Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Daring Bakers' Challenge for February 2011

The February 2011 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies. As soon as I saw this challenge I couldn't help but smile. Panna Cotta or "cooked cream" is one of my honey's favorites. It is light and creamy and simply delicious in any flavor. Topped with a fruit jam, fresh fruit, or gelee it's over the top good!
The recipe that Mallory suggested is from Giada De Laurentis and is my favorite "go to" recipe as well. The ingredients list is short: milk, powdered gelatin, heavy cream, honey, sugar, and a pinch of salt. For the directions I'll let you visit Mallory's blog or one of my fellow Daring Bakers blogs, or you can go back to my post from June 2010. I chose to top mine with some fruite gelee using blueberries that I had been saving in the freezer for just this sort of occassion. I also decided to try some of Mallory's suggested coffee gelee too. I couldn't decide which I liked best. Oh well, I'll just have to keep tasting. :)
The next part of the challenge was to make Nestles's Florentine Cookies. I have made many a cookie in my day but, never a florentine cookie using oatmeal. That's right something healthy....as in oatmeal, and fiber. Oh and a chocolate filling too. We all know how good chocolate is for us!
The cookie dough came together easily and baked up nice and chewy. I had some chocolate ganache from a previous project so I used it to fill the florentines. A wise choice if I do say so myself. These cookies were addicting!
Overall, this was a very tasty challenge. My honey was happy as were my other taste testers. Thank you Mallory for presenting this challenge.

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