Summer Baking Challenge Week 5: Cadbury Crunchie Chocolate Bars

So this week I was sitting around having a snack. As I unwrapped my Cadbury Crunchie chocolate bar and took a nice scrumptious bite into it and had a light bulb moment. I should try making a Crunchie chocolate bar!

Cadbury Crunchie Chocolate Bars

First things first: I could taste that a Crunchie bar was made out of sponge toffee so I went out searching for a recipe and here is where I found it:

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/sponge_toffee.php

• 2-1/2 cups (625 mL) granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup (150 mL) corn syrup
• 1/3 cup (75 mL) water
• 4 tsp (18 mL) baking soda
• 2 tsp (10 mL) vanilla

Before I started, I set up my pan and cut out tin foil and folded into a sort of dividers so that it would be somewhat in a chocolate bar shape. 

They were the size of the width of the pan so about 9-inches long and about 1-inch wide. I greased them right before the sugar and stuff finished boiling.

In 12-cup (3 L) saucepan, stir together sugar, corn syrup and water over medium heat just until sugar dissolves. 

Bring to boil; cook, without stirring but brushing down side of pan occasionally with pastry brush dipped in cold water, until candy thermometer reaches hard-crack stage of 300°F (149°C), or when 1 tsp (5 mL) hot syrup dropped into cold water forms hard brittle threads, about 10 minutes. 

Remove from heat. Standing back and averting face, whisk in baking soda. (Caramel will bubble and sputter and increase in volume.) Whisk in vanilla.

Pour into greased foil-lined 13- x 9-inch (3.5 L) metal or glass cake pan. Quickly place your greased tin foil dividers like this:

Let cool in pan on rack without disturbing, about 2 hours(I just left them overnight). Break them apart, peel off the tin foil, and cut each one in half so that it looks like this:

Almost done. Now for the chocolate coating.

Melt about 3 cups of milk chocolate(I actually used semi-sweet chocolate chippits but it would definitely taste better with milk chocolate, I'm sure) in a medium sized pot on low heat. Immerse a piece of sponge toffee bar into the chocolate.

Scoop out the bar and tap any excess chocolate off and place on a sheet of baking parchment paper and let it cool. Continue with the rest of the bars until they are all done and cooling.

And there you go: delicious Crunchie chocolate bar!

Enjoy!

Summer Baking Challenge Week 4: Boston Creme Donuts

Boston Cream Doughnuts

I found this recipe via Pinterest from here:

http://simpleandhomemade.blogspot.ca/2011/05/boston-cream-doughnuts.html

Vanilla Pastry Cream Filling
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
3 tablespoons cornstarch
4 egg yolks, at room temperature
2 tablespoons butter, softened 
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Yeast Dough
3/4 cup warm whole milk (105° to 115ºF.)
1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/3 cup sugar
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
4 egg yolks, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Chocolate Glaze
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate
2 tablespoons water
4 teaspoons corn syrup
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 tablespoon butter, softened

Make Filling: (note: this is the very first thing you should do, the filling needs to chill)
Place sugar and 1 cup milk in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat until mixture boils.Place cornstarch in medium bowl. Using wire whisk, gradually whisk in remaining milk and whisk until mixture is smooth. Add yolks and whisk until well blended. Slowly pour 1/3 cup hot milk into yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Gradually whisk in remaining hot milk. Return milk-yolk mixture to saucepan and heat to a boil over medium heat. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly.Remove from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla. (If pastry cream is lumpy, pass it through a sieve or just beat it really hard) Transfer pastry cream to a nonreactive (glass, ceramic, tin..) bowl. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly onto surface of cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until cold. 

Make Dough:
Place warm milk, yeast and 1 teaspoon granulated sugar in bowl of electric mixer. Using a wire whisk, stir mixture until yeast granules are evenly dispersed. Let stand for 3 minutes until yeast is dissolved and mixture begins to foam. Add 1 1/2 cups flour to yeast mixture. Using paddle attachment (or with hands) beat on low speed 2 minutes. Remove paddle attachment and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature 45 minutes. Sponge will have increased in volume. Thoroughly grease a large bowl with 1 tablespoon room temperature butter. To sponge, add remaining butter and sugar, yolks, salt, cardamom and nutmeg. Mix on low speed until blended. Add 1 1/2 cups remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat dough on medium speed 5 minutes. Dough will not form a ball – it will be soft and part of it will wrap itself around paddle. If dough is very sticky, add remaining flour 1 tablespoon at a time, as necessary. Scrape dough into prepared bowl, turning over dough so that top is greased. Cover with plastic wrap. Let dough rise at room temperature about 2 hours, or until it has slightly more than doubled in volume. (Rising time will depend upon room temperature.)

Line a baking sheet with parchment or wax paper and evenly dust with flour. Dust a clean work surface with flour. Turn out risen dough onto surface and gently press down on it to deflate. With your hands, flatten dough into a rectangle about 1/2 or 3/4-inch thick. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let dough rest 5 minutes. Using a floured 2 1/2-inch round biscuit or cookie cutter, cut out about 12 to 14 little circles of dough. With a floured spatula, gently transfer rounds to prepared baking sheet, reshaping them if necessary. Leave at least 1-inch between doughnuts to allow for expansion. Let doughnuts rise for about 20 minutes, or until almost doubled in size.



Fry Doughnuts:
Pour enough oil in a deep-fat fryer or large straight-sided saucepan to come halfway up sides. Oil should be a depth of 2 to 3 inches. Heat oil to 365ºF. Line a baking sheet with paper towels. Dip a spatula in hot oil and use it to transfer doughnuts from baking sheet to oil. Fry doughnuts, 3 or 4 at a time, for 1 to 1 minute 30 seconds or until golden brown. (The midline of the doughnut will be lighter than the rest of it, which is characteristic.) Remove doughnuts from hot oil using a slotted spoon and transfer them to paper towel-lined baking sheet to drain and cool. When cool enough to handle, use a long, plain pastry tip to poke a hole through the midline of each doughnut. Let cool completely before filling.

Make Glaze:
Cook water, corn syrup and sugar in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat until mixture boils. Remove from heat and add chocolate. Let stand 2 minutes. Whisk in butter until mixture is smooth.



Assemble Doughnuts:
Remove pastry cream from refrigerator and whisk cream until it is smooth. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain 1/4-inch round tip with pastry cream. Pipe pastry cream into hole in middle of each doughnut until pastry cream bulges out and doughnut feels full. Wipe off any excess cream. Place filled doughnuts on rack after they are filled.



Dip top of each filled doughnut into bowl of warm chocolate glaze, letting excess glaze drip back into bowl. Place glazed doughnuts back onto rack to set. Let sit for 30 minutes before serving. The doughnuts are best when prepared and served on the same day, otherwise store at room temperature for a few days in an air tight container. 



They are quite yummy and I want to make them a lot more but they just take so long with all the rising and stuff. :P I will definitely make them for Hanukkah.

The Lack of Week Two for the Baking Challenge

I feel I should give an explanation for the nonexistence of the 2nd week for the summer baking challenge. The reason is simply because it didn't turn out well enough to post the recipe. I kind of burnt it a bit and I deviated too much from the original recipe for it to work. Here is a picture to prove it:

It was yummy though. It was my first attempt at créme brûlée .
One day I will try my hand at it again and when I perfect it, I will post the recipe. :)