Virginal Attempt at the Daring Baker's Challenge

I remember reading about this Daring Bakers Challenge thing from a couple of blog, but the recent one that drew my attention was from My Food Safari, and upon enquiring, she sent me the contact details of the person in charge of this rather fun affair.



This here is the logo, which is supposed to be inserted somewhere in the blog, but since my HTML skills are .....don't qualify to be labelled as "skills", I shall just upload it as a normal photo.

With great anticipation, I waded through a set of instructions that was as lengthy as a Tolstoy novel, and discovered that the challenge for the month was LAVASH CRACKERS, an option of regular or gluten free, AND a VEGAN DIP.

At this point, I made an effort to scour the internet for information on these specialist food group people, and discovered Vegans are in a league of their own, trumping Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Mormons in their dietary restrictions. No dairy, no eggs, no leather, nothing that comes from an animal, basically. Coming from a carnivorous society such as ours, I was looking forward to discovering new frontiers. I wonder if yeast is considered a living thing.

I was reminded by Argus, about midway into September, if I had attempted my challenge yet. I found myself free and twiddling thumbs one Wednesday night, so I thought it was good a time as any. Furthermore, I was hosting dinner for my home group the following night, and if successful, I thought the lavash and dip would make a good starter.

Obviously, I went for the NON gluten free option. I don't even know where to start looking for the gluten free ingredients.

I used the dough hook on my Kenwood Chef to mix the ingredients together, but followed up with kneading the dough manually for about 10 minutes, as per instruction. A few anxious moments did pass when the dough did not seem to be proofing, but as a watched kettle never boils, so too a watched dough never rises. So I left the yeast to their own devices while I pottered around with the kids, and computer, and TV. 90 minutes seems a long time to wait.

It was therefore greatly relieving to see the dough had risen to the occasion, and was ready to roll. You could opt for thicker or thinner bread, depending on how thinly you roll it. For better or for worse, for thicker or for thinner, it's really up to you. Also, you may sprinkle any topping of your choice, but obviously no bits of bacon or anything non vegan. I only had poppy and sesame handy. Had some cumin somewhere, but couldn't be bothered to forage the kitchen for it.

The dough shrinks back immediately after rolling, so you need to be fairly patient, and let it relax, before rolling again. If not it would be like swimming upstream at the edge of a waterfall.

To my horror, I saw these hugeeee bubbles forming as the dough was enjoying its heat treatment in the oven. However, when I visited the forum, (the daring bakers have this forum where they discuss the recipes, their trials and tribulations), it appeared to be quite a common occurence, so I was on the right track.

I have never bothered to calibrate my oven, so MAYBE it was a bit too hot, as the bread seemed a bit too brown in certain areas. However, thankfully, it was not burnt, and in fact, those brown bits were extra crispy and rather tasty.

Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned. I know its supposed to be vegan, but I could NOT resist slapping on a slab of butter onto a warm piece of freshly baked lavash, for my OWN consumption. DEEEVINE!

The following day, let's salsa. There were a couple of recommendations in the instructions, namely a honeydew peach salsa, and a almond butter dip. I actually bought ingredients for the almond butter as well, but the huge amount of salsa that was generated made me decide not to proceed with the latter.

Since peaches are not native to Malaysia, and they cost like RM6 each, (USD1.70), I decided to go with our own locally available fruit, and decided on a Honeydew, Red Dragon Fruit, Mango Salsa.

First, I blended some garlic, and shallots. (the small red onions. The term shallots seem to cause confusion, coz over in Oz, they mean spring onions), and separately blended 2 large red hot chillies, deseeded. Mix them all together with some lime juice, and some sugar to taste.



Dice a quarter honeydew melon, half a dragon fruit, two mangoes, and toss em all together, with a generous helping of chopped coriander at the end.



Actually I was rather pleased with the result, because the colors I thought were rather stunning. The red from the dragon fruit, yellow and orange from the mango, pale green from the honeydew. And the taste!!! I was one step short of donning on a hawaiian grass skirt and shimmying!





Of course, the guests oohed and aahed at this very unique starter. Most assumed the crackers were bought, and therefore solicited even MORE oohs and aahs, when they discovered it was homemade.



The Daring Bakers challenge makes for great dinnertime conversation.






One of my kids loved it so much, I decided to make another batch for a champagne brunch I was hosting a few days later. However, I shall not talk about that occasion, as it was as UNVEGAN as you can possibly get.

Thanks so much Lisa of La Mia Cucina for hosting this enjoyable challenge. I am sure she'll be posting up the recipe for do check it out at her blog.