DB: Piece Montee

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Piece Montee with coffee and vanilla pastry cream fillings, dipped in chocolate and topped with sugar.

TWD: Coconut Banana Ice Cream Pie

Thanks TWD! This is a page I would have skipped right over. I'm glad that I didn't. There's nothing better on a warm day than a dessert that doesn't require anything other than a food processor.

TWD: Apple Bread Pudding

Really, I made this one. A week ago.

I like bread pudding, but I think, like salad, it tastes better when other people make it for me. This was good. A. told me the kids thought it was fine. So I sent the rest to work with him. The kids came home and told me it was the "best dessert ever" and wanted to know why I sent it away.

TWD: Classic Berry Tart

But the berries in the grocery looked terrible. So I grilled the pineapple that was sitting on the counter and used that instead.

Yes, the pineapple/pastry cream combination was a bit unconventional, and my attempts to "Hawaiian-ize" the tart with macadamia nuts and coconut fell victim to an empty pantry (darn chockablock cookies!). I left off the jam glaze, although I might have gone for a ginger preserve in this case.

TWD: Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

It tasted so nice that we made it thrice!

I was significantly less gutsy with the "amber" color of my second caramel. The resulting flavor wasn't nearly as intense. I loved the lack of "egginess" in the custard base of this ice cream.

The third version was "skinny" with the last of the whole milk and some skim. With all those egg yolks in the ice cream, I used some of the whites for the Cafe Volcano cookies that I skipped a few months back. They go very well together.