The main challenge was to make the super thin strudel pastry dough which is one of the only pastry doughs I've ever made which doesn't contain butter (practically diet food).
The trick is to stretch it out on a floured cloth and not to panic when you see holes appearing in the dough like a pair of old tights. Given the elasticity of the dough, it was actually easier to manipulate than I feared and I soon had my (somewhat laddered) sheet ready to fill.
The apple strudel recipe given looked delicious but in the spirit of adventure I decided to make a pistachio and rosewater frangipane to fill the pastry log. I started by soaking dried dates and apricots in a little rum and hot water to soften them. Once soft, I popped them in the blender to make a coarse puree.
To make the frangipane, I creamed butter, pistachios, egg, a little flour and a few drops of rosewater. Delicious.
I spread the fruit puree and the frangipane over the dough and used the cloth to make a rather uninspiring looking sausage:
Which I then shaped into an even less appetising looking horseshoe and baked for 30 minutes.
The strudel dough was crisp and flakey but it was definitely just a shell for the more flavoursome filling. I'm not sure whether the pastry turned out as it should have done - it was fine but it didn't really ring my cowbell! I was very happy with the filling though. The mixture of pistachios, dried fruit and rosewater was moist, fragrant and delicious. I would definitely try this filling in a tart, perhaps with figs as well...250g dried apricots/dried dates soaked in a little boiling water with rum if you please
- Grind the pistachios with half of the sugar in a food processor until they are in fine crumbs.
- In a food mixer (or with a wooden spoon) beat the butter until it is soft. Add the remaining sugar and cream until fluffy.
- Add the egg and mix it in well. Add the rosewater (you may want to add more to taste).
- Stir in the pistachios and flour until you have a chunky paste.
- Meanwhile puree your dried fruit.
- Spread the dried fruit paste onto the pastry and top with the pistachio frangipane.
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.
I often think that many a good cheesecake fails by having an insufficient crust to cheese ratio. Not for me this basic error:
I packed the chocolatey, almondy base into the tin and ended up with half the cheese mixture leftover (hello cheesecake number 5).
Similar to Baileys, but richer, creamier and definitely more alcoholic, it added the perfect kick. I also swirled some left over melted chocolate through the mixture. Yum. 
Using a water bath to cook cheesecake gives it the ideal 'cheesecake of your dreams' texture. Sadly I have often suffered from a soggy bottom when using this method. Jenny suggested using a disposable container rather than wrapping your loose bottomed tin in foil, but I decided to use a fixed bottom tin lined with cling film inside. The film doesn't melt, you can lift your cake easily and no wet bottoms. Yay!
This recipe was very successful. The filling was velvety, soft and rich and the almondy amaretti base changed the dynamic of the desert. It would be an ideal base for a coffee flavoured cheesecake. However, I think the recipe I'd used earlier in the week (based on a Nigel Slater recipe) produced a slightly better flavour and a lighter result so I think I'll keep it as my "go-to" recipe for now.
Unfortunately any such vitality vanished once the dough went through the pasta machine. Less pasta, more saggy, green stockings:
What do you mean it doesn't look like the lasagne sheets you get in a packet?
The beauty of these biscuits is that you can bend them, shape them, any way you want them. Think hearts, butterflies, pipes and baskets. Beautiful. I decided to craft biscuit baskets to hold a slightly-less-healthy-than-a-fruit-salad banoffee filling. Yum.
The tuiles were flavoured with vanilla sugar. Lucky girl that I am, I was given a jar of sugar packed with Madagascan vanilla (thanks N!) and it scented my tuiles to perfection.
The batter was a doddle to make and even the shaping wasn't as tricky as I feared. The most difficult thing was to spread the batter thinly enough so the biscuits ended up crispy rather than spongy.
and combined them with cream and crumbled meringue:
and homemade toffee sauce (I promise the bananas are still in there):
and a sprinkle of toasted pecans:
I would definitely make the tuiles again. I'd like to make narrow tubes dipped in chocolate and served as a petit-four. There's definitely scope for a savoury cone filled with avocado and prawns too...
The log comprises of six different components. Well, nine really, once you add the blood, sweat and tears required to make it. Yes, it is a labour intensive little branch. By the time I got to the creme caramel (around 10:30pm last night) the kitchen was in chaos, I was covered in chocolate and Mr AB was suggesting that, once covered in icing, no one would know how many layers my log did or didn't contain. He's a sneaky one.
1. First the almond sponge layer:
2. Then the chocolate mousse is piped onto the sponge (and into my mouth):
3. Next, the scrambled egg, I mean, creme caramel:
4. Scrambled egg? What scrambled egg?
5. Well, it was a bit light on the chocolate until I added the milk chocolate crunch layer:
6. More mousse (slightly thinner layer given how much went into my mouth at step 2), chocolate ganache and then the final sponge layer to hide the gluttony below:
* I used amaretto biscuits to add the crunch. Delicious!
The icing, however, was delicious. Making up for my nerves with the syrup, I took more of a chance with the butter and I was rewarded with a beautiful smoky flavour. Unfortunately my sieve wasn't equally rewarded:
I find some American frosting recipes to be a little too sweet and cloying but this one proved to be the exception. The burnt edge of the butter, together with the hint of the caramel made it very moreish.
And now the caramels. These really are an optional extra as the cake and icing are perfect on their own but if you fancy a bit of fun with a sugar thermometer then give them a go.
I pummelled mine with a rolling pin and added the toffee chunks to the the batter where they melted into little pockets of toffee goodness. Delicious. I also added then for a little crunch on top of the icing: 
My favourite toffee-tastic use was to pour the caramel over slices of apples. The toffee doesn't set as well but the soft caramel with the crunch of the apple is perfect. Yum.
Very Autumnal. I was a little wary of letting the cakes touch the leaves (there are a lot of dogs in the park) but I like the cake in the leafy jungle look.
In the end, I found inspiration on 
To go with these Mediterranean style toppings I added sun dried tomatoes to the dough, sprinkled pine nuts on top and enjoyed my crackers Roman style.
As much as I enjoyed the taste, sadly there wasn't much of a crack to these crackers. I tried to roll the dough out thinly, I really did. But despite using my meagre muscles to the full I just couldn't get the dough as thin as they needed to be.
When it came to 'snap' the bread into shards for serving, all I got was a dull bend. Oh well, they still tasted good.
Even if you don't get round to making these breads, I do thing it's worth trying to think about your recipes from a different perspective. I would never have thought to make anything specifically vegan. However, this nut pesto is a winner and I'll be stirring the leftover into a bowl of pasta sometime soon.
For the lavash crackers, you can find the recipe 
To make the pesto, follow the recipe below.
