Foodie Fight 13: Battle Cucumber and Black Pepper

For my first foodie fight I had to deal with creating something with cucumber and black pepper. And while creating a dessert with these 2 ingredients would have been unbelievably creative, I instead opted to stick with a simple idea and transform into something that looked like dessert.

The first thing that came to mind with cucumber and black pepper was tea sandwiches. However, tea sandwiches often taste bland and boring. So I decided to improve on the classic cucumber sandwich by spicing up the cream cheese spread and using home made multi-grain bread. But in order to make it Foodie Fight ready, I also reinvented the look of the sandwich. Lately entries for the battles have been composed of mostly desserts and seeing how this is my first entry into the Foodie Fight world, I thought I'd make something that at least liked dessert. Behold, "Not Your Granny's Cucumber Tea Sandwich" Cake. This little guy is a cake with toasted multi-grain bread rounds, sliced cucumbers, and a black pepper and smoked paprika "frosting."

A few words before I give the recipe. The "cake" tastes great but if I were to make this again I would definitely skip the cake design and go more for a timbale or stack design. Because while the mini cake looks cute and awesome it's a major time consumer to construct.

"Not Your Granny's Cucumber Tea Sandwich" Cake Recipe

3 slices bread 1/2 T fresh cracked black pepper
1/3 c cream cheese, softened 1/4 t salt
1 t smoked paprika 1 medium cucumber
1 t mayo

1) Using a large biscuit cutter cut rounds in each of the bread slices. Toast briefly in oven.
2) Slice cucumber into thin slices. (The number of slices needed will depend mostly on how much cucumber you want on your sandwich or in your "cake")
3) Combine cream cheese with mayo, salt, pepper, and paprika.
4) To assemble: Place some frosting on plate in order to stabilize cake. Place a toast round on frosting, frost top of round, arrange cucumber slices in an even layer. Repeat with remaining rounds and cucumber slices. Top with toasted round and use remaining frosting to cover cake.
5) Let cake sit in fridge for 5-10 minutes in order to set frosting.

And there you have it, a no cook snack, perfect for the summer heat.

The past 2 months in 1 post

Being the terrible blogger that I am I haven't posted anything since my first and last DB challenge. And while I have made numerous things in the past 2 months, I have no pictures to show. I'm working on that. So here's a rundown of the adventures had in the months of June and July.

Since our cucumber plant has been in full production mode for the last few months, I've had way too many cucumber than I know what to do with. In order to deal with this issue lots of cucumber recipes have been tried. I also gave lots of them away in an attempt to inspire others to try making pickles. I tried making pickles, 9 jars to be exact, and while they are certainly edible they aren't what I wanted at all. The future hubby (henceforth known as FH) and I have been drinking lots of cucumber water. We made cucumber infused vodka, which made for awesome mojitos. And this weekend I will be using my plethora of cucumbers to compete in Battle Cucumber and Black Pepper over on Foodie Fights. This will be my first battle and if you aren't familiar with the site I suggest checking it out soon.

Moving on from cucumbers and to desserts there have been a lot of cookies considering the terribly hot weather we've been having this year. There were the peanut butter cookies which came out very dry, I don't think natural and chunky peanut butter was the best choice. I also made lemon sugar cookies which tasted delicious but were much too chewy for my liking. The winner of the summer so far has been the gingersnaps. These cookies were most recently used to create Gingersnap and Peach Ice Cream Cookies. Homemade cookies and ice cream make for the best ice cream sandwiches and offer so many flavor possibilities.

In the savory foods department not too much exploration has occurred. I have re-entered the bread baking world and have started making a delicious Multi-Grain bread that is great for sandwiches and toast. I created what I am calling Kitchen Sink soup, due to the number of ingredients yet very simple cooking method. When the weather starts cooling off new adventures will be attempted.

And that's what I've been making for the last 2 months. In the non-food department I have also started making these really cool beer cap magnets. Pictures coming soon.

First DB Challenge

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

I decided to go with a pistachio pastry cream for my filling. I had planned on using a orange blossom water infused honey glaze to assemble the croquembouche, but when that never thickened, I defaulted to dark chocolate. The assembled piece was then drizzled with the very thin honey glaze and sprinkled with the leftover crushed pistachio pieces. Spun sugar decorations were in the making to also decorate this piece but during the heating process I had to leave home so that was never completed.

All in all, the challenge wasn't very difficult for a novice baker as myself. While I had made lots of creme patisserie in the past in numerous flavors, I had never attempted choux pastry. I was quite happy the results of this challenge, while not as aesthetically pleasing as I had intended, it sure did taste delicious.