Gastronomic Lab: Daring Bakers' Challenge - August 2010

Blog-checking lines: The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

Mandatory: Whether we made the Baked Alaska, the petit fours, or both, we should make the brown butter pound cake as written and the ice cream from scratch.

Variations Allowed: Both desserts could be made in any size or shape, and the ice cream could be any flavor we could think of! For the Baked Alaska, we could flavor the meringue however we wanted.

Brown Butter Pound Cake

19 tablespoons (9.5 oz) (275g) unsalted (sweet) butter

2 cups (200g) sifted cake flour (not self-rising; sift before measuring)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt

1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar

1/3 (75g) cup granulated sugar

4 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C and put a rack in the center. Butter and flour a 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Place the butter in a 10” (25cm) skillet over medium heat. Brown the butter until the milk solids are a dark chocolate brown and the butter smells nutty. (Don’t take your eyes off the butter in case it burns.) Pour into a shallow bowl and chill in the freezer until just congealed, 15-30 minutes. Whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat the brown butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well, and then the vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture at low speed until just combined. Scrape the batter into the greased and floured 9”x9” (23cmx23cm) square pan. Smooth the top with a rubber spatula and rap the pan on the counter. Bake until golden brown on top and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Cool in the pan 10 minutes. Run a knife along the edge and invert right-side-up onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

I must tell you the smell of the brown butter is unbelieveble! When I was Beating the dough I though I'd Eat everything before baking it. When the cake was in the oven, oh my God! But when I tasted the cake it was disapointing. It is not bad but it was even close to what I though it would be. All that delicious smelling had vanished and it was not that tasteful either. :( A pitty!

Coffee Ice Cream

1/2 cup strong coffee

1/2 cup sugar

1 pinch salt

2 egg whites

1/2 cup whipped cream

1 tspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix the coffee and the sugar and bring it to boil until it gets thick. Beat the egg whites and the salt on high speed in a electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add the syrup in a stream, beat in low speed. Continue beating in high speed until cooled. Freeze for an hour. Beat the whipped cream and the vanilla extract. Add the Coffee mixture and freeze again.

I thought this coffee ice cream would match wonderfully with this cake and this time I was right. I loved this ice cream. So easy to be made and what a good taste! The recipe I found in a Brazilian website, Tudo Gostoso.

Meringue

2 egg whites

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
In a sauce pan, mix water and sugar. Cook over medium heat until it gets thick. Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the syrup in a stream, beat in low speed. Continue beating in high speed until cooled.

Assembly Instructions
1. Line four 4” (10cm) diameter tea cups with plastic wrap, so that plastic wrap covers all the sides and hangs over the edge. Fill to the top with ice cream. Cover the top with the overhanging plastic wrap and freeze for several hours, or until solid.

2. Level the top of the brown butter pound cake with a serrated knife or with a cake leveler. Cut out four 4” (10cm) diameter circles from the cake. Discard the scraps or use for another purpose.

3. Make the meringue

4. Unwrap the ice cream “cups” and invert on top of a cake round. Trim any extra cake if necessary.

5. Pipe the meringue over the ice cream and cake, or smooth it over with a spatula, so that none of the ice cream or cake is exposed. Freeze for one hour or up to a day.

6. Burn the tips of the meringue with a cooking blow torch. Or, bake the meringue-topped Baked Alaskas on a rimmed baking sheet in a 500°F/260°C oven for 5 minutes until lightly golden. Serve immediately.

I didn't make things exactly like that. I placed the ice cream on the top of cake with a scoop and just covered it with the meringue and placed it in the oven. I WANT A COOKING BLOW TORCH. That's all I have to say...

Additional Information:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_brown_butter/ - Great article on browning butter with step by step photos

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2007/07/making_ice_crea_1.html - Making Ice Cream without a Machine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7aTU5wLyz0&feature=fvsr – Video of how to transfer ice cream from plastic wrap-lined cup to cake (Baked Alaska)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v98pZYBnUEc – Video on how to glaze petit fours (fast forward to 3:00 minutes. Includes poured fondant recipe)

http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing... - Poured fondant recipe (Petit Fours)

http://userealbutter.com/2008/04/15/lemon-petits-fours-recipe/ - Simple syrup and poured fondant recipes (Petit Fours)

http://www.bakersroyale.com/cakes/easter-tea-cakes/ - Poured buttercream instructions

Baked Alaska decoration ideas:

http://www.blogger.com/goog_1767551713

http://www.bizbash.com/content/editorial/StoryPhoto/big/e15109image10.jp...

http://zoebakes.com/?p=967