I challenge you!

Remember this post from the end of last year?

Well, I'm doing it again!

I challenge you, NAY, I DARE YOU, to do the one thing you've meant to do all year and haven't.  I DARE you to look at your list of resolutions (if you're the type to make one), and do one of them now!

Last year I jumped into soap making.  I had wanted to do it forever, but never found the time.  I was scared, I might fail, who was I trying to kid...besides, I just don't have the time....

So, the last day of the year, I told the little voices to shut the heck up and I made the time and I made some soap.  I'm so glad I did, and so are all the people who received beautiful handmade soaps from me for Christmas this year.

I've narrowed it down to two things I'm going to do this year, and I still need to decide which it will be...but either one will be a significant change (for the better) for the blog.

So.  What are YOU going to do? 

Pick up the gauntlet and RUN!!!!!!!

Darling Clementine

My Grandpa Fred, toward the end of his life, would sing quite a lot.  I loved his singing.  The old-man timbre of his voice still rings in my memory, loud and clear.  One of his favorites was the old standard "Darling Clementine."    As a young boy, he lived on a cattle ranch in southern California.  He died not too many miles away from where he was born, and lived the entirety of his life between those two points.  Growing up with cowboys and cattle drives, he learned some pretty bawdy songs, none of which I ever heard until his later stages of Alzheimer's disease set in.  Similarly, there were verses in the Clementine song I never heard until his last years, either.  What a shock it was, and what a laugh it gave me!

Anyway, to this very day, I can't look at Clementines and not hear my Grandpa Fred's voice crooning on about Clementine's sister!  OH my!

Prior to Christmas this year, I stocked up on Clementines as a sort of lip service to having something healthy on hand for snacks.  So my house looked like this: bowl of caramels, plate of fudge,  pile of clementines.  Platter of Nanaimo bars, platter of fudge, pile of clementines.  See?  Healthy!

(Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine...)

My sister-in-law brought her family and another HUGE bag of clementines.  She left, but the clementines stayed .

(How I missed her, how I missed her, how I missed my Clementine...)

Mr. Boom, Chirp-chirp, and I ate as many as we possibly could, but we still had about a ton. 

What to do?

Thanks to Foodgawker, I found a Ceramic Canvas recipe for Clementine and Ginger Gelatins. Calling for two dozen or so clementines, this dessert seemed like the very thing!  I *think* I can even get away with calling it healthy, not that I care so much, but maybe you do?    Served up in a martini glass, it's also festive and easy to make ahead.  I'm thinking that if any of you are having a New Year's Eve soiree, this dessert would be awesome to serve and celebrate with.

First, squeeze enough little clementines (or tangerines or mandarins) to yield approximately two cups of juice.  I was a little short when I took this photo, but the photo with the full amount came out quite blurry. 

Pour the juice into a little pan and bring to a simmer.  You can filter the juice through 

a sieve if you want, but  I don't think I'll bother next time.

The original recipe called for a mere 1/4 teaspoon of ginger. 

I like ginger, so I put in thiiiis much.

Toss it in and let it steep.

Meanwhile...

Squeeze another half cup of juice, and add 1/4 oz of gelatin.

Stir until the gelatine has dissolved.

(Or don't quite dissolve it all, then remelt everything the next day

and be thankful that it worked!)

To the warm mixture, add the tiniest bit of vanilla,

and about 1/4 cup of sugar.

Combine the two mixtures, stir well to incorporate, and pour into

a dish, little glasses, a shoe, or whatever else you feel like serving it in.

I'm a bit ashamed, but yes, that's cool-whip.

Pretend it isn't, please.  Wipe the image from your head.

Easy recipe, isn't it?  I hope you make it and I hope you like it.

('Til I kissed her little sister, oh my darling, Clementine....)

December Daring Bakers: Stollen

Stollen. 

Julia pondered "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet."

Kat declared "Fruitcake is fruitcake, baby. Call it what you will, it's still an abomination."

Stollen.  Gag me.

But wait, what if I try to make it into something sweet and rosy, something good?  Boxed mac and cheese is no contender against the real, homemade deal.  Could it be that fruitcake, er, I mean, stollen, suffers the same slings and arrows of misfortune when it's mass produced?  Had I only ever sampled the tragic blue-boxed version of this Christmas tradition, and mistakenly surmised that fruitcake was all the same?

This Daring Bakers challenge would be a challenge to myself, then, of epic proportions.  Could I make an honest to goodness from-scratch stollen that even I would like?

(Mandatory Blog-checking lines:)
The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.
 

First things first.  Candied fruit from the store  is just plain wrong.  So, I made my own citron.

The pretty plate of citrus up there is actually the waste. 

Mr. Boom put it to god use, though, as you'll see later.

I boiled the peels in fresh water for a few minutes, then drained the pot

and added clean water and brought to a boil again.  I did this for a total of three boils.

The peels were then diced finely and thrown back into the pot with equal parts sugar and water.

The result is shiny, sweet, and chewy. 

They didn't taste a whole lot different of the orange jelly wedge

candy you can buy at the store.

The fairly uncomplicated bread dough was easily made in the mixer.  Instead of adding the citrus zest, I used some lemon sugar left over from a previous cooking project.  The lemon sugar is made of lemon zest and  sugar, finely whizzed in a food processor. The result is a nice lemon flavor without the ickiness of biting into a bitter bit of stringy lemon zest.  I figured this would further reduce the chance of and icky taste to the final product.  I left out the rum and raisins, further increasing the odds of a palatable result.

The citrus bits are blended into the dough, which is then left to rise in the fridge for a day, or three, depending on how long it takes you to face the fact that you really are going to make a fruitcake stollen.

The dough is rolled out, and at this point you can add marzipan, more fruit, or whatever makes you feel happy and fruitcake-like.

Rolled into a ring, the smell is appetizing and a small glimmer of hope begins to surface...

Slices are made partway into the ring. Not only is this pretty, but it helps cooks this large, dense, fruitcake monster all the way through.

Mr. Boom, in his infinite wisdom and thrift, took the fruit leftover from the first step and mixed it with some raspberry pulp, added a bit of yeast and ginger, and made the loveliest frizzy drink you can imagine.

I added a bit of vanilla vodka to mine and I don't remember much else...

The monster has risen!

The bits of peel are positively bursting off the surface of the dough.

The house smells...funny.

Like danishes. 

I really don't like danishes at all.  I have literally thrown up due to their smell alone on more than one occasion.

Mr. Boom loves danishes.

He's allowed to eat them when I'm gone, as long as he doesn't store them in the house.

  

 The house now smells entirely like danishes. 

It's freezing cold outside and snow is hammering down.

(There are different types of snowfall, for those who aren't in the know.  Sometimes snow falls like rain in a thunderstorm, though how something of that shape and mass can gain that velocity is beyond me!)

I want to throw all the windows open, but I can't.

So, I start dry-heaving instead.



The monster has won. 

I don't like fruitcake, you can't make me like fruitcake, and I won't ever make one again.  I gave this challenge my full effort.  I really tried to get into the spirit.  I was even hopeful for a while. I will stick with this from now on:

http://www.inflatablefruitcake.com/

If you want to give this a shot, and I see no reason why you should let my mortal fear and all-consuming hatred of fruitcake stop you, here's the recipe for the challenge.

http://thedaringkitchen.com/sites/default/files/u11/50_Stollen_-_DB_Dec__2010.pdf