Daring Bakers: Lasagne

After suffering from technical difficulties the last few days, I finally have my computer back. Somehow I managed to crash and corrupt the hard drive on my Mac so thoroughly that I needed a new one. Thank goodness to the Mac dude at the Apple store who told me it would be way cheaper for me to go to Best Buy or another store like that to get a replacement or a bigger one (mine was 160 GB). It would have been $$ at the Apple store because my warranty had run out and I in my infinite wisdom didn't purchase the extended.

So off I went to Best Buy last night and got a 320 GB hard drive for about $100. Mac dude showed me how to install the new and remove the old hard drive so I was set to go. Whew! I spent most of last night reinstalling the OS and everything else. Thank goodness for my external backup drive. If I had not had one, I would have lost everything! I only lost things that were saved on my desktop (incl. my folder of recipes to try and tried...gah!!). I'm going to make sure that situation is changed ASAP!!!

The reason I suffered this outage, actually came from me starting my DB post Thursday night. Apparently I did something wrong and first my browser froze then the whole computer. I waited a few minutes and nothing changed so I had to do an 'illegal' shut down. I was never able to bring the computer past the start up after that. Next time, have more patience Heather!

Alright...enough of that! Let's get on to the food!

The March 2009 challenge is hosted by Mary of Beans and Caviar, Melinda of Melbourne Larder and Enza of Io Da Grande. They have chosen Lasagne of Emilia-Romagna from The Splendid Table by Lynne Rossetto Kasper as the challenge.

I was very excited for this month's Daring Bakers challenge. Our hosts chose lasagne! There was actually two options. The traditional savory option and the sweet. Sweet lasagne? Yes, I was just as surprised too! Having made lots of savory lasagne in my life, I was instantly attracted to the idea of doing a sweet. So I did!

The noodles were made of a mixture of bread crumbs, flour, and milk. They were quite easy to make. I had a little trouble rolling them out to the proper thickness. They seemed a little too thick but not too bad. For my 'bechamel' I used a vanilla pastry cream from Dorie Greenspan. I love this stuff. I had to stop myself from eating all of it before using it on my lasange! And for my 'ragu', I made a Dried Cranberry and Apple Chutney. Wow...this was some awesome chutney! It was quick and bursting with flavor! Delicious!

When I had all of my individual elements ready, I started the layering. For the most part I did fine. I uh...got a little distracted tasting somewhere in the middle and ended up with only pastry cream in the middle. So I topped the lasange with extra chutney and slathered it with more pastry cream. Technically, this was cooked since I had boiled the noodles. But it was cold and I wasn't keen on eating cold lasagne, even if the noodles were cooked. I put the dish in the oven for about 30 minutes and came back to a hot, gooey, delicious lasange.

Wow. I was blown away with how tasty this was. The pastry cream was out of this world and was excellent with the tart and tangyness of the cranberry-apple chutney. The noodles were still a little gummy since they were a little thicker than needed but it really didn't distract from the tastiness of the lasange.

Would I make this again? Oh yeah. It would be interesting to play with the fillings. Fresh fruit would be wonderful in this, especially if I could get the thickness of the noodles right so I wouldn't need to bake the whole thing. Great pick this month to our hosts! I loved it! I plan on making the savory version soon. It looks so good!!

For more takes on both the savory and sweet lasagne, check out the Daring Bakers Blogroll!

Lasange Noodles

You can find the recipe for the lasange noodles at Emilia-Romagna Turismo

Cranberry-Apple Chutney
Adapted from Quick Spiced Fruit Chutney

* 1 large apple - peeled, cored and diced
* 275g cranberry sauce
* 130g dried cranberries
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* zest of half of a lemon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. In a medium saucepan, place apple, cranberry sauce, dried cranberries, lemon juice, zest, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to simmer.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally, 7 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 3 hours. Serve cold.

Pastry Cream
Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours

2 cups whole milk (I used fat free)
6 large egg yolks
1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits at room temperature

Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan.

Meanwhile, in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan, whisk the egg yolks together with the sugar and cornstarch until thick and well blended. Still whisking, drizzle in about 1/4 cup of the hot milk-- this will temper, or warm, the yolks so they won't curdle. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remainder of the milk. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, constantly and thoroughly (making sure to get the edges of the pot), bring the mixture to a boil. Keep at a boil, still whisking, for 1 to 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

Whisk in the vanilla extract. Let sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the bits of butter, stirring until they are full incorporated and the pastry cream is smooth and silky. Scrape the cream into a bowl. You can press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the cream to create an airtight seal and refrigerate the pastry cream until cold or, if you want to cool it quickly--as I always do--put the bowl into a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water, and stir the pastry cream occasionally until it is thoroughly chilled, about 20 minutes.