Daring Bakers at travel

Challenges, the life of a foodie are full of them; even more if you are a blogger. We apostrophize ourselves as Daring and caring. Being it savory or sweet, we meet up each month in two occasions to share the results on a chosen challenge.
The sweet challenge that us, Daring Bakers (DBs), have been presented with this month was Tiramisu. Thanks to this choice, we were able to make an ideal travel starting from India, reaching USA with a little touch of Italy.
The hostesses for the monthly DBs’ challenge were the lovely Aparna and Deeba from the colorful India. They chose the recipe for Tiramisu proposed by pastry chef Carminantonio Iannaccone. Major part of the challenge was the making of mascarpone and ladyfingers biscuits from scratch. Frankly speaking, this was not the hardest part of the challenge; the recipe itself was quite long to finish. The entire process took a whole of 3 days with 2 days dedicated strictly on the tiramisu cake.
Have you ever tried to make this Italian dessert? I am sure though that you have tasted it: soft, spongy biscuits soaked in strong coffee and layered with a fluffy and delicate mascarpone and egg cream; a dusting of cocoa powder crowns it all.
It is not a really difficult cake to make and it is always a great success with guests.
Here there is the recipe we were asked to follow.

A plastic delight

Childhood brings always good memories back. What if we could play like then and also satisfy our grown up needs? Right, we need chocolate in this; plastic chocolate.
This will be lots of fun for your kids to play with and very useful to you to decorate your cakes making luscious bows, little animal or roses like these ones.

It is easy to make and to work with, here there is how to do it.
Plastic Chocolate
Ingredients:

• 100g dark chocolate;
• 30g light corn syrup (any kind of syrup will work I used Agave syrup for instance).

Method:
Cut the chocolate with a saw knife and melt it in a double boiler. Take it away when it is almost totally melted and continue stirring until it will be shiny and fully melted. Add the corn syrup and mix until the mixture gets together (it may become a bit grainy, but that is normal).Cut a big piece of cling film, poor the mixture over half of it; cover it with the other half of the cling film and flatten properly. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight before using it.
When ready, work the mass in batches with the palm of your hands until soft and warmed up ready to model.

Light delights

“Do you want to pop by for coffee and biscuits? Oh wait, I don’t have any biscuits home!” No worries, nothing easier than these feathery light and easy on the waist biscuit to whip up at the last moment.
These are what in Italy we call Savoiardi biscuits this means “belonging to the Savoy’s family” or as well “coming from the French regions of Savoy”. Apart from being perfect to dip into hot coffee, these biscuits are the base for the famous Italian dessert Tiramisu.
Did I get you curious? Do you want to try and make these? Here you have a recipe for them.

Ladyfingers/Savoiardi biscuits
(Adapted from Cordon Bleu At Home)
This recipe makes approximately 6 big ladyfingers ladyfingers.
Ingredients:

• 1 egg, separated;
• pinch of cream of tartar;
• pinch of salt;
• 2 tablespoons /40g granulated sugar;
• 30g cake flour, sifted (or 25g all purpose flour with 5g cornstarch);
• confectioner's sugar for dusting.

Method:
Start preheating the oven to 350 F/175 C, in the meantime beat the egg white with the pinch of salt and cream of tartar (if you are not able to find it, you can substitute it with a drop of fresh lemon juice). When the egg whites will start holding firm peak, start sprinkling in the granulated sugar and continue beating until you obtain a nice and glossy meringue. Fold then in it the egg yolk and one third at a time the flour.
Lightly grease a baking tray and cover with release foil or baking paper, shape the biscuit mixture on the tray to our liking using a pastry bag or a spoon. Sprinkle some caster sugar on top of the biscuits and wait for it to be absorbed by them; do this for a couple of times. At this point you may tip the excess sugar out of the baking tray.
Bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for roughly 10 minutes, or until nicely puffed and golden brown.
Store them in an airtight container till required. They should keep for 2 to 3 weeks.

Candida voluptate for your wakeup

I suppose you have already encountered in your path this Italian cheese confection. A sort of rich cream-cheese is often used in Italian cuisine to create luscious dishes, from pasta to desserts. For instance quite popular are the tagliatelle with mascarpone and walnuts or radicchio; it can also be used in place of cream to enrich sauces or stuffing featuring ricotta cheese.
Though pretty versatile and luxurious, this creamy white cheese may be a bit expensive to buy outside Italy; thankfully for us, doing it at home is pretty easy. Here you have how to.

Mascarpone
(Source: Vera’s Recipe for Homemade Mascarpone Cheese )
This recipe makes 140gm of mascarpone cheese (the yield is roughly 50%).
Ingredients:

• 250ml whipping pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized), preferably organic cream (between 25% to 36% fat cream will do);
• 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice.

Method:
Bring 1 inch of water to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce the heat to medium-low so the water is barely simmering. Pour the cream into a medium heat-resistant bowl that will fit snugly on top of the saucepan but will not touch the water. Place the bowl with the cream on the saucepan to create a double boiler. Heat the cream, stirring often, to 190 F/88 See; the cream will almost be boiling at that point.
It will take about 10-15 minutes of heating. Add the lemon juice and continue heating the mixture, stirring gently, until the cream will start looking greenish sign that the whey is starting to separate.
The cream ill just be slightly thicker at this point and you may think to have screwed up the recipe. The mascarpone will firm up and present itself to you after overnight refrigeration. Place then a fine sieve, lined with various layers of cheesecloth or a wet cotton handkerchief, over a bowl and poor the cream into the sieve letting the whey drain into the bowl. Let he cream come to room temperature before putting it in the fridge overnight to drain and set.
Keep refrigerated and use within 3 to 4 days.

Now that you know how to do it, you are free to choose the kind of cream you want to use, both as source as well as fat content. Give it a try, you will love this cheese if only simply with some chocolate/nougat spread on a toast for an elegant breakfast.