5794 replies to this topic

[Kim Shook]

tikidoc – thanks for the macaron pointers – all the information is being saved for when I take the plunge!

Valentine desserts -
Dessert #1:

Momofuku Milk Bar’s (via deensiebat) Sesame-Ginger Rice Krispie Treats. A really grown up treat. Thank you so much for posting about these, deensiebat! You posted about them back in December and I said then that they would be a perfect Valentines gift for Mr. Kim and I was right – he loved them. I made them yesterday and thought that there was not enough ginger in them. But when we tasted them tonight it came through beautifully. These were more a gift for Mr. Kim since he loves all things gingery! The real Valentines dessert was this -

Dessert #2:



Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake from the blog Mangio Da Sola. It was incredible. It has an Oreo cooky crust, a cheesecake layer (from a Dorie Greenspan recipe), a chocolate mousse layer (from a Tyler Florence recipe) and is topped with ganache. It was so easy and turned out perfectly. I tried to be cute and put white chocolate hearts on the ganache and crapped up the look of it , but it was just delicious.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Kim, those recipes both look like winners!

For anyone else who saw that chocolate mousse cheesecake and needed to know more, the recipe is here :)

[Philip Le]

If you want to add hearts, next time you can pipe a little melted white chocolate on top of wet ganache in a circle and then run through it in one direction [EDIT: Before the ganache has set up, of course!] with a toothpick or something to make a heart shape. The outline of a circle will give you the outline of a heart. A filled circle will give you a filled heart.

http://www.youtube.c...HJnDmvI#t=1197s

Where this video starts is the part of interest; the very last circle is an idea of what I'm talking about. Of course, ganache and white chocolate are much more viscous than coulis and yogurt so you'll definitely get more shape out of your design than this chef did. [Second Edit: Not that what he ended up with is any less attractive]

http://international...e-00373728.html

This is an example of the technique again, this time with outlines of a heart rather than a filled one. I also don't believe the intention was to make heart shapes, though, so it is not a precise example.

If you already knew all this or if you already tried this, then I apologize for my presumptions and that it did not work out for you.

Edited by Philip Le, 14 February 2012 - 11:59 PM.

[Kim Shook]

If you want to add hearts, next time you can pipe a little melted white chocolate on top of wet ganache in a circle and then run through it in one direction [EDIT: Before the ganache has set up, of course!] with a toothpick or something to make a heart shape. The outline of a circle will give you the outline of a heart. A filled circle will give you a filled heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tfc2HJnDmvI#t=1197s

Where this video starts is the part of interest; the very last circle is an idea of what I'm talking about. Of course, ganache and white chocolate are much more viscous than coulis and yogurt so you'll definitely get more shape out of your design than this chef did. [Second Edit: Not that what he ended up with is any less attractive]

http://international.stockfood.com/image-picture-Making-a-design-with-two-coloured-kiwi-fruit-sauce-00373728.html

This is an example of the technique again, this time with outlines of a heart rather than a filled one. I also don't believe the intention was to make heart shapes, though, so it is not a precise example.

If you already knew all this or if you already tried this, then I apologize for my presumptions and that it did not work out for you.

I did already know this and it's sort of what I tried to do, but no apologies needed. Because I only 'sort of' did it that way. I tried to make a ganache with the white chocolate, figuring that that would work better with the chocolate ganache, but it was too liquid. I'll take your advice next time and just melt the white chocolate. Thank you!

Stuart - thanks for posting the link to the recipe. I haven't had a chance to post it to my recipe site yet, so I appreciate it. It really is a great recipe!

[deensiebat]

Kim, so glad those rice krispies worked out for you! I'll never make them any other way again.

And ooh that mousse cake...

[Shelby]

Okay, so this is kind of boring, but I wanted peanut butter choc. chip cookies. I used to suck at cookies....these were pretty good. Stayed nice and soft.

Attached Images

• 

[Emily_R]

Shelby -- would you post your recipe? Those cookies look great, and I've had a hard time finding a cookie recipe with PB in it that stayed soft at all...

[Shelby]

Shelby -- would you post your recipe? Those cookies look great, and I've had a hard time finding a cookie recipe with PB in it that stayed soft at all...

I used this one. I baked them for 10 minutes and I didn't "smash" them very much with a fork. And, I used extra choc. chips.

[deensiebat]

I brought a 'cream' pie to some vegan friends' house - cocoa/almond meal crust, peanut butter/coconut cream layer, then a chocolate/faux cream mousse layer. Topped with salty-sweet candied peanuts.

[MrsSheepish]

Wow! All these bakes and cakes look wonderful.

I'm off to a "Bake & Banter" event at a local cafe this evening so I've made a traditional Welsh cake. Its called Teisen Lap and I also made one a couple of weeks ago for my husbands EG Blog, it was great hence tonight's reappearance!

Actually, I made two because I felt the first mix (left) was a little too 'wet', so I quickly got another mix together with less milk. The second one (right) looks better and I've cut the first one to reveal I was right, all the dried fruit has sunk to the bottom!

The recipe is here, I've made a couple of changes though, only 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 50 minutes instead of 35 as stated.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I finally got my camera back just in time for the end of Carnaval baking rush. I made 20 of these, which my take on what the locals call Tiramisu Napolés. It's two layers of coffee-amaretto "white" cake with strawberry mascarpone and sliced strawberries by way of filling, and iced with a mascarpone buttercream, then edged with Savoiardi. They weighed about 5 lbs each.



Personally, I prefer Tiramisu de Venezia, which is the more "traditional" soaked savoiardi with zabalione (and which is a heck of a lot less hassle to make), but the customer is always right....

-
Edited to fix a picture problem.

Edited by Panaderia Canadiense, 23 February 2012 - 07:13 AM.

[Darienne]

Oh my! I think that covers it all, PanaCan.

[FrogPrincesse]

I made my desperation dessert tonight: a soft chocolate cake with whipped cream. Prep time less than 10 minutes, baking time 10 minutes.

[merstar]

I made Marilyn O'Reilly's Irish Soda Bread again.
http://www.foodnetwo...cipe/index.html

[ChrisTaylor]

Let's make this very clear: I don't do sweet things. I don't make them and I generally don't eat them. With very, very, very rare exception. I can't remember the last time I attempted to tackle a cake or tart. So when a friend told me to make chocolate and chilli icecream, just as a throwaway thing on Facebook, within three days I owned a Cuisinart icecream machine and had some milk and cream in the fridge infusing with a handful of anchos. These things happen.

The icecream is churning right now. I followed the New York Times' recipe for bittersweet chocolate icecream, only I infused the cream with some ancho chilli and a little bit of nutmeg and clove. This will be the first time I've made icecream. I hope it's not shit.

I'm also candying some jalapeno, as my friend's 'plated dessert' idea also had a bit of that going on. Jalapeno might be too hot for this application: I'll test the pieces out and maybe duck down to the supermarket to 'downgrade' to some standard 'green'/'red' chillies.

EDIT

I just tasted the icecream before putting it in the freezer. The chocolate flavour is very good and for a minute there I thought it totally dominated the flavour of the ancho chilli: I wanted that, to a point, but I also wanted to be able to tell the chilli is there. But you can. Just when you think, oh, it's not there, how sad, you a nice warming after taste. Reasonably happy with it for a first attempt.

Edited by ChrisTaylor, 29 February 2012 - 02:19 AM.

[David Ross]

My take on a Brownie Sundae. Malted Chocolate Ice Cream, Pecan Brownie, Caramel, Spiced Pineapple Relish, (the spices are vanilla bean, cardamom and ras el hanout)-

[heidih]

My take on a Brownie Sundae. Malted Chocolate Ice Cream, Pecan Brownie, Caramel, Spiced Pineapple Relish, (the spices are vanilla bean, cardamom and ras el hanout)-

Sounds quite appealing. I did not recall you being a sweets person. Must pay more attention. I like the spice combination on the pineapple with the chocolate background.

[ChrisTaylor]

Rum and raisin icecream
Americano (Campari and vermouth) icecream
Lemon olive oil ""
Lemongrass and Domaine de Canton ""
Bittersweet chocolate and ancho chilli ""
Spiced ""
Fennel ""

[David Ross]

My take on a Brownie Sundae. Malted Chocolate Ice Cream, Pecan Brownie, Caramel, Spiced Pineapple Relish, (the spices are vanilla bean, cardamom and ras el hanout)-

Sounds quite appealing. I did not recall you being a sweets person. Must pay more attention. I like the spice combination on the pineapple with the chocolate background.

I love sweets, but I'm not much of a pastry cook. I do make a mean ice cream though and I love experimenting with fruits and exotic spices. Pineapple and chocolate is a lovely marriage.

[Zeemanb]

This weekend I had the opportunity to partake in what was definitely one of the coolest hands-on learning experiences ever. A good friend whose family is primarily Croatian is getting married in May, and these people do not have a reception without plenty of liquor, sausage, the occasional fist fight, and "povitica". For those who haven't even heard of it, povitica (POE-vu-TEETZ-uh) is a sweet bread made of micro-thin (if you are doing it correctly) dough layered with a filling of very finely ground walnuts, sugar, and other stuff I promised not to give away. I grew up eating this stuff in Kansas City, Kansas, where there has always been a large population of Croatians and Serbians on "Strawberry Hill". Whether the bread is originally Polish, Croatian...I have no idea, but I'm always shocked when I run into people from this area who haven't even heard of it before. And I'm even more shocked when people gush over the commercially produced version from the "Strawberry Hill Povitica Company". If you've ever eaten that stuff, comparing it to the real, grandma-made version is like Wonder Bread vs. whomever makes your favorite artisanal small batch breads. For the wedding they needed 16 loaves to put in the freezer, so Saturday we made 8 and yesterday they made another 8. It is NOT a short process, and so even though I've got a few photos, I don't have any of the finished, baked product yet....but I'm going to put together a whole blog write-up with a ton of photos (and as I promised the ladies- absolutely no detailed recipe intel, lol). This was the first time in my 42 years I've ever actually seen this stuff made....

Enough dough for 2 loaves-



It is stretched thin on top of a floured cotton bed sheet-



Once you can read a newspaper through it without destroying it in the process, the filling is dumped in the middle and spread as thinly as possible to cover every square millimeter. Oh, and speaking of the filling...I got to take a small leftover amount home, and on the instruction of our host we picked up some Pillsbury crescent rolls and rolled the filling into those before baking. It wasn't terrible.



And the "no guts no glory" moment when you lift that sheet and send the dough rolling down onto itself....




Repeat the above process four times and you've got eight loaves ready for the oven....



I'll post a pic of a finished loaf when I get them, but this was a crazy amount of fun. I might try and make it at home sometime, on a smaller scale, but I have a feeling the ladies who have baked it their entire lives made it look much easier than it is, lol.

[Shelby]

WOW, that dough is awesome!

So, is it kind of like a flaky cinnamon roll?

[Zeemanb]

WOW, that dough is awesome!

So, is it kind of like a flaky cinnamon roll?

After it bakes, the top layer or two is kind of crispy/flaky, and a commercial/mediocre loaf is more like a cinnamon roll in that the layers are a little looser (the dough layers MUCH thicker) and if you tried picking up a slice you'd have layers flake and fall away and filling would spill out. Even bad povitica is still pretty good, but the good homemade stuff is way, way more dense and extremely heavy. The layers don't really flake, but you could unroll them if you wanted....they'd just be moist and buttery, and the filling would adhere much tighter. It will fall apart under its own weight, and is best eaten with a fork after you nuke it for a few seconds and add a pat of butter on top.

Edited to add: I thought I'd at least find a decent example of the good stuff via Google images, but what I got was twelve pages of pretty sorry examples...nothing remotely close to the thin/tight layers you're going for in a good batch.

Edited by Zeemanb, 05 March 2012 - 10:52 AM.

[Shelby]

WOW, that dough is awesome!

So, is it kind of like a flaky cinnamon roll?

After it bakes, the top layer or two is kind of crispy/flaky, and a commercial/mediocre loaf is more like a cinnamon roll in that the layers are a little looser (the dough layers MUCH thicker) and if you tried picking up a slice you'd have layers flake and fall away and filling would spill out. Even bad povitica is still pretty good, but the good homemade stuff is way, way more dense and extremely heavy. The layers don't really flake, but you could unroll them if you wanted....they'd just be moist and buttery, and the filling would adhere much tighter. It will fall apart under its own weight, and is best eaten with a fork after you nuke it for a few seconds and add a pat of butter on top.

Edited to add: I thought I'd at least find a decent example of the good stuff via Google images, but what I got was twelve pages of pretty sorry examples...nothing remotely close to the thin/tight layers you're going for in a good batch.

*adding this to my list of things I must eat before I die*

[deensiebat]

Ooh I want that brownie sundae.

I took inspiration from a recipe on Food52, and riffed some of my standard cake/frosting recipes to make chocolate Thai curry cupcakes for a friend's birthday. Really delicious.

[curls]

Zeemanb, does povitica taste anything like strudel? The doughs look similar and the process for stretching them is similar. Wish I could have a taste.

[Kim Shook]

Jerry – what a great experience! The odd thing is that I KNOW I’ve seen that bread. Here, in Richmond, I mean. Now where the heck would that have been?

I made some Buttermilk Spice Muffins yesterday for Mr. Kim to take to work:

The recipe is from Mimi's Cafe. This is the muffin that we always get when we go.

[Zeemanb]

Zeemanb, does povitica taste anything like strudel? The doughs look similar and the process for stretching them is similar. Wish I could have a taste.

It's somewhat similar, but I think the dough recipe is different and the mouthfeel with the "goo" vs. fruit is pretty different. Funny you ask, because the same ladies I know who are great at povitica also do a MEAN apple strudel. Using Shelby's comparison to a cinnamon roll, I think flavor and texture-wise it's pretty close to the whole thing being made of the center part of a cinnamon roll, minus the cinnamon (at least in the traditional recipe) and throwing in a Baklava-ish nut filling.

And Kim- if you DID find it in Richmond, unless the family making it could trace its tree back to "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair you didn't eat the genuine article!

[tikidoc]

Kim, if you figure out where you saw it, let me know. I'm in the Richmond area too.

Jess

[Kim Shook]

Jerry - I'm sure that's true, but like you said even bad is pretty good and if I see it, I'll be trying it .

Jess - hey, neighbor! Will do! Nice to find another Richmond eG'er!

Deena - I forgot to say how gorgeous your cupcake is! Are those toasted coconut flakes? mmmmm

[tikidoc]

Kim - we are actually in Louisa county, but I work in Richmond, so that's what I list as home. We moved here from TN about a year ago. Obviously, there is not much for a food lover out where we live. Twenty minutes to the nearest grocery store. We do most of our shopping and eating out in Richmond.

Jess