dystopiandreamgirl
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Posts posted by dystopiandreamgirl
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a friend has a birthday on the 4th of july and always requests white on white; i try to add something to accommodate the rest of the family who might find that a bit boring. they live in an incredible old craftsman house with a vintage kitchen with accents of red, so i was inspired to make this..
closeup...
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charlotte with lemon mousse and candied violets
happy mother's day!
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ginger cheesecake with a chocolate crust and chocolate bamboo leaves
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flock of doves:
Colomba Pasquale
I'd love to make these small - does anyone know a source for chick-sized paper molds?
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dessert for an oscar party:
THERE WILL BE BLOOD ORANGE CHARLOTTE
ladyfinger encasement brushed with Hungarian blood orange liqueur
filled with blood orange mousse
topped with blood orange marmalade and fresh blood oranges
circled with candied blood orange slices
here's a better view of the top:
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a goose coma has rendered me incapable of doing much more than reclining on my parents' couch and posting a quartet of bûches...
OAK
valrhona genoise
filled with milk chocolate buttercream w toasted pecans and bourbon
bittersweet leaves and squirrel
bittersweet and milk chocolate acorns
MAPLE
maple genoise
brushed with maple eau de vie
filled and coated with maple syrup butttercream
garnished with maple syrup brittle leaves and tree rings
CHESTNUT
chestnut flour genoise
brushed with chestnut liqueur
filled with chestnut-rum buttercream
covered with chocolate-chestnut-rum buttercream
garnished with bittersweet chestnut leaves
& truffles filled with chestnut marzipan, chestnut honey ganache, & roasted chestnuts
(if anyone can think of a way to inject another chestnut element, by all means speak up)
HOLLY
white chocolate holly leaves & birds with candied cranberries
thanks everyone for all the kind comments throughout this last year...
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pumpkin:
mincemeat tarts:
quince upside down tart:
chocolate caramel nut tart:
I love fall flavors...
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and the swans...are they meringue?
yes, filled with whipped ceam, from rlb's templates in the cake bible.
offscreen is a pitcher of chocolate rum sauce.
i think chestnuts & rum is the most divine combination since pineapple & kirsch.
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i make chestnut puree from fresh nuts every christmas, smooth enough for a silky bavarian:
they are a total pita and worth every second - score the raw nuts and boil a few minutes till you can shell them - put the shelled nuts in 1/2 water, 1/2 whole milk, with a piece of vanilla bean and simmer till very soft, then drain and force through a sieve.
maybe the water/milk mixture gets them softer than milk alone? i would try that for your jarred ones.
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la cuisine carries maple essence; these are so concentrated that you wouldn't be adding any sweetness to your product. Or you might try using a grade B syrup or even C if you can find it; these are much stronger than the grade A typically sold.
I've read that artificial maple extracts are flavored with coffee, grade C maple syrup, and fenugreek. That seems pretty innocuous compared to all-chemical extracts.
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there is a recipe for chestnut truffles in the Bernachon's book; the center is chestnut buttercream dipped in chocolate, wrapped in marzipan and enrobed in more chocolate - they are good but the marzipan is so strong it overpowers the more subtle chestnut flavor - I was mulling over an alternative, and wondered if one could make a chestnut marzipan - as the meal from the roasted nuts is fairly dry, could one force it through a seive, process it with some powdered sugar, a few drops of rum, and a drizzle of corn syrup or liquid fondant, and have a decently textured product?
would it work? if not, why not?
thanks for any responses and suggestions...I LOVE chestnut desserts.
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I wasn't very happy with the way this turned out, because my original plan was to cover the sides with chocolate panels to make it look like a box of figs. I ran out of time and so just jammed the leaves in instead. It was well received though, and I know it tasted good, as I devoured the scraps. (The layers are Alice Medrich's walnut squares from Cocolat)
chocolate walnut torte brushed with nocino
filled with fig preserves and nocino ganache
surrounded with belgian chocolate leaves
crowned with figs drenched in nocino, stuffed with ganache, & dipped in chocolate
nestled in chocolate cups
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maybe it's the exposure to air rather than heat?
here are 2 upside down cakes (not mine) whose insulated bananas either retained their color or got golden caramel colored with the help of sweeteners...
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dystopiandreamgirl - That's a beautiful cake. The leaves are astonishing. How on Earth did you manage to place them so neatly without them melting!?
thanks, I did make the leaves, and as long as the temper is a good one, they can tolerate several seconds of handling. They were placed in soft italian meringue buttercream so it was pretty fast work to jam them in.
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that fig galette with gorgonzola is triggering a homer simpson-style drool.
white chocolate birch leaves and red currants.
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I offered to make someone a birthday cake this week, and when he requested a yule log, I tried to think of a version which evoked summer rather than christmas. So, here is a cake of driftwood:
flourless chocolate souffle roll filled w ganache and candied orange peel;
covered with white chocolate modeling paste;
belgian white chocolate seashells;
candied angelica seaweed
caramel beach glass
raw sugar sand...
I'm calling it bûche de été.
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yes.
you're welcome.
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for a spoonful or so, I coarsely chop some and then use a garlic press (impeccably scrubbed, of course) to avoid any fiber.
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1 loaf -
2 c unbleached flour
2 tsp baking pwdr
1 tsp salt
1/2 c packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 c milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tblsp butter, melted and cooled
1 c coarsely chopped pitted dry dates
1/2 c chopped walnuts
sift dry ingredients, then stir in brown sugar
beat egg till fluffy; stir in milk, butter, vanilla till blended
stir into flour mixture thoroughly
fold in dates and nuts
bake in buttered 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan at 350 degrees about 40 minutes or till bread pulls away form sides and center tests done.
let cool in pan
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Chez Panisse Desserts has recipes for apricot, blood orange, gooseberry, loganberry, raspberry, red currant, and wild blackberry.
I've made the blackberry and raspberry, and both were a rather ghastly color, probably due to the juices blending with the bright orange yolks of free range eggs.
Recipes for lemon, lime, orange and passion fruit curds are in The Cake Bible; the orange calls for reducing 1 cup of juice to 2 tablespoons. I found it too sweet (the others are delicious). In The Pie and Pastry Bible there is a version using sour seville oranges - not only an improvement but one of the best things I've ever tasted.
I made a guava curd which tasted fantastic but was the color of...mustard. I hid it inbetween the layers of a coconut milk cake, and despite the color it was well received.
My preference is not to hide them:
lemon:
meyer lemon:
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dystopiandreamgirl - to steal a line from a movie, those aren't pizzelles - those are Audrey Hepbrun movies. I love the detail, notably the white chocolate leaves. I've never seen or tasted a currant before, though.
they aren't very common here in the states either - most people don't know what they are. they are tart and juicy and grow on bushes in beautiful clusters
But they are popular in europe, and come in red, white and black. the black have thicker skins, and are big in the UK where they flavor most children's medicines.
Last year I accessed all three and made a little culinary joke, with chocolate genoise "blini", white chocolate mousse "creme fraiche", and currant "caviar", with fennel fronds standing in for dill:
the red currants, being nearly transparent with a visible seed, really do resemble salmon eggs.
Jmahl: it's a song by favorite indie band Built to Spill.
thanks for all the kind words everyone.
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with still more red currants to use before my mother turns the rest to jelly, I made pizzelles (they are in an easter egg holder):
we had some blueberries too...
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Not to make this a love-fest, but that is one beautiful charlotte! Wow, when you cut it, please post a picture.
the charlotte I posted was given away, but I had enough components left to make another, which I brought to the office.
here's the leftover one cut into:
i was pretty happy with the filling; lime curd (RLB's) w gooseberry puree it turns out is very good, and i guessed at the right amount of gelatin as is shown by the clean but non-rubbery slice...
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you ate a coffee eclair for breakfast?!?
I think I love you.
I spent 2 hours picking red currants cleanly off their stems (they always want to tug off with a little bit still attached) for this charlotte:
I had two baskets of gooseberries to use - what is the deal with them? every time I cook them they have a vile musty smell, but they taste ok...am I the only one who experiences this? I thought it would make a nice mousse filling for the charlotte, but I was afraid others might not like it. So I mixed some leftover lime curd in - delicious! I wouldn't normally think to put lime, gooseberries and currants together but it worked.
I wish the picture was better; currants are so beautifully translucent...
Cherries, cherries everywhere......
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
thank-you!
cherry season is still on...
so i topped cupcakes with ganache, made cherry leaves from and dipped cherries in bittersweet callebaut:
for a birthday, 30 of them: