DB's Challenge - Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes....

Sooooo glad this challenge is over!

I had a lot of fun making it, but it was such a mess!

After 2 frosting explosions my kitchen is a disaster.

It smells nice though.

The gingerbread smells great, but I would never eat it, because it is super hard.

Remember how my sushi challenge ended?

Hee hee hee! (evil laughter)

The dough after chilling.

I made this twice.
I hated the first house, so I re-did it.
This is a picture of the first set of cut outs.







One of my apple trees.

This is the house after the first frosting explosion.

Now I know why the directions say to sift the powdered sugar.

There is only so much pressure you can put on a plastic pastry bag.

Ta da!

Finished chicken cottage, garden, trees and little pond.

I used jelly beans for the cucumbers, radishes and carrots in the first garden bed.

I used fondant to make corn, carrots and cauliflower.

Red hots for the apples and 'roses' on the cottage.

Starbursts for the stepping stones.

Pretzels for the fence.

Here are my fondant cauliflower, carrots and corn.

I'd never used fondant before.

It was fun!

Like play dough.

Oreo cookies for the dirt.

Jolly Ranchers melted for the windows.

~

Ok, now are you ready?

What did I do with this cute little gingerbread cottage?

Gave it to the Ladies!

Of course!

At first they were curious.
"Hmmm, is that a real carrot?"

"Let me try a little of that."

"Do these apples taste weird to you?"

"What a tiny garden! I'm a giant chicken!"

"Ho hum, not that tasty..."

Smashed.

The End.

Daring Baker's November Challenge - Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural)........

Ta da!

Ok, I'm a few (24) hours late posting this challenge, but it really wasn't my fault!

It was the sun's fault.

Yes, the sun. If you have ever been to the north in the Fall/Winter you may have noticed a lack of something. Sun. Yes people, we invented SAD. The sun went on vacation to Florida for a week and then another week and...yeah, you get the idea.

I refused to do the challenge until I had natural light to photograph my cannoli! It was a great excuse!

Yesterday the sun came out.

Entonces - aqui estan!

If you want the recipe, please go to Lisa Michele's site.

We start with a dough.

An amazing dough!

It went together like a dream and felt like a Granny's bingo wings.

Of course, if your Granny makes cannoli she probably doesn't have bingo wings, 'cause cannoil take some WWF upper body strength.

Good.

Work up an appetite for those cannoli.

P.S. I used a nice riesling wine in this.

Rolling the dough out.
Use those muscles!
I tried to use a pasta maker loaned to me by my parents.
Stupid machine ate half my dough before I gave up using it.
I found taking a small piece and rolling it out super, super thin and then wrapping the piece around the cannolo form worked the best.



My cannoli forms.
Long story.
My part of the country is better known for leftsa, than for cannoli, so it was impossible to find cannoli forms.
Except.....my Mom went to the local hardware store and found these lengths of pipe for me!
Yay! Copper!
Very heavy.
Are real cannoli forms heavy?




Rolling dough around form.




Dough ready for frying.



Dough fresh from the fryer.

Cannoli with ricotta/lemon filling and cinnamon Red Hot pear sauce.

I canned the pear sauce* myself.

Fancy tea party, anyone?

My entry for the Royal Foodie Joust.

Cannoli with ginger/fennel/cinnamon pear sauce.



So, what did I think of this challenge?

It was a good one.

It expanded my cooking horizons.

I tried cannoli in a Little Italy bakery 2 years ago, but I wasn't too impressed.

Homemade cannoli are much better.

And my pear sauce is awesome. ;)

*Red Hot Pear Sauce

Remember 3 months ago when I asked you all what I should do with a ton of pears?

And you suggested pear sauce?

Ta da!

3 months later.... Recipe here

I decided to try out a savory cannoli idea. I used a slice of locally made smoked cheddar, pickled herring and a dollop of my own pear chutney. It was good.