too.

These go to Zorra (1x umrühren bitte) and Rachel (Tangerine’s Kitchen) for BreadBakingDay #28, Buns.
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See this week’s yeast spottings…

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of Melbourne Food Geek and Jess of Jess the Baker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

This is the point where I am in the habit of making excuses: excuses for why I opened a bottle of wine approximately 15 minutes after rolling out of bed, for why I’m eating mushroom risotto by myself for breakfast on a Sunday morning, for why I waited until the last possible moment to complete the Daring Cooks assignment for this month.

No excuses today. It’s just what I did.

In my defense, I will say that I did complete the most involved segment of the challenge, making chicken stock from scratch, well in advance, and had it standing by in the freezer. This was a first for me, and I loved the result.

I’ve made risotto before, and felt comfortable enough with the basic process to feel my way to a mushroom and goat cheese version. (I know, how uncharacteristic of me to demonstrate any sort of independence in these challenges. I don’t know myself any more.) Starting with the given recipe, I made these (allowed, I hope) modifications:

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