rajoress

The chocolates on this thread look amazing! Beautiful job RWood, gap, and pastrygirl! Can I ask where you got the snowflake molds for your peppermint snowflakes?

Lovely pictures all! I have moved from Hanukkah to Christmas all in the same weekend! These are ginger cookies dipped in white chocolate and my poor attempt at holly and berries... Thanks for looking! Ruth

Thanks so much excv_ for your nice comments! You are correct, after unmolding the chocolates I brushed on a little silver luster dust with a pastry brush to make them stand out. I'm in awe of everyone here who uses colored cocoa butter to color their chocolates, I haven't advanced to that stage yet!!

Here are some earl grey bonbons I finally made for my boss' birthday. I was going for enrobed ganache but it came out too soft so I whipped the ganache and piped it into molds. I'm not that good at filling molds (I usually mess up the bottoms!) but I'm happy at how these turned out! They're dusted with a little silver dust. Ruth

I love this stuff but have only used it for savory dishes - mainly peanut sauce for noodle dishes. But thanks for making me think of dessert uses!

Kim Shook - those cookies all look amazing!

excv_ Those chocolates look and sound great! Could I ask what type of ginger you used for the ginger caramel? Did you infuse cream or cook ginger in with the sugar? I have a ton of fresh ginger root from our farm share this fall and I was wondering if it could be useful for chocolates and I like the idea of a caramel. Thanks for any info! Ruth

Wonderful pics posted by all! Here are a few fall things from this past weekend. Pumpkin scones with two icings and Halloween decorated chocolate chip cookies. I think both ideas are from the blog mybakingaddiction. Thanks for looking! Ruth

Hummingbirdkiss - thanks for asking! Here it is paraphrased from memory: I took a 1 lb package of Trader Joe's medjool dates and cut them into bite size pieces. You then mix them with 3 cups of boiling water and 3 teaspoons of baking soda and let stand until cool. With the mixer, blend together 6 tablespoons of butter with 3 cups of sugar. Add 4 eggs, one at a time and 2 teaspoons of vanilla and mix until smooth. Add in the cooled date mixture - it's very watery! Then mix in 4 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of chopped nuts (I used walnuts). Blend until completely mixed, the batter is very thin and a light brown color. I filled 3 loaf pans, one small, one medium, one large and they all baked for about an hour. The large one for about 70 minutes. They bake up darker than the batter. I'm not sure how this compares to other recipes out there, this one was passed down from a cousin to my mother to me and I think it's the only one I ever ate! Good luck and happy anniversary! Ruth

What else do you make when you're having company for lunch and you want to serve old fashioned Jewish food? Date and nut bread, among other things! This is a family recipe from probably the 50s or earlier... Thanks for looking! Ruth

Thanks both for the suggestions for the fruit powders. I used Trader Joe's freeze dried strawberries but I don't think I pulverized them enough - there were still some bigger bits in there. A coffee grinder is a great idea - thanks!!

excv - those chocolates look wonderful. I love the molded white chocolate, it's like a mediant on a molded chocolate. I just mixed crushed freeze dried strawberries into white chocolate to make a strawberry chocolate for a pink themed baby shower. Can I ask where you got the freeze dried strawberry powder? I wonder if it would be better than what I used.... Thanks, Ruth

Thanks for asking Lisa Shock! I was running out of time since I had to do 5 different pastries and chocolates so I just used straight lemon curd. The tart shells were so tiny that I figured a tablespoon of lemon curd wouldn't be too tart for anyone and I made white chocolate curls to go on top - which were much harder than I thought - I was too lazy to temper the chocolate correctly and just did it haphazardly so my curls were too big... But I think in future I will try the italian meringue buttercream - I love the thought of that! Ruth

Everyone's baked goods look fabulous! Here is one of two trays I made for a baby shower this weekend. I don't think most people would believe it took me a solid week to get these done (I had chocolate favors to do also..)! Trays included two kinds of shortbread, red velvet whoopie pies, chocolate dipped brownies, and mini tarts. Thanks for looking! Ruth

Hello all, I'm preparing mini pastries for a baby shower this coming weekend and have some Trader Joe's lemon curd I wanted to use in mini tart shells. I was thinking of mixing it with something to make it more like a lemon chiffon or mousse. I'll be delivering the desserts a little before noon and the event goes for at least a couple of hours so I need something shelf stable (all my other desserts will be). I know it would be great with whipped cream or cream cheese but I'd rather not worry about them! Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks! Ruth

minas 6907 - your pictures are gorgeous as always! The shot of those butter cookies is mouthwatering!

Thanks Jim D.! I usually make my own fondant from Greweling's At Home but I was lazy and used dry fondant mixed with melted butter and warm heavy cream. It makes a very smooth fondant filling that can easily be rolled and cut out with cutters. I left it to dry and it was very easy to enrobe. I used a metal skewer to make the indent on the top... I was in a hurry as I could feel the humidity start to rise and that was 2 days ago! It's already 91 out and humid (we're just a bunch of whiners....!) :-(

First chocolates of the fall - peppermint patties. Of course now we're in the middle of a heatwave so not the best time to be making chocolates! Ruth

A few tarts for a Sunday dinner on cape cod - fruit with cream cheese frosting on a citrus scented cookie crust and chocolate ganache on a chocolate cookie bottom for my niece hence the addition of the mini marshmallows around the edge...TFL! Ruth love all the desserts being posted on this thread!

rotuts - it seems like Betty Crocker still makes a frosting mix! I just saw this on the internet so I can't say I've ever used it but it might be something like what you remembered! (haha - fat free at that!) :-O

Wonderful pictures everyone! Another birthday cake - this one is a "campfire" cake based loosely on the one on sweetapolita's blog. It's a chocolate cake filled with toasted marshmallow filling and covered with malted chocolate buttercream. Decorated with malted milk balls and toasted mini marshmallows and my poor rendition of a campfire! Thanks for looking! Ruth

Cherry and blueberry hand pies for the 4th of July. Wonderful pastry crust recipe from King Arthur Flour. Thanks for looking! Ruth (sorry for the busy pic - running out of room in the kitchen!)

Beautiful pics everyone! Here's my latest - bon voyage cupcakes for my niece who is going to Israel for the summer. Blue and white striped to represent the Israeli flag and peanut butter for her sweet tooth (she's a candy junkie!). Thanks for looking! Ruth

Stover & Co. also has great prices on a wide variety of chocolates.

Those caramel bars look delicious - as does everything else on this thread! This is the third and last birthday cake for the month of May - strawberry and cream cake. A lovely three layered dense yellow cake, almost a pound cake, covered in whipped cream mixed with cream cheese, sugar and diced strawberries. It tasted like strawberry shortcake. My mother, who was one of the birthday girls, loved it. Thanks for looking! Credit goes to the yellowblissroad blog. Ruth