Modern Baker Challenge: Corn Pudding Tart

The third recipe I made from the Savory Tarts section of Nick Malgieri’s “The Modern Baker” for the Modern Baker Challenge was the Corn Pudding Tart. Phyl and Margaret have made it already and liked it. I LOVE corn, so I was sure I would love this tart. I chose the no-roll flaky dough for this tart as I really liked it in the Ham and Egg Tart. And, to be honest, I’m really NOT good at rolling out dough, so the no-roll dough was perfect for me. I used frozen corn as there is no fresh corn available here, and I shredded 2/3 of it in the food processor because I couldn’t picture myself grating single kernels. Everything else was easily put together. Did I like this tart? YES. Will I make it again? Probably not, because the kids thought it was disgusting. Eh?

Modern Baker Challenge: Ham and Egg Tart

Another great tart from Nick Malgieri’s “The Modern Baker”. This is the second recipe I made from the new section for the Modern Baker Challenge. I’m not a big fan of ham (or meat in general), but my kids and the hubby don’t mind ham at all, so I thought this would be a nice meal for them for my weekend away (nope, no free time for mommy – 2 long study days instead!). This tart is easy to prepare, the crust (no-roll flaky dough) is even easier than the one (olive-oil dough) for my Roasted Peppers & Goat Cheese Tart in that you don’t have to roll it out but kind of press the crumbs into the pan. And the filling? A quick milk, cream and egg mixture with a little seasoning – that’s it. Everybody loved this tart -  and since they left a slice for me I can also say it was good despite my dislike for ham! Btw, you can find the recipe here.

Modern Baker Challenge: Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Tart

My first recipe from the new section of Nick Malgieri’s “The Modern Baker” – Roasted Pepper and Goat Cheese Tart. This is my official recipe for this section for the Modern Baker Challenge. And I’m happy it worked out great! I’m quite used to roasting peppers because I love, love, love muhammara, so roasting peppers for this tart was not a big deal. Even the tart crust was easy-peasy – a couple of seconds in the food processor, and that’s about it. I don’t have one of those fancy tart pans, though, only a round pizza pan, so the edge doesn’t look as neat as in the book, but let me assure you, this is not detrimental to the taste . The combination of roasted peppers, goat cheese, egg mixture and tart crust was awesome. Will definitely make this one again!!! Btw, you can find the recipe here.

Bake! – New Orleans Praline Pound Cake

Some of my Twitter pals were baking Nick Malgieri’s New Orleans Praline Pound Cake last weekend (Phyl,  Margaret, Kayte and Abby), and everybody was so excited about the result that I decided to make it, too. Yes, the whole process was super easy, but for some reason I wasn’t as excited about this cake as everybody else. It’s fine, but not a recipe I’ll make again.

Modern Baker Challenge: Nonna’s Pizza

I know it’s January already and we have started a new section in Malgieri’s book “The Modern Baker” as part of the Modern Baker Challenge, but Nonna’s Pizza from the previous section was still on my to-do list, so I got all the ingredients to try this recipe today.

Some more holiday baking

It's December, it's winter, and we have tons of snow - lamp on our picnic table

I did not only make biscotti in December, but also spent my time with making: Peter Reinhart’s Stollen, Pandoro, sugar cookies, toblerone shortbread cookies, lime meltaway cookies, white chocolate Brazil nut cookies, cinnamon pecan breakfast ring, Bittman’s refrigerator cookies and semolina bread. Unfortunately, there is no time to blog about all of them – I don’t even have pictures of all my creations.  So, here’s just a little collage of the pictures I’ve got .

Modern Baker Challenge: Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan Babka

Next up in the Modern Baker Challenge – Chocolate Babka. I’ve made Peter Reinhart’s Chocolate Cinnamon Babka from ABED before and wasn’t really convinced (it was just dry and tasted like bread with chocolate chunks), so I was  a little hesitant to approach this recipe. But Phyl’s and Margaret’s rave reviews raised my hope that Malgieri’s recipe would be different.

Modern Baker Challenge: Cinnamon Pecan Breakfast Ring

What can I say about the Cinnamon Raisin Breakfast Ring? Please, go get Nick Malgieri’s “The Modern Baker” and make it, and I would be surprised if you didn’t like it as much as we did. You might want to consider omitting the raisins as we did – we didn’t miss them at all!

Modern Baker Challenge – Quick Brioche Braid

My second assigned bread in the yeast-risen specialties section of Nick Malgieri’s “The Modern Baker” that I baked for the Modern Baker Challenge was the Quick Brioche Braid. I had made brioche for the BBA Challenge before, but had chosen the Poor Man’s Brioche to save on butter – the result was a plain white sandwich bread, nothing special or surprising.

Modern Baker Challenge – One-Step Croissants

We’ve opened a new section in Nick Malgieri’s book “The Modern Baker” – yeast-risen specialties. One of my assigned breads in the Modern Baker Challenge are the one-step croissants – I’ve wanted to make my own croissants for a long time already and couldn’t wait to make these.

Modern Baker Challenge – Individual New York Cheesecakes

Just a quick note to let the world know that I made another recipe from “The Modern Baker” by Nick Malgieri. It was not the cheesecakes’ turn in the Modern Baker Challenge yet, but I had been eyeing this recipe for quite a while already. The recipe was easy, the most annoying part was cutting out pieces of baking paper for the ramekins. I wonder why my individual cakes don’t look as neat as the ones in the book – I did use a lot of butter for the sides of the ramekins. Any ideas? The flavor was amazing, though. But you definitely have to serve it with some fruit, they complement the sweet cakes really well!

Modern Baker Challenge – Perfect Elephant Ears and Instant Puff Pastry

Sara made them, Phyl made them, and then my daughter told me that in cooking class they made them, too – elephant ears, or pig’s ears as we say in German. This is another recipe from the Modern Baker Challenge – one we won’t get to for about another year or so, but I was so eager to make them that I just couldn’t wait.

Modern Baker Challenge – Parisian Fruit Tartlets

When I read that Abby had made the Parisian Fruit Tarts from The Modern Baker I immediately knew I had to make them, too, because the picture was mouth-watering! 

The Modern Baker Challenge – Pain de Campagne

Pain de Campagne, the next bread on my Modern Baker Challenge line-up, was a rather time-consuming bread. Of course, not as time-consuming as Reinhart’s or Hamelman’s breads, this is a 1-day bread after all. But compared to other breads in the bread section, it was.

The Modern Baker Challenge – Prosciutto Bread

Prosciutto? What is prosciutto? I didn’t know until I delt with the next recipe for the Modern Baker Challenge. I’m not a big meat lover – I do like to eat some chicken every once in a while, and I really LOVE fish, but other meat and cold cuts – meh. This is probably the reason why I’ve never encountered the term “prosciutto”. Now I know that in English, the term prosciutto is almost always used for a dry-cured ham that is usually sliced thinly and served uncooked (thanks, Wikipedia ).

The Modern Baker Challenge: Breads – Seven Grain and Seed Bread

My 7th bread in the bread section of the Modern Baker Challenge – Seven Grain and Seed Bread. I really liked the BBA Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire, so I was curious to see how Malgieri’s bread would compare to Reinhart’s multigrain bread.

The Modern Baker Challenge: Breads – Pain de Seigle

The next bread on my Modern Baker Challenge line-up was an absolute surprise. Pain de Seigle – aka French rye bread. It’s not that I don’t like rye – I’ve been used to eating good rye bread all my life. But for some reason, I’ve been a bit tired of rye lately. Thus I decided to make a half batch only.

The Modern Baker Challenge: Breads – Pita Bread

Pita bread was the next recipe I tackled for the Modern Baker Challenge. I do have a very good pita bread recipe (which is from the BBA Challenge) that always works and results in delicious pita bread, so I was curious how this recipe would compare to my go-to recipe.

The Modern Baker Challenge – Chocolate Raspberry Almond Tart

When my friend Sara made the Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Tart from “The Modern Baker” by Nick Malgieri she said it was one of the most delicious things she has ever made. Of course, I had to try the recipe, too – it was my birthday last month, after all.

The Modern Baker Challenge: Breads – Instant Sandwich Bread

After being successful with the Elegant Dinner Rolls, I really looked forward to making the next bread on my line-up of the Modern Baker Challenge: Instant Sandwich Bread. For those of you who are curious – this was another good bread!