August 2010 is going to be a big month in baking land as Sugar High Fridays is joining up with The Daring Kitchen to bring you a joint event!

SHF #68 is being hosted by the talented Elissa of 17 and Baking (her blog is gorgeous!). The theme is Browned Butter or Beurre Noisette. Elissa has all the details on her blog.

SHF is an event started by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess and it’s an honour for The Daring Kitchen to be part of this month’s edition. So how does the DK figure in, you ask?

Simple. If you’re a Daring Baker, then when you check the private forum today, you’ll see that there’s a very special challenge for August.

The world won’t know what it is until reveal day on August 27th, but it promises to be big!

If you’re not a Daring Baker already, no worries. You can always join The Daring Kitchen and while you won’t be able to participate in this month’s DB challenge (the deadline for joining in time for this month is passed), remember you can still take part in the SHF challenge!

Ciao!

Note: To catch up on this event and other food events, check out a great site called The Food Blog Diary run by Jacqueline. You can submit any events you like to Jacqueline at tinnedtomatoes{@}gmail{dot}com.

The 2010 February Daring Cook’s challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

Well I’m a few days late posting my February 2010 DC challenge but it’s not my fault. Between posting about how proud I am to be a Canadian and how much I love all of you, it took me awhile to get to the DC challenge.

I have to say, though, it’s been a great couple of weeks for me because between the Olympic love, the Valentine’s Day love and the love of this challenge, my tummy has been very happy!

Michele challenged us to make mezze, which are a series of small dishes to be served with homemade pita (which was also part of the challenge). Michelle specified that we had to make hummus, but beyond that we could make any other mezze that we liked.

For starters, I cannot thank Michele enough for showing us how to make pita bread. Had I known it was this easy, I would have tried it long ago. And the pita was truly delicious! I made mine with a bit of wholewheat flour thrown in with the all-purpose so the pita had a bit of a darker colour and a slight nutty taste, which was very nice.

The hummus was also delicious. I’ve made hummus many times before and every time I make it I think, “Why don’t I make this more often?”

Beyond those two components, I didn’t really try a lot of recipes. I made an eggplant dip, which I blogged about last week (but kept the DC secret!!!). I would have liked to try a lot more recipes but as usual, time was in short supply. However, I look forward to making pita bread again soon and trying some more mezze.

I want to thank Michele so much for this challenge! Please take a moment to visit the DC blogroll to see what the other Daring Cooks accomplished. You can click here for the recipe.

Okay … back to the Olympics … Opa!

Ciao!

If you haven’t already heard, it was announced that The Daring Kitchen won a Foodbuzz Blog Award for Best Group Effort.

I don’t think there is a better name for an award that could perfectly capture how and why The Daring Kitchen is what it is.

In every sense, it is truly the culmination of a group effort. And that group is made up of all of you Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks out there.

Congratulations! Take a bow! Be proud of yourselves! Bring on those DK challenges!

Ciao!

Thank you to everyone that voted for The Daring Kitchen. To celebrate the victory, here’s an easy “cookie” recipe that you can make quickly. Of course if you’re a Daring Baker you’d make the puff pastry from scratch …

Cinnamon Sugar Puff Pastry “Cookies”

Yield: It’s difficult to say because it all depends on the size of your puff pastry sheet, as well as the size of your cookie cutter. But you should get at least 20 to 30 “cookies” that are roughly an inch in size.

1 sheet of puff pastry
all-purpose flour (to dust your work surface)
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp. of water

Combine the ground cinnamon and vanilla sugar in a small bowl and set aside.

Flour your work surface and your rolling pin and roll out your sheet of puff pastry until it’s about a 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

While the oven is preheating, begin cutting out your “cookie” shapes using a cookie cutter of your choice. When you cut the cookies, press down evenly but don’t move the cutter around too much. This will prevent the puff pastry from rising nicely. You don’t have to use a cookie cutter here. You can also cut the puff pastry into small squares with a sharp knife.

Transfer your “cookies” to one or two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. When you’re done cutting out cookies, put the trays in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

After ten minutes, remove the tray(s) of “cookies” from the refrigerator. Carefully brush them with egg wash (egg and water mixed together) and then sprinkle evenly with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Bake in the middle or lower part of the oven for 8 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and bake for another 5 minutes, or until the “cookies” are puffed up and browned.

Remove from the oven to a wire rack and let cool. Or at least try to let them cool down before gobbling them up. These treats should be eaten quickly as the puff pastry doesn’t remain crisp for long.

Enjoy!

Yes, I thought that would get your attention.

I mean who wouldn’t want to go to The Big Apple?

All it’s going to take is some creativity and some mad cake-decorating skills … check it out!

Ciao!