Daring Bakers Challenge for April

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet.

I'll be honest, I almost didn't make this challenge for a couple of reasons:

1. I'm a vegetarian, so using suet was completely out of the question.
2. I'm also American, and I personally find the British use of the word "pudding" confusing and unappetizing.

But Esther was kind enough to post some recipes using butter instead of suet, so I sucked up my semantic objections and made rhubarb pudding.

Verdict? While it was easy to make and fun learning a new cooking method, the end result was pretty bland (it tasted like it had been steamed, go figure). My husband ate almost the whole thing in a matter of days, however, so it wasn't a total waste. I will definitely be making more puddings in the future, if only to justify the expense of the basin.

My first Daring Bakers challenge!

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

1. Send the husband off to a no-partners-allowed work function. He means well, but you really don't need an audience.

2. Segment the oranges. Feel like a big idiot because the cleaners just barely left and here you are getting orange juice all over the floor.

3. Make the marmalade without pectin, because someone on the Daring Bakers boards said it was hard to find in Australia and you couldn't be bothered to even try.

4. Make the pate sablee. Agonize over which cookie cutters to use because your mother sends you a new set for every major holiday even though you never make roll-out cookies.

5. Settle on hearts. Throw a star and Christmas tree in for good measure.

6. Make the caramel.

7. Burn the caramel.

8. Make the caramel.

9. Maybe burn the caramel a little bit, but go with it this time.

10. Pour half the caramel over the orange segments and let it marinate overnight. Hide everything tasty-looking for when your husband comes home hungry and drunkypants.

11. Make the whipped cream and assemble the tians. Freeze until you're ready to take a ton of really lame photos to prove to the internet that you really made them.