The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.  We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Oh My Goodness!!  This cake was so good, it was the best chocolate cake I have ever had!  I completed the challenge at the beginning of February unlike last month I wanted until the end of the month.  I’m glad I didn’t wait!  Since I did not have a heart shaped pan I made the cake in a 9×13 pan and cut hearts out and made little sandwiches out of them.  The cake is all about the chocolate, it will taste just like the chocolate you su so you want to use a good quality chocolate.  You have to use really good chocolate for this to turn out really good.  The chocolate I used was Lindt, it’s not the cheapest and it’s also not the most expensive chocolate out there, it was however one the more expensive chocolates where I shop.   I used the Lindt chili bar (dark chocolate) and the Lindt extreme creamy bar (milk chocolate).  I can’t remember how I much I used of each chocolate but I do know that I used more dark chocolate than milk chocolate, only because I love dark chocolate.  The second part of the challenge was to make ice cream.  I do not have an ice cream maker so I used David Lebovitz ice cream making technique.  I failed…the ice cream did not come out as creamy as his pictures looked.  I’m not sure what I did wrong but I will try it again one of these days.  Live and learn!   I would have never tried making ice cream without an ice cream maker until this challenge came alone.  It was fun and exciting, Alyssa still ate the frozen disaster I made.  Since my ice cream failed and I had heavy cream and strawberries left over I thought I would make a mousse instead of ice cream.  The mousse turned out very nice and the whole family really liked it.
Check out all the Daring Bakers completed challenge here or check out a few that I love!

Charmed life-Host

Dad~Baker & Chef-Host

Friends with Candy

I’ve Got Seoul

parsley, sage, desserts and line drives

Bitter Sweet

Not Quite Nigella

Fried pickles and ice cream

Sugar and Spice

Oh and leave a comment on their post because it’s the nice thing to do! Enjoy your blog hopping!

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

So I’m trying to make my kids like sweet potatoes, I know it’s mean, I shouldn’t make them eat something they don’t like.  I personally love sweet potatoes.  I can eat them mashed, baked, fried, roasted, grilled…you name it and I will probably eat.  My kids on the other hand claim to hate sweet potatoes and that was before they even put one in their mouths.  I’m not really sure why they think they hate sweet potatoes so much, I’m sure it has a lot to do with Shaun.  See, Shaun doesn’t really care for sweet potatoes either, he will eat them when I cook them but he would never order sweet potatoes at restaurant or make them on his own, he’s not the biggest fan of the yummy sweet potato.  If Daddy doesn’t like something then Tyler and Alyssa automatically don’t like it either.  So last night Shaun wasn’t having dinner with us he had to work.  So I thought it would be the perfect time to get Tyler and Alyssa on the same page as me and enjoy the deliciousness of the sweet potato.  After last nights dinner I might have changed their minds, well at least one of them.  They both said they were starving and I have remind them they are not starving they are just hungry.

They waited patiently at the table while I made their plates and made their drinks.  As soon as I sat their plates down they both said…oh what is this, like they have never seen potatoes before.  Once I said it’s red and sweet potatoes they both freaked out and said I’m not eating that, I’m not eating that, I’m not eating that….yuck.  I told them they were going to try at least one and if they still didn’t like it then they didn’t have to eat it.  Alyssa tried it first thing and liked it, her words were oh this is yummy, she finished all of her potatoes!  Tyler of course waited until it was the last thing on his plate, he picked out all of the red potatoes leaving only the sweet potatoes until last, that’s Tyler.  He will gets all worked up and will have it in his head that he is not going to like something and when he finally does try it, he doesn’t like it.  Tyler finally took a bite and said it was ok but never took another bite, I guess he didn’t like it.  He will probably never like sweet potatoes and that’s ok at least he tried them. I still have Kameron to convince!

I have never thought about mixing red and sweet potatos and I have to say they turned out pretty good.  Here’s the recipe, I hope you enjoy them as much as my family did!

Ingreidents
Adapted from Relish
2 sweet potatoes , peeled
4 medium new potatoes
olive oil cooking spray
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried dill
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
1. Cut sweet potatoes and red potatoes into 2 inch pieces. Place
on a baking sheet pan coated with cooking spray. Drizzle potatoes
with oil; sprinkle with dill, salt, and pepper, tossing to coat.
2. Bake until golden brown, 35 to 45 minutes, gently stirring
potatoes once or twice.

Snickerdoodles

Printable Recipe

The first time I ever heard of a snickerdoodle was eight years ago when I was stationed in Iceland.  They were baked fresh and delivered the on base coffee shop Lava Java.  These cookies are one of my favorite!  This cookie is sugary and loaded with cinnamon. They are Tyler’s favorite cookie!  Alyssa and Kameron have grown to loves these wonderful cookies also!  Even though Kameron is only a year old he ate this cookie like it was the best thing in the world.  He got really mad when I stopped giving him pieces!  I love making this cookie, it’s so much fun to make and the kids get to help also. I let them roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon and sugar. I have made snickerdoodles so many times I have the recipe memorized.

Snickerdoodles!

Ingredients
1/2 cup soften butter
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
plus 2 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon

Directions
1. Pre heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine dry ingredients and set to the side.
3. In a separate bowl cream the butter, oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined.
4. Blend in the dry ingredients.
5. Refrigerate batter for about 15-20 minutes.
~~This step can be skipped I find it a little easier to form balls once the dough was been chilled~~
6. Shape heaping tablespoons of dough into balls. Roll balls of dough in mixture cinnamon and sugar mixture.
7. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
8. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Snickerdoodles