This post is really the tale of a pizza and a calzone who came from very humble roots but grew to be loved by all who knew them.  It’s a tale of hope, triumph and gluttony, a must read, for sure. The Pizza was of Asian descent, while the Calzone was a Southern Belle, but both shared a common bond, a bond that kept their lives on a similar course and eventually led them to the same inescapable fate…

I ate ‘em, and they were good!

Both of these dishes were made for the Daring Bakers Challenge. This month’s event was hosted be the incredible Rosa, of Rosa’s Yummy Yums, whom I really need to thank, because I’d never even considered making my own pizza dough before now and having done it, I’m afraid I’m a bit of an addict.  This is really good dough! (Dough recipe is at the end of this post.)

The first night I made pizza, but being the guy I am, I wasn’t gonna settle for just any ol’ sausage and pepperoni rig.  I had a couple packages of Korean style ribs in the freezer that were calling my name, and they got the loving for the evening.

I wish I could tell you exacly how I made the topping for that particular pizza.  Unfortunately I really was cooking by the seat of my pants, so I can just give a hint at the ingredients.  The beef was braised in a combination of chicken stock, water, soy, hoisin, sweet chili sauce, plum sauce, onion, garlic, honey, seasoned rice vinegar, lime juice and cilantro fro about six hours.  The “Pizza Sauce” was a mix of hoisin, soy sauce and black bean garlic paste. To. Die. For!

As for the calzone, well, I’ve got the whole scoop on that one.  read on after the jump for a step by step guide to making your own breakfast calzone, Southern Style!

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Sometimes when you’re making something new, you run into a snag or two.  This Daring Bakers Challenge was one of those times. It was an evening of crushed hopes and dissapointment, tempered with elation and extreme satisfaction. How is that possible, you ask? Let me tell you.

After coming off a very long hiatus from participation is the Daring Bakers, I decided that I’d dive back in this month when I heard that the challenge was to make crackers and a topping.  I may not be much of a baker, but crackers definitely seemed to be up my alley.  The biggest challenge for me was that the topping had to be both gluten free and vegan. Definitely a challenge for a cook who still has bacon grease neatly stored in his ice box just waiting for the next time he makes potatoes or collard greens.

I’d chosen to make the regular glutenous crackers, because I have no need of gluten free ingredients, which would summarily go to waste. The experiment started off well enough.  I followed the instructions for the dough with a bit of help with substitutions from fellow Daring Bakers.  All went together smoothly, the dough smelled wonderful, rose nicely, rolled perfectly and went into the oven with a sprinkle of paprika and a bit of salt as a topper.  All was fine until it was time to pull out the crackers.

They weren’t done.  Not even close.  According to the instructions, I was to “Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the crackers begin to brown evenly across the top (the time will depend on how thinly and evenly you rolled the dough).” but at 20 minutes the dough was still soft and had not browned at all.  At 30 minutes it had browned just a tiny bit, and was pulled anyway.  It was also as hard as a rock and completely inedible, though perhaps useful as a croûton in soup.

I don’t know if it was my oven, if I overworked the dough, or if my skills at noticing “browning” are not up to par.  Whatever the reason, I cannot comment on the crackers because mine failed.  As a matter of fact, I did nothing special at all with them, so I’m not even going to post a recipe here.  Just go check out the Daring Bakers blogroll for a few people that actually got them to work!

NOTE: My wife just told me I was full of it.  She loves these crackers.  As a matter of fact, she’s munching them right now.  Apparently it has more to do with my dental work than my baking skills. YAY!

The topping was a different story altogether.  After having read this post by my friend Jenn, I knew I had to do something with the three sisters again. My roots are Native American and the combination of corn, beans and squash is something that I grew up on, but one I have not had in some time.  It sounded like the perfect combination for a spread, and it oh, but it was! The result was creamy and crunchy, sweet and bitter, just a bit spicy and perfect for anything from crackers to lamb.  Give it a shot, I think you’ll like it!

So, dear readers, I give you both triumph and failure today, but the triumph is worth it. Read more…

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This Month’s Daring Baker’s challenge, hosted by the lovely Morven, of Food Art and Random Thoughts, was one that made me giddy from the get go. Why? Because this time the rules basically said “do what you want”. The challenge was to make our own version of Dorie Greenspan’s Perfect Party Cake. The only guidelines were that we must use the basic recipe and that it hadda be a layer cake. That’s just fine by me!

The original recipe called for buttercream icing. I’m not strictly a fan of buttercream, so I went with an orange-infused ganache instead. The original said you could use whipped cream if so desired, but that sounded too sweet for me, so I just whipped the ganache to something of a whipped cream consistency. Again, works for me.

The other change… Well, the original recipe was for a lemon based cake… I don’t have anything against lemons, but I have a TON of oranges lying about right now, so I changed out one citrus for another and skipped any type of fruit filling on this round. The cake will probably end up at my wife’s office, and I wanted it to keep well.

How did all these changes turn out, you ask?

Fantastically! The cake is light, spongy, dreamy and jam-packed with orange flavor. I may never look at any other white cake again for the rest of my life. Seriously, those relationships have grown stale in an instant. We’re just not on the same page any longer.

The ganache is almost like a chocolate-orange cloud, and has just passed up any other icing choice I’ve ever had. I’ll just use a white chocolate for it if I need a white frosting in the future. I think I may have over whipped it a bit, which made it difficult to spread, but the flavor… Oh, the flavor…

Pardon me.. I gotta grab another slice, why don’t you just print up the recipes below this and go make some for yerself…

!note: I just read that I wasn’t the only one that substituted orange for my cake. Check out the rest of this recipes’ variations at the daring bakers blogroll!

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