Daring Bakers~June Challenge~Bakewell Tart

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.
Prior to the challenge, I had no idea what a bakewell tart was. According to Wikipedia, a pastry with an almond filling. I did not want to attempt the challenge this month, partially due to the pictures and the description of the tart (I knew it was not going to be my favorite kind of dessert), and the other reason being laziness.

Well, I decided to make the tart...and since I was in a rush while making it, it didn't come out that well. I was trying to make it to a Cocktail Party at Aaron's house and misjudged the timing of preparing and baking the tart. I also used ingredients that I had in the house....

Unfortunately, that meant that my jam filling between the pastry crust and almond cake consisted of grape jelly (the cause of the oozing syrup in the picture) and some frozen blueberries. I don't know what I was thinking....I don't even eat grape jelly in the first place, but we had it in the fridge because Mike likes jelly. After I made the tart and Mike came home, he said, "That's a really runny grape jelly, I don't think you should have baked with it. Did you add any thickeners?"
FYI, Mike is the non-food scientist in the house. Arg...Let me reiterate, I WASN'T THINKING STRAIGHT. I was even wishing, "Man I wish I could double the baking temperature so I can shorten the baking time." My friends were really nice as they tried to conjure up positive comments about the tart, but overall the tart was one of my disasters in the kitchen. My lesson learned through this experience, baking should be fun and not rushed.

If you would like to check out other Daring Bakers attempts at this month's challenge, check out the blog roll.

Spiked Gummy Bears

My favorite type of candy is gummies. I love Haribo (it has to be Haribo, because they are extra hard and chewy) mini frogs and bears.
So when Aaron made these vodka-infused bears last month, I had to try them. They were so addicting, but that may be the alcohol talking.
The texture of these vodka-infused gummy bears is a cross between jello and those asian lychee jel candies (the ones that made the news for being the cause of kids choking).

The beginnings of my experiment. I had a bunch of mini bears which were becoming super chewy and dried out.
Recipe (modified from "Instructables")
3/8 c. apple juice
1/4 c. vodka
1/2 c. gummy candies (bears, worms, frogs, etc)

Combine all ingredients in a container and cover it. Refrigerate.
Stir the gummies daily, so that they do not end up sticking together.
Soak the gummies for at least five days (you can taste the gummies prior to the five day soak, but the middles might be super hard)

**Modifications***
*If you like the taste of a different alcohol, use it. The dominant flavor is the alcohol, so you can make tequila or rum-flavored gummies. I am not sure if Bailey's is a good idea.
*Non-alcoholic gummies can be made. Just use a flavored juice instead. Or, li hing mui juice. (that's how my sister used to eat gummy bears when we were younger).
For those of you who have ever gone drinking with me, you know that I cannot handle my alcohol. I think I can get drunk off less than one shot of alcohol. So, I modified the recipe. I used more apple juice than vodka. When Aaron made his gummies, he soaked the bears in grape juice and vodka, so all the bears were a dark shade of plum, and you could not appreciate the colorfulness of the bears. Aaron, Erika, and I discussed that a white cranberry juice or apple juice would be better to help retain the colors.

I made a tiny portion of gummies, so just multiple the recipe if you want to make more...and believe me, these are quite yummy so you might want to make more.
So if you want to be that "uuber-cool" person at your next social gathering, bring these gummies. How cool would it be to sip an apple martini with floating chewy gummy bears? or frogs?
Look how much liquid the frogs absorbed! The marshmallow portion of the frogs remained intact, but might have not survived a 10-day soak. They were slightly disintegrating, so marshmallow-type gummies might not fare as well as traditional gummies.