Wednesday, May 27, 2009

May Daring Baker's Challenge

It would seems that, when it comes to strudels, Singaporeans have been living in an alternate universe. All my life, thanks to Ritz Apple Strudel, I've believed that strudels looked like this:
So imagine my surprise when May rolled around, the challenge was revealed, and everyone in the Daring Baker community [and beyond] told me that strudels actually looked like this:

Bear with me for a little while more, and imagine my disappointment when my own strudel turned out like this:
I find myself to be utterly hopeless at all manner of dough stretching/kneading/tossing, as proven by the bread, pizza, and lastly strudel challenge. I suspect this failure can be attributed to using baking paper instead of cloth, but I didn't have a big enough piece of cloth.


However, I [and my family] was extremely pleased with the filling. I filled the pastry with flambe-ed peach halves in rum and butter, and let me tell you, it was AWESOME, and so quick to whip up. Flambe-ing the peaches were a ton of fun too!
The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.


FLAMBE PEACH HALVES IN RUM AND BUTTER
Ingredients:
1 can peach halves, well drained.
3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rum
**There's some debate on whether you can flambe on a non-stick pan, so just to be on the safe side, avoid doing that. I don't have a non-stick pan so I just used the most shallow pot I have. Worked great.
  1. Melt butter and add sugar to it. Cooked til dissolved and very bubbly.
  2. Add peaches to butter mixture and cooked til peaches take on a brown sheen and smells awesome.
  3. Remove from heat [****VERY IMPORTANT! DON'T ADD THE ALCOHOL OVER OPEN FIRE****] and add the rum. Stir well.
  4. Place back on fire and ignite either with a long matchstick or one of those stove lighter things.
  5. Sit back and enjoy the pyrotechnic. The fire will burn down once all the alcohol is burned off.

4 comments:

Valérie said...

That picture of what you thought strudels looked like makes me think of a "deconstructed" strudel.

I think you did a lovely job: your pastry looks nice and crisp, and the filling idea is great!

Lisa said...

AS LONG AS IT TASTED GREAT, AND IT does LOOK GORGEOUS AND FLAKY, EVEN THOUGH YOU SAID IT LACKED LAYERS. i'D DEVOUR THAT! GREAT JOB! OOPS, CAPS..SORRY! LOL

Isolated Foodie said...

Well, it looked pretty and the peaches are gorgeous. Sorry the dough didn't work the way you wanted it to.

Unknown said...

Well, I think it looks great and, you're right, that filling is delicious looking! Great job!