Pastries Week: Kouign Amann

After the royal fiasco that was Prinsesstarta week we were overjoyed to read that this week's bake only had five ingredients!

This Paul Hollywood recipe went by many names, because, lets be honest, we had no idea how to pronounce it. But hey, we could pronounce Prinsesstarta and that didn't help us succeed in the challenge one bit. 

Kouign Amann (prounounced queen-a-mahn) is a sugary french croissant. The laminating process makes it a light and flaky layered pastry with a slightly caramelized sugar crust on top. 

Kouign Amann - picture courtesy BBC Food

Some of us are always a little leery of yeast, and others made this the night before packing up their entire apartment to move across the city, but the outcome was definitely results we thought quite Queenly, if not worthy of an infamous Paul Hollywood handshake.

First Baker: Megan

My Thoughts: When I first looked at this recipe, I breathed a sigh of relief seeing the simplicity of ingredients and realizing that the whole recipe was pretty much folding and rolling over and  over and over again. Then I had to start taking deep breaths when I realized that I was essentially making puff pastry which always seems daunting due to my lack of rolling pin and proofing drawer (why did Bake Off have to ruin my baking reality by opening my eyes to the existence of these lovely little yeast friendly boxes).

My dough was still able to rise well, even though I had to use my warm oven like a commoner. Rolling this dough out with my Yeti tumbler was quite the experience. The first roll, where I was supposed to combine the butter and dough flawlessly, was anything but flawless. After the 47th turn and fold (there were really only 3 I believe but it felt like way more), the butter had magically incorporated well into the dough but I knew that the worst was yet to come as math was involved next.

Ingredients, Yeti roller working hard, clearly even rectangles were not possible without a ruler

Math has never been my forte and when I looked at my long rectangle of dough sugar butter, it took me a very long time (way too long for a teacher, though it is the end of the year so really my brain stopped working 2 months ago) to figure out how to cut it into 12 equal pieces. I channeled my inner Richard and managed to cut the dough into 12 unequal (as I found out from the result) rectangles. Clearly I was missing the Richard signature pencil which led to my non-uniform but delicious croissant muffins (which is what I called them since the name gives no help as to what they are).

Result: These little muffins were absolutely delicious. They of course could have used some chocolate in order to be a treat that I would want to make all of the time but were still almost worth the calories minus the chocolate (it felt wrong typing those words as worth the calories should always equate to chocolate in my world).

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: My judges were too eager to eat these muffins and therefore did not warm them up which I think was a big mistake on their part (apparently I failed them but not telling them to warm them up). They still loved the croissant muffins in spite of them being room temperature which I think is a pretty great sign. They were described as simple and delicious.

Average Taste Score: 9

Average Appearance Score: 9

 Second Baker: Stephanie

My Thoughts: My initial thoughts, like usual, were not that positive because yeast and I have this not so kind history between us. But, it only had five ingredients and after the never ending saga that was the prinsesstarta I was grateful for that.

Again I had to knead my dough by hand, which was a bit difficult because of the stickiness, but I must have done something right because my dough rose exactly how it should have! There is hardly anything in life more exciting to me than peeling back the cover of your bowl and seeing your yeast dough is warm and risen! (maybe I should get out more?)

Ingredients, little helping hands, and a ruler, because they insist on continuing to make us use math in these challenges! 

Warm, risen, yeast dough

The bake wasn't hard, just involved, as the were multiple resting, rising, rolling, and chilling periods. I don't think I worked fast enough at the end because my dough got quite stretchy, which led to some uniformity issues that I tried my best to hide during my presentation haha.

Result:
"These are AMAZING!" I exclaimed to Craig and the girls as I promptly ate 3, you know, for quality control since there were size differences. I don't think I've ever been more proud of anything I have made (except for the multi cake Mario kart birthday cake in college, but that's a story for another day). They were perfectly flaky and layered, with a delightfully balanced bit of sweetness from the sugar on top. I really feel like I could have sold them in a French bakery. I'm thrilled with the outcome, minus the sizing issues, and will definitely make these again!

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts:
Looks amazing, excellent flavor, flaky crust, the butter and sugar flavors are perfectly balanced, couldn't have been better! This tastes so good, I'd buy it if it were in a bakery, can I have the recipe?

Average Taste Score: 10

Average Appearance Score: 10

Third Baker: Devin

My Thoughts: Glory be! I loved the Kouign Amann more than I ever thought I would. I was a little weary after the great disaster known as the prinsesstarte, but these were such a delight to make. The recipe was so simple and straightforward; it even made me love Paul Hollywood more! Bread is always a toss up because who knows how large it's suppose to rise and if all the ingredients were added in the right order (which mine definitely weren't). One of these days I'll remember to take an ingredient picture.

When I thought that I had a real chance to be Star Baker😏

Result: Well, there goes my positivity! I was lured into a false security and my little bread babies were burned to a crisp...but THEY ARE STILL DELICIOUS! I may have eaten 6-8 of these and fought Mary Elizabeth over the last one. I feel so darn fancy because they taste divine. I cannot wait to have another chance to make them again.

#humbled

 Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: These look rather unfortunate but there's no question that they have been cooked thoroughly. *Cuts it in half* The lamentation almost makes up for burning them...almost.

Average Taste Score: 9

Average Appearance Score: 7

It's definitely easy to say that this week has been the ego boosting pat on the back we needed. We sincerely hope everyone is looking to the many variations of that kouign amann has to offer because some of us have decided (👀 Devin) that this is the wheelhouse we've decided to stick with.

And the Star Baker is...

Tune in next week as we ride this Kouign Amann high into advanced dough week!

The Bake Off Returns! European Cakes: Prinsesstårta

After a long maternity break, the Baking Beyond Borders Bake Off is back with a bang! We know you missed our messes and mishaps so, have no fear, we have provided plenty of those for you this week because we're kicking it off with the traditional Swedish Princesstårta.

This recipe of Mary's requires 26 separate ingredients, has 14 stages, and needs to look pretty enough for a Princess, making it one of the most complicated technical challenges.

No big deal *cracks knuckles* we've got this!

Very soon we figured out that we did not in fact have this at all. The end (and the bottom of the ingredients list) seemed no where in sight, as we struggled through thin custard, cement like marzipan, rogue jam recipes, and more. Power tools were brought in, and skepticism was at an all time high as we presented our results to our judges.

We'll let you be the judge of whether or not our cakes were fit for royalty.

Prinsesstårta - courtesy BBC Foods 

First Baker: Megan

My Thoughts:

I knew before I started this cake that it was going to be daunting just from the 14 million steps and ingredients involved. I think in the end that I ended up feeling all of the exact same emotions that I did as I watched Avengers:Infinity War (this movie just came out here in English so I was just able to see it last night). First I'm always happy to start a bake especially a challenging one just because I think it is fun to learn how to make new things. Almost everything except for the sponge was new to me in this bake because it is quintessentially British which means my simple American baking does not include such posh things as homemade jam or homemade marzipan for sure. That happiness dwindled quickly as it did while watching Avengers because my first component (the custard) failed miserably as it sat on the stove for 20 minutes and never thickened up. My hope was somewhat restored the next day (yes this recipe did take me two days and I think 7 years) as I was able to bring my custard back to life in the microwave of all places. I'm sure Mary Berry frowns upon the use of  the common microwave when you're trying to make a cake for royalty. That hope, that all would be well, was destroyed by Star Lord (really marzipan but I see them as one in the same; life ruiners). My marzipan was a cracked, dry mess on top of what could have been a lovely cake maybe fit for a duchess (maybe not one as classy as Kate Middleton though because she is flawless) not quite a princess.

From top left: Ingredients, the savior microwave, my whip creamed dome that I had to crouch on the floor in order to see that it was perfectly domed, green eggs and almond, improvising with the marzipan that ended with a crumpled mess

This moment was the proudest that I have been during the bake off so far as I somehow managed to cut that one cake into three with a butter knife. 

Result: In the end, I honestly never want to make this again even though everyone raved about how delicious it was because. I must say that even though I would love to vow to not watch the next Avengers movie because of the marzipan like anger that I felt after it, I must have some sort of closure so I will be at the theater along with the billions of other people I'm sure. I will definitely never make this cake again though.

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: My judges thought that the green color on this one was a little off putting and that cracks obviously didn't help with the appeal but that the test was amazing. They were skeptical about all of the different elements working together but after tasting it thought that it was the perfect blend of flavors. They thought that the marzipan was the perfect texture and that it was just the right amount of sweet. All of them wanted more of it and said that it was probably their favorite bake so far in the challenge.

One judges reaction...

Average Taste Score: 10

Average Appearance Score: 7

 Second Baker: Stephanie

My Thoughts:

I started this cake on a Saturday morning, very excited to get back to the challenge. My almost two year old was also eager to "hep yoo" in the kitchen. By the time the cake was finally finished it was time to drive her off to college, her whole life was gone in the amount of time it took me to make this cake. Ok, so I'm being dramatic, but it did take me all day long, and there was no way I was getting this done in the two and a quarter hours the contestants were allowed on the show.

If you haven't heard, we're actually in the process of moving back to America and a lot of my house is already packed up and sent back, leaving me with no mixer. Craig, who is strangely supportive and into the whole challenge attached my basic whisk to his power drill and voila, a mixer is made!

I started out very confident, I even smugly told him (in my best bake off contestant impression) I've actually made Jam before, I think I have a leg up on this one.

Things started to go downhill quickly. Again, I didn't have some of the ingredients available to me and while making jam I told Craig "I'm going rogue!" only in my process of shout-casting my entire process to my husband and children, I got distracted and began to spill sugar everywhere, resulting in a few "oh expletive" exclamations.
Something went terribly south with my marzipan and my hands became the stuff of nightmares as I tried to mix it with my hands and the sticky porridge like substance began to cement to them.
The only place my cream was whipping was literally all over my kitchen as it stayed in liquid format. But hey, I blame the drill-whisk on that one. Once I whipped it by hand I had a little more luck and a lot more sore muscles.
After wrestling the loch-ness monster that was my overly colored sticky marzipan onto the cake. I admitted defeat, tapped out, and called this round done.

Result:

 If you hadn't seen the original cake and you didn't know what it was supposed to be, you might think this was a decent cake with a pretty impressive rose decoration. In fact, I took the cake to church and it fed about 30 people and everyone was asking for seconds.

They didn't know what I knew which was that my sponge didn't rise, my custard and my whipped cream never thickened, and that the marzipan is just a disaster.

Overall, for what it was, it did taste good and I was happy with my jam and the fondant rose.

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts:
The sponge to filling ratio was off, there should have been more custard and a fluffier sponge, so while the jam was good there was a little too much of it. "I can see what you were going for and it's good."

Average Taste Score: 7.5

Average Appearance Score: 5

Third Baker: Devin

My Thoughts:

PRINSESSTARTE...oh how I have longed to complete this complicated bake. That was before I read the twenty four steps and forced myself to convert the measurements in advance. The more I read the recipe the more daunting it became. I put it off for as long as I could. Custard...really British people? (I'm talking to the entire continent) I'm not even ashamed to admit that I threw in the towel on this bake. No matter how many days I tried to return to complete it, I just couldn't give it my all. I was defeated by the prinsesstarte. I would like to make this one day with all store bought components. I think it could be a tasty dessert but definitely not worth the time to make everything from scratch.  

Before I knew that custard was the devil

Result: I love the people in my life too much to ask them to try it and my frenemies know not to accept anything from me

When I realized I never wanted to bake again

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts:
Paul :Why didn’t you submit something? Even separately with an undone cake you could have been a contender
Mary: (Shakes head, face full of smugness) Custard is such an easy task.

Average Taste Score:

Average Appearance Score:

And the Star Baker is...

Tune in next week when we try our hand at a bake we can't pronounce, but glory-hallelujah, only has FIVE ingredients!

A Break from the Bakes

You may have been shocked, outraged and appalled (or you didn't even notice because we are not as famous as we would like to believe) that there was no technical challenge post this past week. We are sorry that you did not get to laugh at our crazy antics and roll your eyes at our limited knowledge of all things British last week. Hopefully you will not be quite as outraged when you learn that the reason there was no technical is that Stephanie added another member to the Cunningham clan on Sunday when Callen Cunningham was born!

In case you didn't know, Stephanie has been completing all of these technical challenges while being around 8 months pregnant which basically means she deserves every Paul Hollywood handshake and Mary Berry scrumptious comment that there is to give in the baking world. She probably could have even mastered the Princesstarta in the hospital after 10 hours of labor but we are pretty sure rolling out fondant on your hospital tray would be against Hungarian doctor's orders. Since none of us speak Hungarian though who really knows what they would allow or not, rules can be easily broken when babies are involved in Eastern Europe (although not putting a hat on a baby is a rule that cannot be broken and you will get a hat forced on your babies head if you try).

Stephanie had her baby in Budapest, Hungary and it just so happened that Megan was coaching at a basketball tournament there this past week. Therefore in this post you will get to hear about a Hungarian dessert called  Kürtöskalács (Kurtos for short) or as we unsophisticated English speakers like to call them chimney cakes. Sadly, Devin could not come to Budapest because she is not quite Ellen famous yet (we'll get there) so you won't get to hear her take on them.

The different versions of the Chimney Cake from around Eastern Europe (we're testing your flag knowledge with this one)

                                           
In true bake off fashion we will begin with a little bit of history behind the Kurtos (we'll call it that from now on because accents are hard but it's better than being a basic American and saying chimney cake). You can find different versions of this dessert all over Eastern Europe but all in all in its simplest form it is pretty much pastry dough wrapped around a stick to form a long tubular shape, covered in sugar and toasted over charcoal.

The Kurtos being roasted at Molnar's

The Kurtos is said to originate in Transylvania (now Romania) in the late 18th century and was reserved for the nobility. The very first Kurtos did not have a caramelized sugar glaze on the outside. It took 100 years for the Hungarians to realize that sugar makes everything better (something I think Americans realize coming out of the womb, Callen especially) and finally add sugar to the outside of the Kurtos dough before roasting. This newly sugared up, way more delicious Kurtos was a traditional item to serve at weddings in Hungarian culture.

Today, as you will see from our Kurtos experience, there are a variety of toppings that can be added and they even take it a step further at the bakery we visited by adding ice cream. The toppings and the ice cream were definitely a game changer for us. We had both eaten Kurtos and versions of it in various Eastern European countries but had never been super impressed until we visited this bakery.

The bakery is called Molnar's and we were thoroughly impressed by the whole experience there. We could not stop talking about the dough and how crispy it was on the outside but pillowy soft on the inside. The dough held it's shape perfectly even after being soaked with the the ice cream. Our past experiences, have been Kurtos versions that are hard as rocks and lacking flavor but these were completely different.

You are able to order a Kurtos with whichever toppings you would like and can add ice cream to it as well. Megan refuses to eat vanilla ice cream because it is not worth the calories and therefore just got a Kurtos covered in chocolate. Stephanie went with a cinnamon Kurtos filled with vanilla ice cream. You can watch them make the Kurtos right in front of you at Molnar's and watch them spin around on the spit as they turn a delicious golden brown.

All of the delicious toppings available

They brought out Stephanie's Kurtos first with two spoons (apparently this dessert was meant for two people which lucky for her, Callen was there to help in her stomach). We loved that they brought out an adorable tray filled with additional toppings to add to your Kurtos ice cream (who doesn't love a build your own sundae). The only complaint we had with her Kurtos was that it was not warm which we understood wouldn't mix well with the ice cream but still a disappointment.

Megan's Kurtos came out next and the warm dough completely covered in chocolate looked like it would definitely be worth the calories and was probably meant for like 15 people (sharing and dessert are two words that should never go together though). It was the perfect combination of fluffy dough and melty chocolate.

Obviously we really liked Molnar's and would recommend it to anyone visiting Budapest. It was definitely the best Kurtos experience that we've had and we can't wait to go back. Budapest is probably our favorite Eastern European city as well so if you're more famous than us, then you should just go ahead and hop on a plane to Budapest to visit Molnar's.

Pie and Tart Week: Paul's Mini Pear Pies

There are no words to completely convey how this technical messed with our minds. Devin is still shaking in the corner. It may be adorable and seem like a practical, light dessert but it's not. If the blog was awarded a nickel for every time the phrase, "This is a hot mess" was used, we could eat Levain cookies everyday for the rest of our lives. How could something so dainty and pretty make you want to rip your hair out? Two words...puff and leaf!

Mini Pear Pies : Picture from BBC Food 

I'm sure Mary Berry thought this dessert could be the perfect end to a heavy meal, but all we wanted to do was to add different elements that would have made it more delicious or worth the calories. There may have been a comment thrown out about caramel being too good for the mini pear pie. Two out of three of us have experienced European desserts first hand and the mini pear pie seems like a good symbol of what the British like in a baked dish; puff pastry and white wine.As an American though, I'll take my chocolate and peanut butter over it any day.

First Baker: Megan

My Thoughts: My baking routine for these technical challenges has been to bake them on Sunday and have The Greatest Showman soundtrack blaring in the kitchen to motivate me through each bake. Well during this bake as the song Never Enough began to play, I started to sing as loudly as possible "Never agaaaaain! Never! Never! Never again, will I make these!" That's how I felt pretty much through this whole bake. Never again did I want to fold and turn and chill and fold and turn and chill a billion times to make my own rough puff. Never again did I want to poach pears for years just for them to turn out bland and taste well, like pears. Never again did I want to use a ruler while I was baking because bringing reminders of school home, is just the worst (even though as a teacher I have to do it all the time). Never again did I want to wrap very poorly cut strips of dough around a slippery pear that just didn't want to be mummified that day. Never again did I want to have to watch all my hard work be demolished by a tipsy pear in the oven that clearly had absorbed too much poaching wine and decided standing up was just too bloody hard.

Ingredients, cutting those rough strips, pears before the oven, my makeshift rolling pin, and that drunken pear taking out the others in the oven.

 Result: 

I'm a little mad just looking at this picture and thinking of all of that wasted time. Did I mention how much I already loathed fruit desserts before this because well, you know, a lack of chocolate.

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: There were definitely some mixed feelings on these amongst my judges but I think they're just a little too nice to say these were disgusting. One judge thought that the pear tasted nice while another thought that something went terribly wrong with them. One of them thought that the appearance with that little baked leaf was perfect (she did receive the best looking one) while the other thought that there is no way pastry would ever adhere to a soggy pear so theirs was a mess. Finally one judge thought that adding whipped cream helped make these edible.

Average Taste Score: 5

Average Appearance Score: 7

 

Second Baker: Stephanie

My Thoughts: Mini pear pies, sounds so cute! If you could have been in our group text this week it didn't sound as delightful. There were talks of "literal hell" of cutting pastry in 1/8 in strips, and of pears going down and taking others as casualties with them. It's a war zone this baking thing! To be honest I wasn't expecting a ton from this bake because making rough puff pastry sounded daunting, and for once I was in agreeance with Megs where this dessert didn't seem to be worth the calories, but maybe Paul would surprise me.
The bake wasn't difficult, but it was involved. There were many turns, rolls,and chills of the pastry, and the pears had to be peeled, poached, cored, cooled, wrapped, bathed, baked, and drizzled before they could be consumed.
 Going into the oven I was pretty impressed with myself! The leaves were adorable, the pastry, although stretched, was in perfect mummy fashion...things are looking up! Then...they went into the oven, and some sorcery of pear temperature and pastry temperature happened and everything started to fall apart! No matter how long I baked them I couldn't get them to brown nicely, and one pear even decided to defect from the mummy-pear army and tip over. Oh boy.

Ingredients, pastry measuring, adorable leaves! 

The pear army ready to be baked, and the beginning of the end of this losing battle in the oven

Result:

My attempts at plating well to distract the judges from the disaster on the back lines. 

Sad little tattered pear army 

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: In the end they didn't turn out as catastrophic as I thought. We all agreed they were a bit on the bland side for a dessert, but the remarks were that the flavors were great, the pastry was actually nice, but the pears could have been a bit softer.

Average Taste Score: 8

Average Appearance Score: 6

Third Baker: Devin

My Thoughts: I had no desire to do this technical. I'm in love with puff pastry and I love fruity desserts, but there's no pizazz found in this dish. I put it off for as long as I could, I may have literally run to get away from doing it. Once I started the bake everything felt okay and not daunting at all. I just want to say on the record, this was my first time rolling out dough..and I was not a complete failure! The poaching on the other hand reminded me too much of candying the peel from the Florentine technical. I had to take some therapeutic sips from the white wine used. I felt pretty good about this going in and it was the first of the bakes that I could taste. 

Result: Why did I just put this in my belly? I never thought I could like something less than the snicker doodle cookie. The British can keep this dessert and I'm giving them the silent treatment until they redeem themselves.

Fake Paul and Mary Thoughts: The puff pastry could have have been crispier. The pear was cooked to perfection, but does not hold any flavor from it's poaching.

Average Taste Score: 4

Average Appearance Score: 9

                                                                                    And the Star Baker is...