Creations from The Art of the Dessert

[gfron1]

Nectarine Buns

This time I steamed the buns which were extremely good. DON'T BAKE YOUR BUNS!

Before I steamed them I had pressed them in my mooncake mold which made them even cooler.

[Tri2Cook]

Nice Rob! You may convince me to check out this book after all.

[gfron1]

The One with Butterscotch Ice Cream

I'm not sure why she considers this a dessert (versus a breakfast pastry), and I'm not sure why she didn't want nuts or raisins in the roll, but other than that, this was a solid, good dessert combo. I should have pushed my butterscotch further to make it stronger, or backed up on the vanilla, but it was still very tasty for dessert.

[gfron1]

It's been a while since I made something new from this book. At the store I have been making Ong's Peanut Butter cookies and while I liked the taste, I didn't care for the texture. So I decided to make Amernick's PB shortbread, but I kept the chopped nuts and sea salt from Ong. Good choices. This is a very, very good cookie.

[Spring]

Nectarine Buns

Ooh, your buns look beautiful, I could really sink my teeth into those babies

[lperry]

Are people still cooking from this book? I've just taken another DeMayo chocolate cake out of the oven. This one will be filled with peach/lemon balm preserves and frosted with a dark chocolate buttercream.

[gfron1]

On a near daily basis I make the peanut butter shortbread, the orange marmalade, the lemon curd (using her lime curd recipe) and a few others with less frequency. My book is pretty much in tatters.

[scratch]

On a near daily basis I make the peanut butter shortbread, the orange marmalade, the lemon curd (using her lime curd recipe) and a few others with less frequency.  My book is pretty much in tatters.

←

ooh Ooh! I didn't realize there was a topic for this book. It's been awhile since I've baked from it... the last thing I believe I tried were her graham crackers that I paired with a smoky pot de creme and chipotle crema. I just went and pulled it from my bookshelf- i'll have to explore a little more

[lperry]

I'm now looking at that picture of the peanut better shortbread, and I'm thinking that will be what I try next.

[gfron1]

I just made the honey cake for the first time and it is outstanding warm. I didn't make the ice cream that she called for, but I think a nice lemon cream or mousse would be perfect. Of course it all depends on your honey having some flavor to it. I used the German Langanese. Thanks for reviving this thread lperry.

[pastrygirl]

This is one of those books that I feel like I should like more than I do. She is obviously incredibly experienced and talented, but not much really jumps out at me as 'gotta make it'. The cakes all look great, but I don't make a lot of cakes for work. Maybe I will try the chocolate and honey cakes next time I'm playing around with new recipes. Maybe it just needs more pictures The seed in the color photo of the chocolate orange fondant ovals drives me nuts. There's a seed! take it out! not ready for service! I wish all the B&W pics of random tools and ingredients were pics of desserts - I don't care if it's not color, if you can put all those pictures in, why not make them of the food? I could start a thread on 'tiny ways various cookbooks annoy me' but probably no one else cares.

[gfron1]

Right, two of my concerns were the same - more pics and her style is very homey. I'm not a homey type of person, so I always use them as components of something bigger. The honey cake was a sweet I served with a Lamb Tagine for dinner service last night.

[pastrygirl]

OK, I'll play. I'm doing some R&D today, and tried the deMayo chocolate cake and the honey cake. Results may have been affected by ingredients and altitude, but I did adjust the leavening for altitude. The chocolate cake tasted a little flat, probably due to the less than amazing cocoa powder I have here. I have a RLB chocolate cake that I like better, not as simple to mix up, but I'll probably stick with the one I already have and like better than trying to tweak this one. I have a cupcake recipe that is pretty similar except the cocoa is mixed with boiling water first, I think that may help with getting a fuller cocoa flavor (the RLB cake also does the cocoa + boiling H2O).

The honey cake was a bit more than half full in the loaf pan (and I also opened the oven door a few times to bake other things, yes, I read the directions saying it needs to be less than half and don't open the door, I just ignored them). It rose very high, then eventually collapsed on a tunneled center. I don't think Sangay overmixed, I watched her fold the flour in by hand. On the other hand, I have witnessed some very poor measuring skills by her in the past few days, so baker error is not impossible. Texture came out weird, you know how good bread gets that kind of translucent crumb? Like that. Second batch, I added a little more flour, used baking powder instead of soda, added a little lime zest and baked in 2" ring molds (thinking about buffets once we get the party room open). Texture came out better. Honey flavor was good, but this is a pretty sweet cake, I would probably put a lime glaze on it if it ends up in the repertoire, which it might because local honey is one of the ingredients we like to show off.

In all, not amazing, not terrible, might have been better at sea level....and recipes where you can't open the door are OK at home when you have the time, but not suitable for pro kitchens where you need to bake multiple things at once.

Edited February 9, 2009 by pastrygirl (log)