Midweek Roundup: "Absolutely delightful and delicious"

Photo by Maggie

Simply Delicious

I'm sure you all remember Rosa Maggie from the beginning of the Alpha Bakers.  I asked her if she would consider coming back to the Alphas because she has still been baking many of the assignments, and her end results are stunning.  She graciously agreed, and here she is, with her photo of the week.  I admire the people who took the time to caramelize some hazelnuts for a very beautiful decor (at my house, anything labelled "optional" might as well be labelled "stay away").  Maggie has another great picture of dribbling the caramel over the nuts, which are attached to wooden sticks, which are, in turn, placed at the end of the counter so any caramel that misses its target lends on a newspapered floor.

Kim also caramelized some hazelnuts for the decor (please don't tell me I was the only one to lazy to do it).  She made hers by sticking one end of a toothpick into the nuts and the other end into a lemon, to stabilize them.  The caramel dripped down the nuts in spots, and hardened mid-drip, for a stained glass effect.  I do like admiring the technique of something I'm never going to do.  Kim was trying her best to give her old food processor so much to do that it would givie up the ghost, but sadly for her, her attempted food-processorcide didn't work.

Bless her heart, Rachel did not caramelize the hazelnuts (although her daughter did decorate the top wiuth a starburst stencil).  Rachel's description is so good I'll just quote it:  "My thought on biting into this tart was, 'it could totally be something I paid ridiculous amounts for at a bakery."  It not only tasted that good, it felt that luxurious.  The unctuous give of the ganache, the light, rich, nutty filling, and the solft, sweet and nutty crust contrasted with and complemented one another, each providing something the other lacked, while bringing out their best qualities all around."  Rachel's only mishap was trying to whip cream in a wide, shallow bowl.  Let's just say her cupboards have never been creamier.

Oh, hurray, Kristina's tart is topped just with the smooth, shiny ganache with nary a caramelized anything in sight.  Pure chocolate luxury.  Kristina, having already made Rose's famous peanut butter mousse tart and who is an experienced baker anyway, knows what she can get away with substituting.  Since she was feeding people who had already experienced the peanut butter tart delightfulness, she knew they wouldn't fall apart if she substituted peanut butter for some of the hazelnut praline paste.  And she figured no one would know the difference if she substituted a chocolate sea salt caramel liqueur for the recommended Frangelico.  She was rewarded on Twitter with a mention of "that chocolate hazelnut peanut butter deliciousness."  And by the fact that no one requested "just a sliver."

Catherine was thankful that the "cooking gods" were on her side this week because chocolate and hazelnut "are one of [her] favourite food matches," and this match was made in heaven.  Even though she had to make her own praline, had to add back some sugar that didn't stay in the blender, and had a "fluctuating" oven, the end result was "absolutely delicious," and not at all "tricky or time consuming."  

Vicki was disappointed in the flavor of her tart, but acknowledged that she might have been doing too many things at one time.  She was in the midst of skinning the hazelnuts when her doorbell rang and in came three grandchildren (accompanied by their mother).  Vicki popped them in the oven (for one awful moment, I thought she meant that she popped her grandchildren in the oven, Hansel and Gretel style, but no, it was the hazelnuts that went into the oven).  Then she got a phone call.  Moral of the story:  "not turning on the timer is a sure way to over brown hazelnuts."  Or maybe the moral of the story is not to be so popular that everyone is always wanting to talk to you.

Next week:  Another week that's not officially Quick & Easy but is still quick and easy.  Coconut cupcakes with milk chocolate ganache.  You may not have coconut extract or coconut milk on hand, and you may have used up all your whipping cream.  Other than that, you're probably all set, and these are definitely worth the minimal amount of effort to bake the cupcakes and make the ganache.