Martha Monday: Herbed Flatbread

Monday's pick for the Martha Monday project was the Herbed Flatbread featured in the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living. The dough was similar to a pizza dough. It contained flour, yeast, salt, water, olive oil, and sugar. The directions told us to knead it only for two minutes and then let it rise for an hour. Once risen we were to divide it into 16 pieces and thinly roll it out onto parchment paper. Everything went well until this point. I had a hard time getting mine really thin because it kept springing back like a rubber band. I know that it needed to rest on the pan a bit so it could relax and stop springing back but I was in a hurry for dinner. So I egg washed it, sprinkled herbs and salt, and baked. They didn't turn out as crisp as crackers, more like little pizzas, somewhat soft with a few crackly places. My husband raved about them. I thought they were tasty enough but might try to be in less of a hurry next time to the cracker effect.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Piece Montee

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

So, I'm really really really late posting my latest Daring Bakers challenge. That's because this last week was devoted to our very last week of homeschooling! Woohoo! Summer is here. School is out. Let the baking begin!

Anyway, I did accomplish last month's challenge which was to create a piece montee (French for "mounted piece") or sometimes better known as a croquembouche. We were to make pate a choux puffs, fill them with our choice of filling and assemble them into a piece that had some height. I decided to go with a lemon curd filling and assemble with the traditional caramelized sugar.

The pate a choux recipe was wonderful. The puffs came out perfectly puffed. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I made them the day before I was going to fill them and stored them in an airtight container as recommended. But the next day they were no longer crispy. A bit disappointing if you ask me. So, in making them again, I would whip up a batch right before filling since they really were easy to make.

The lemon curd filling I chose was one I use in my favorite lemon tart. It seemed to set up well but once I gooped it into a pastry bag it got a little runny. Plus my hand warmed it and made it even runnier making for a very messy process of filling the little puffs. I filled about half and gave up. I had the caramelized sugar ready to go right before I filled them. I built it as I filled them. It stuck together pretty quickly. There was no need for toothpicks or any propping up. Then I tried making some caramelized sugar threads around it but my sugar was cooling and was a little too thick to get great threads. It turned out pretty well, though, I think. And it was tasty. I liked the lemon curd as it contrasted with the almost-burnt sugar taste. The only hard part was separating the dessert. The caramelized sugar was a great "glue," almost too great. Many of the puffs broke apart as we wrestled them off the desert. All in all, though, it was a successful challenge and a tasty thing to eat!