Pear Galette

 Today, I attempted a Pear Galette with some amazing pears I found at H&D. The recipe I used was from my new favorite cookbook, The Vineyard Kitchen, by Maria Helm Sinskey.

She's got an Apple Galette recipe in the cookbook, and I substitued pears. That's the only alteration I made to the recipe -- except I don't think I successfully stacked the pears the way she suggested.

The crust came out beautifully, unfortunately it didn't transfer well to the plate as the pears were a lot juicier than I suspect the apples would have been and the bottom fell out. But the upside is that I can tell you it tastes fantastic and what it lacks in looks, it will more than make up for in flavor.

I'm looking forward to the French Baking class Mike got me for Christmas -- maybe there I'll learn how to lay out the fruit correctly.

All in all, I'd count this in the column of yet another successful recipe from Maria!

Yule Log

So, having decided to try the Daring Baker challenge, I picked out the challenge from December 2007 -- a Yule Log. The instructions were easy to follow and, the results are quite nice.

I did make a couple of changes to the recipe, based on what I had on hand. Rather than use espresso and rum/brandy flavoring, I used Cacao Powder and Praline Liquer - because I suspect that this combination is less flavorful than the originally specified flavors, I increased the amount by 1.5 times.

I also must confess, I ran out of eggs and was unable to complete the Merangue Mushroom components of the recipe. Instead, I decorated with coarsely chopped pecans and toffee bits.

As a trial run, this was a successful endeavor and has got me very intrigued to find out what the next challenge will be. I do think that in the interrim more of the challenge recipes need to be attemped. Specifically, I'm really intrigued by the Bagel Challenge. Finding a decent bagel is a very difficult endeavor and making them sounds not so hard. It's difficult to justify making Bagels during the holiday season though -- but it may just be the ticket in January.

Until next time!

Taking the Daring Baker Challenge

I stumbled today across the Daring Kitchen Challenge website. This looks like fun. Once a month a new challenge is posted, and everyone commits to making these wonderful recipes. So here goes, diving in, and starting with a recipe from a previous month, just to get my feet wet.