She who dares bakes...Lavash Crackers

Am I the only one hadn't heard of lavash crackers before this month's challenge? For those of you who are similarly unenlightened they are pita-style flatbreads which are ideal for scooping up a variety of dips, salsas and more. They are also vegan. Yes, this month Natalie from Gluten a Go Go and Shel from Musings from the Fish Bowl challenged us to make a completely vegan recipe together with a vegan dip to go with it. Hmmm. I must admit that it took me a little while to think of a suitable vegan topping to accompany the crackers. Did you know that all tasty things contain animal products?

In the end, I found inspiration on http://www.veganfamily.co.uk/ and decided to make a basil pesto with Brazil nuts, almonds and pine nuts but no Parmesan (boo hoo). I also made a black olive tapeanade but cheated a little by adding some anchovy paste (sorry little anchovies).

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 here. Instead of the vegetable oil, I used the oil from the sun dried tomatoes and I added five or so tomatoes finely chopped and some dried oregano. To make the pesto, follow the recipe below.

Basil and Nut Pesto

Half a cup of olive oil

Bunch of basil

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 cup of almonds

1/2 cup of pine-nuts

1/2 cup of Brazil nuts

salt and pepper to taste

Blend the oil, garlic and basil in a food processor. Add the nuts and process until you have a chunky puree. Season to taste.

See, easy!

Check out the rest of the bakers here.

And the seasons they go round and round...

I cannot believe that a) I started my blog just over a year ago and b) I turn 27 tomorrow. Eek - how did that happen? Sometimes I start freaking out about how quickly time passes and end up humming Joni Mitchell's Circle Game in a maudlin fashion wondering what I've done with my life. I end up having to remind myself that it's better to get old than die, which sounds morbid but is actually a very helpful thought when you're in the depths of birthday depression.

Unfortunately I can't bake either my blog or myself a celebratory cake as I'm in the middle of having my kitchen re-fitted. This is very exciting and I will definitely be show casing photos if it all goes to the plan. At the moment it's all very chaotic and we're eating cereal for dinner a lot. Roll on finished kitchen. However, I do have a birthday cake that I can share with you. In fact I gave you a sneak peek here, and now I can reveal the cake that I made for my big sister's 30th in June (phew at least I'm not 30 yet!).

When we were little my sister would always demand a birthday cheesecake with an especially high crust to cheese ratio. Yum. Given that this year was a special birthday, I decided to revert to the birthday cheesecake formula but with a particularly gluttonous replacement for the crust. You may remember that when I went to New York last year I developed a little thing for Junior's cheesecake baked within a chocolate fudge-cake. I told myself that no good could come of obtaining the recipe and tried to forget about it. However, knowing how much my sister likes cheesecake and, indeed, chocolate cake, I decided to be selfless and find the recipe. Which I did. Here. And indeed, no good came of it.

I think if anyone ever challenges you to make something truly perverse, don't bake biscuits shaped like handcuffs or breadsticks shapes like whips. Make this. Seriously, there is something strange and disturbing about making a three layer chocolate cake and then sandwidging a whole cheesecake in the middle. It just seems so wrong, so OTT, so decadent and at the same time, so very right. It is definitely a celebration cake and, because it's so rich it would feed a whole room of party guests. You could also use it for entertainment. I expect if you made everyone guess its hidden ingredient, they'd say a dancing girl rather than think you were mad enough to put a second desert within.

I would say that the chocolate sponge was a little too dry. If I ever made this again (my arteries are furring at the thought) I would just use a standard chocolate sponge recipe as I didn't think the extra steps added anything here. That said, as a birthday treat for your only sister you can't really go wrong.

Poor innocent cheesecake. So simple, so pure - yet to know it's chocolaty fate:

Hmmm this is a little odd - a cake rather than crumb base...

Ok, and a cake topping as well? Most unorthodox.

Another layer? Is it really necessary? This is surely the end of polite cake-eating society as we know it. Be warned, this is a level of decadence not seen since the fall of Rome...

Ta-dah! I've created a monster:

Well, wouldn't you look lumpy around the middle if you'd just eaten a whole cheesecake?

I would like to say a very, very big thanks to everyone who ever reads this blog - it really is a pleasure to read your comments and know you are there. Yay!

She who dares bakes...Chocolate Eclairs

Well, better late than never. I actually made these yummy eclairs last weekend, but in a moment of ditziness I forgot to post this before leaving for a weekend in Norfolk with Mr AB's parents. Ah well.

I was really excited when I saw Meeta and Tony had challenged us to make chocolate eclairs. I'd been having cream-cake cravings in the days before the recipe was released and no amount of filthy supermarket eclairs or cream-filled doughnuts (you know the ones with the zig-zag of jam) were going to hit the spot.

I know that choux pastry has a tricky reputation, but it's actually one of the recipes that I mastered early. Before you dismiss me as a precocious pastry making child, wielding my wooden spoon with an authority beyond my years, let me explain. My mum is very hard to please and it's rare to present her with anything without receiving a little 'constructive' criticism first (sorry mum, it's true). I don't know why, but profiteroles are one of the only things I have ever made which have been accepted without comment. Realising the power of pastries, I learnt how to perfect them. In fact, at the height of my profiterole making prowess I even supplied them to our local pub. I think I stopped when I realised I was making about 5p profit per bag. Alan Sugar I am not.

I have never, however, made chocolate eclairs. Knowing that my profiteroles were a sure thing, there was no need to take the risk of a change in shape. Not to mention that the additional washing up created by piping-bag usage would surely have resulted in the dreaded comments. There's also the fact that it only seems socially acceptable to eat one eclair per sitting whereas you can usually polish off a fair few profiteroles in a bowl without being judged.

This month's recipe departs from the usual cream filling and uses a chocolate ganache instead. Perfection. Topped with a chocolate glaze, the choux fingers become the vehicle for an indulgent chocoholic fix. The pastry recipe is slightly different to the one I usually use, but I was still pleased with the result. A crisp shell with a softer, slightly doughier inside, if only I wasn't so cack-handed with the piping bag.

I had thought of filling the eclairs with a toffee flavoured cream or keeping the chocolate filling but adding a caramel glaze, inspired by Cadbury's version of this French classic. Unfortunately I didn't have time to experiment so I kept it simple with half chocolate filled and half cream filled. The only problem was the glaze. I don't know where I went wrong, but I ended up with an oily mess. Seriously, if Barack Obama wants to stop American dependence on Middle Eastern oil, he might want to come and visit me. I'm sure you could run a few cars on this:

In the end, I kept the chocolate filled eclairs without a glaze and we ate the cream filled puffs with a simple hot chocolate sauce. Delicious. I'm only sorry there weren't any left to post up to mum.Check out the beautiful creations from the other Daring Bakers here and if you fancy a try yourself, the recipe is available here.