Happy Anniversary: Daring Bakers’ July Challenge

Happy Anniversary to me… Happy Anniversary to me… Happy one year as a daring baker… Happy Anniversary to me! Yes, I have been officially daring in my baking for one year. May I also toot my own horn and say that I have not missed a challenge. Come exams, graduation, cross continental moves, and study for the bar, I have not forsaken the promise to be daring at least once a month and challenge myself to bake without fear! Okay… Enough self appreciation, on to this months challenge.
The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

I could have taken the easy road and made the Milan cookies, but I wanted to be daring and without time to make both cookies, I decided to tackle the Marshmallow Cookies. As most people do not know, as it seems, marshmallow contains gelatin, an animal by-product and as a devoted vegetarian, I do not eat the stuff. For years I have been searching for a veggie friendly marshmallow recipe. Most recipes I have seen and tried called for agar agar and they always turned out to be a mess a mess.

I decided to roll up my sleeves and tackle veggie marshmallows again. [Just as a note, the do actually sell veggie and vegan marshmallows, but this time of year they are expensive and hard to ship because of the heat.] I found a veggie (not vegan) marshmallow recipe using Xanthum gum that turned out wonderfully. So, for the first time in nearly ten years I have been able to enjoy a marshmallow. I was and still am overjoyed! The recipe is posed below.

After tackling the marshmallow recipe, the rest of the cookie pretty much came together without problem. Be sure to check out the other daring bakers at http://thedaringkitchen.com/.

Without further adieu, I present to you Caramel (Veggie) Mallow Cookies.

------------------------------------------------------
Marshmallows with Xanthan
by Elizabeth Falkner (Demolition Desserts)

Ingredients:
• 60 mL water
• pinch of cream of tartar
• 255 g sugar, granulated
• 255 g light corn syrup
• ½ vanilla bean
• 85 g egg whites (about 3 egg whites)
• 5 g xanthan (0.76%)
Ground xanthan with a tablespoon of sugar. Set aside. Heat water, cream of tartar, remaining sugar, corn syrup and vanilla to 120ºC. Discard vanilla bean. Whisk egg whites for about 2 min until still soft. Continue whipping egg whites at slow speed while adding syrup slowly. Sprinkle xanthan mix while still whipping. Turn speed up and continue mixing for 2-3 min or until meringue pulls away from sides. Sprinkle a pan or baking sheet generously with cornstarch and spread out the meringue. Sprinkle top with cornstarch, cover with plastic and leave to set for 4 hours in a refrigerator. Cut marshmallows into desired shapes and dip cut surfaces in cornstarch.

Welcome Back!

I have not decorated a cake in three years. While living in CA, I did not have make cake decorating arsenal and I did not want to re-buy the equipment I already had in triplicate at home. I have to admit however, because I could not decorate in CA, it allowed me true time to grow and elevate my baking.
But a last, I am back at home and decorating cake! This is the first cake I have decorating in nearly three years. I made a cake to celebrate a little girl’s 8th Birthday. It is not a masterpiece by any means. Yet, I am proud of it and happy to be getting back in the saddle. I am excited about what the future holds when I have 1) more time to decorate, 2) more time to practice different techniques, and 3) more training!