Okay, so I’m being dramatic.

Shocking…especially since I majored in theatre.

But my first Daring Bakers Challenge pretty much sucked.

“What in the crap is Daring Bakers’ Challenge?” you ask?

The Daring Bakers and The Daring Cooks: A History

In November 2006, Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice decided to challenge themselves to bake pretzels for the very first time using the same recipe. They each went ahead and posted about it on November 18, 2006.

Having enjoyed that experience tremendously, they decided to try it again the next month, this time choosing to bake biscotti. And to make matters even better, they were joined by a few more food bloggers.

As the months went by, their baking group continued to grow, until it was finally decided that this “little baking group” had to have a name and The Daring Bakers were born!

The Daring Cooks were formed in 2009 as a way to learn how to become better home cooks. The idea spread like wildfire with 1000′s of people who also wished to learn more joined in on the monthly challenges.

Today, The Daring Bakers and The Daring Cooks span the world as bakers/cooks of all nationalities come together once a month to try something new in the kitchen!

So this month:

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.

Should be pretty easy, right?

Leave it to me to figure out how to screw something up.

“What in the crap is Panna Cotta”, you ask?

According to (who else) Wikipedia:

Panna cotta (from Italian cooked cream) is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing this with gelatin, and letting it cool until set. It is generally from the Northern Italian region of Piemonte, although it is eaten all over Italy, where it is served with wild berries, caramel, chocolate sauce or fruit coulis.

We were given a choice between vanilla or chocolate panna cotta.

I have no idea why, but I chose chocolate.

Chocolate Panna Cotta

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients:
1 cup (240 ml) whole milk
1 tablespoon (15 ml) (7 gm) (¼ oz) unflavored powdered gelatin
2 cups (480 ml) whipping cream (30+% butterfat)
½ cup (115 gm) (4 oz) sugar
¾ cup (145 gm)(5 oz) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
½ teaspoon (2½ ml) vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Pour milk into a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over the top, set aside for 2-5 minutes.
2. Place a medium saucepan over medium heat, stir in cream, sugar and vanilla. Bring to a low boil.
3. Add chocolate and whisk until melted. Whisk the milk/gelatin mixture into chocolate cream mixture. Whisk until gelatin has dissolved.
4. Transfer to ramekins, or nice glasses for serving.
5. Cover and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight.

We were also encouraged to make a gelee.

“What in the crap is a gelee”, you ask?

As if I were in 6th grade, since Wikipedia has no entry for “gelee”, I have to guess.

It’s just french for jelly.

Given my current fascination with mint, I thought a mint gelee would be awesome with chocolate panna cotta.

So I Googled and found a recipe that would work.

Adapted from AnnesFood

Mint jelly:
1 1/4 oz pkg gelatin
1/4 cup  sugar
1/4 cup  water
peppermint extract

2 drops green food coloring

THEN – Mallory felt we needed something crunch to go with our creamy panna cottas…

Florentine Cookies.

Okay, this I can handle.

Nestle Florentine Cookies

Recipe from the cookbook “Nestle Classic Recipes”, and their website.

Ingredients

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 375° F. Line baking sheets with foil.

MELT butter in medium saucepan; remove from heat. Stir in oats, sugar, flour, corn syrup, milk, vanilla extract and salt; mix well. Drop by level teaspoons, about 3 inches apart, onto foil-lined baking sheets. Spread thinly with rubber spatula.

BAKE for 6 to 8 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets on wire racks. Peel foil from cookies.

MICROWAVE morsels in medium, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on MEDIUM-HIGH (70%) power for 1 minute; STIR. Morsels may retain some of their original shape. If necessary, microwave at additional 10 to 15-second intervals, stirring just until morsels are melted. Spread thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of half the cookies. Top with remaining cookies to make sandwiches.

So.  That’s what has been looming before me for a month.

And here’s what I came up with:

First – Just the chocolate panna cotta with the florentine cookie…

In a big glass -

Yeah, I dunno…Not very exciting.

Let’s try it in shot glasses.  Everything is classier in a shot glass, right?…except for this.

And finally – in the shot glass with the mint gelee…The mint needed to cool before pouring onto the panna cotta – I let it cool a little too long.

The idea is right – the execution sucks.

So…there you have it.

My suck-y entry into the February Daring Baker’s Challenge.

I could cop out and not post this.  You can miss some and still be a part of the Daring Bakers.

But I ain’t no quitter…So, I’m still posting this.

So there.