Well, it’s about time – time for my first giveaway here on Sugarcrafter! As you may have noticed if you follow me on Twitter, tweets were flying back and forth about my recent order to King Arthur Flour. Basically, I placed an order for their sourdough and crock set – but when it arrived, there was a label on the starter container that said it was “produced in a facility that packages products containing eggs, milk, soy, tree nuts, and wheat.” I was really disappointed, because as you may also know, I am severely allergic to peanuts/nuts. Since this information was not available on the product page when I made the order, I asked KAF for a refund. Long story short, they did give me a full refund – but more importantly, they updated their website to include the allergen information so that those of us with allergies or sensitivities can be more informed about our purchases. So, I want to say a big thank you to KAF for great customer service!

Anyway, on to the giveaway! Because I can’t use the sourdough starter, I wanted to give it away – along with your choice of either Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (or, if you already have it, their new book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day) or The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, so that you can get started on baking delicious homemade bread right away! Here’s what you need to do to win:

• Leave a comment on this post and tell me: what is your favorite kind of bread?
• For a second entry, subscribe to my RSS feed, and then leave another comment letting me know.
• For a third entry, follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway, and then leave another comment here.

Contest ends March 7th at midnight. One winner will be randomly selected using Random.org and announced Monday morning!

Prizes are courtesy of Sugarcrafter and are not sponsored in any way. Sorry, I can only ship to US mainland addresses.

This month’s Flavor of the Month theme was chocolate, which I thought was perfect for February (and well, I thought it was perfect anyway because I love chocolate)! I wanted to share a recipe that I adapted from one I found on Hershey’s website a couple years ago, because whenever I’ve served it, it’s always been a big hit. Plus, it’s a relatively simple dessert, so you can make it in a pinch since you probably have most of the ingredients on hand already!

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The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

When I saw that the Daring Baker challenge for this month was tiramisu, I was absolutely thrilled! I’ve never had authentic tiramisu before – only tiramisu-flavored things like coffee creamer, and of course these incredible tiramisu cheesecake bars. I have to admit though that when I saw that this challenge would also involve making my own mascarpone cheese, I was a little nervous. But, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, especially after I ditched the double-boiler method that just didn’t seem to work for me. This heavenly dessert definitely took a lot of time and preparation, but the result was well worth that effort…and everyone I served it to agreed!

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This eggplant parmigiana was inspired by my favorite Italian restaurant. Hubby and I went there on a date together recently, and I decided to try their eggplant parmigiana. I’ve only had it once before; it was cooked exactly like chicken parmigiana and almost like a lasagna, with layers of eggplant and sauce. However, this eggplant parmigiana was nothing like that one. The slices of eggplant were light, pan-fried with a delicate crust so that they were firm instead of mushy, surrounded by a light tomato sauce, and covered with melted slices of fresh mozzarella cheese. After one bite, I knew I needed to replicate this dish at home. Hubby and I both agreed that I came pretty darn close to the original, so here it is – hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

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I asked for a mini madeleine pan for Christmas last year because I’ve always been intrigued by these delicate cookies. I finally just got around to making them this past weekend, and my only regret is that I waited so long! They’re easy to put together, especially on the weekend when you can do something else around the house while the dough is chilling. They’re perfectly fluffy with a light crunchiness, and there are so many ways you can change up the flavor. However, be warned that the mini ones are very dangerous – I think I ate half the pan myself!

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