The Great Icrontic Bake-off!
GnomeQueen
The Lulz QueenMountain Dew Mouth Icrontian
Hey y'all,
We're all baking anyways, I think it's time we have an official bake-off!
How you qualify--
Next weekend, May 30th and 31st, you will bake a thing! (or any time this week! I don't really care!)
Anything! Literally anything! Savory, sweet, I don't care, I'm not eating it! (Unless your name rhymes with Mosh and you live close enough that you could leave some at my house...just saying**).
Post photos here of what you baked and the recipe (as long as it's not a family secret) and you will be entered into a raffle to win a $10 Amazon gift-card.
- Bonus internet points for baking a new recipe, for telling us what you learned/what you'd do differently, for getting someone to judge your food or judging it yourself and for sharing here or in Discord progress photos of how your baking is going! __Note: bonus points have no impact on winning but will be noted in the official register.
- Sidenote: I am definitely not stalking any of you nope no sirree so I definitely have no idea when you actually bake things. Cough. (Honestly...I don't actually care when you bake the thing! Just bake it!)
Bake bake baaake bakeeey bake bakerooos
Bagels for tax
** No Posh does not have any elevated chances at winning
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Comments
Oh boy!
My body is ready for bready
Gosh, I don’t know what to bake; so many options!
I'm a much better brewer than baker but I'll have a go at it.
@MrTRiot Make something with spent grain?
@GnomeQueen all my usual spots of getting grain are closed due to covid. You mentioning that has given me a few ideas though. Not sure if it'll be edible but it'll definitely be baked!
@GnomeQueen you know how to lure me back here... with baked goods.
I'm in. This will be fun.
iin
I started early; because I never really stop baking, and I really needed to use up some zucchini.
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/zucchini-bread/
It is a zucchini bread, I've never made one before and I would make one again. It tastes like a chocolate chip snickerdoodle.
@Massalinie yummmmm how much zucchinni is in there?
About a cup
@Massalinie, The zucchini bread looks wonderful, sounds great, I'd love to try it, but "It tastes like a chocolate chip snickerdoodle." I would believe "Better than carrot cake!", but idontknow. Chocolate chip snickerdoodle? What's the pairing?
Chocolate chips and a load of cinnamon!
It is similar to carrot cake.
I have been having troubles with flat sourdough loaves but I have a wicked healthy and happy starter, so today I am trying a 6-8 hour prove instead of overnight so I can try and get it to poof more in the oven.
It rested a long time after kneading and it feels so beautifully soft (albeit sticky AF) and supple. I'm happy. Here's to a late night bake!!
So I tried a new recipe and baked some soft pretzels. They don't look great, but they taste pretty good.
Cakes are in!!
Does anyone else make the kitchen this messy while baking, or is that just me?
UPSLynx is triggered
Thought this was my kitchen at first.
Welp. I'm pretty stumped. I feel like I'm checking all the boxes but it's about as flat as last week's.
The starter couldn't be more active. The dough is really hard to window pane test because it's so sticky, but if I speed handle it, I get a nice supple feeling and it tightens well for the boule (but careful not too tight). Nice and doubled rise, comes out of the banneton well, deep scoring, a cup of water for steam. It's bubbly looking inside, wonderful crust, delicious sour taste. Just flat. Like 2 inches tall. Prmph.
I learned a few things from this!
1.) Even thought your pans are all supposed to be six inches, that doesn't mean that they're actually identical in size! One of my cakes turned out slightly bigger, and I didn't realize until it was already my middle layer with jam inside. Wuuups.
2.) Apparently I might have needed a crumb layer on my frosting to get the thick look I was wanting? Or American buttercream was the wrong way to go. I was hoping for a nice thick outer coating of frosting that you couldn't see the cake through, and it became apparently pretty quickly that that was not going to happen. Thankfully, the naked cake look is in.
Also needs more filling. Surprise-- funfetti caaaake
Shitty photo of my cookie fruit tart. Love seeing all your posts guys!!!
First time making Bakewell Tarts!
I wanted to try something in these tart pans I bought back around crimbo time. Did them with raspberry jam and sprinkled some almonds on top. Got 16 mini tarts, and had a bit more filling than I needed (probably put in too much jam, I dunno). I'm pretty pleased with them given I really had no idea what to expect. I love me some almonds, and raspberries too!
I would've liked them a little sweeter, perhaps some thin icing. Also some recipes seems to use a lot less egg, which might've been good.
https://entertainingwithbeth.com/cherry-bakewell-tart-recipe/
Mmmm, everyone’s bakes look awesome! And the crumb of your bread sure looks good @Massalinie, height be damned!
Added in the wrong order for some reason 🤷🏻♀️, but browned butter carrot cake with browned butter frosting!
And so it begins.... What I hope becomes a Glazed Cherry Bread.
@HumerusMeg Your fruit tart is beautiful! I love the star fruit
NY style cheesecake topped with dream whip and crab apple wine shatter/hard crack!
EDIT: Here's a breakdown of the experience!
Cheesecake - Cheesecake is super simple to make so I won't get into too much detail and basically any recipe will work. Biggest thing is mixing everything well with a mixer so it starts to fluff as it incorporates air and then spreading it evenly over your crust.
The Crust - This is a bit harder (I used honey gram cracker crumbs and butter) to get right. I didn't grease the bottom of my bunting pan quite enough so there was a bit of stickiness. I was going for a crust that "peaked" in order to make it look like a pizza so I gave quite a bit of more squishing than I normally do. Worked out fairly well I think, 8/10.
This was the dangerous part as I was "boiling" off the alcohol in the wine so I'll give quite a bit of detail. Attempt at your own risk.
Required Things: 2 cups of crab apple wine (13% ABV), 2 cups water, 4 cups sugar, IR thermometer, Metal stick thermometer, parchment paper, metal pans, a flame less heating source, a very well ventilated area
1) Combine wine, water and sugar into pot. Stir until dissolved (may require slight heat)
2) Bring temperature up slowly to 175F and hold for ~35 minutes. Use IR thermometer to check temp of inside pot slightly above liquid. Use stick thermometer to check temp of the liquid itself.
DO NOT GO OVER 200F AT ANY POINT AS ALCOHOL VAPOR MAY SPONTANEOUSLY IGNITE
VAPOR ALCOHOL IS HEAVIER THAN AIR AND WILL POOL ON THE FLOOR IF NOT VENTILATED PROPERLY
3) Once the alcohol is burned off (the swirling "mini tornados" in the liquid will have ceased) heat to a minimum of 280F and a max of 310F without stirring. A large increase in volume will occur at this stage due to the liquid vaporizing and getting trapped within the sugar. Mine increased 5x. Plan accordingly
4) You can check the consistency of the hard crack by getting some on a spoon and dropping a few drops into cold water. It'll form either long hard strings instantly or small hard balls.
5) Once desired consistency is reached turn off heat and transfer contents immediately to pans lined with parchment paper to cool completely. Do not get liquid on anything other than the parchment paper or you'll be in for a fantastic cleaning job.
ISSUES: I initially only heated my liquid to 230F so I ended up with a thick maple syrup consistency. To fix it I transferred it all back into a pot and added 1 cup corn syrup and 1 cup water to thin it out again and then reheated it. I had to stop at 282F due to some esters in the wine that started to smoke. If using a pure sugar/water mix you'll be able to get to 300F without issues (Roughly the point of 99% pure sugar). Varying wines will have different esters that may not withstand temperatures of that magnitude. Keep that in mind.
All in all it was a fantastic experience. The cheesecake was a hit and I learned way more about candy making than I should of for a bake off! Thanks @GnomeQueen for putting it on and I hope we can have another showdown in the future!