Fall Desserts

[chefpeon]

Ok, I'm a pastry chef with a really fried brain. I've been spending most of my time this summer taking care of my Mom who is ill and has dementia. I'm just frazzled. My creative part of my pastry brain has atrophied to the size of a pea.

I need to come up with some fall dessert stuff to replace summery type items that won't sell so well in the fall/winter. So far, I'm doing Tarte Tatins and Cranberry Orange Hazelnut tarts. I'll bring in yule logs for the holidays and Sacher Tortes. I might do Pumpkin Creme Brulee too. Depends.

Throw me some more ideas, or maybe books you like that have unique fall themed desserts in them.

What seems to sell in my cases are "old standards" with "new twists" on them. If I get "too weird" then people don't buy (at least in my town).

Anything you wanna throw out there, would be ever so much appreciated!

Cheers......Annie

[CanadianBakin']

Annie, where is your baking being sold? Bakery, coffee shop, restaurant?

[Lindacakes]

Maple. Pecan.

Maybe both.

Maple pecan brittle cake . . .

Butternut squash creme brulee.

Little fried pies -- mincemeat.

[Kouign Aman]

"spice" - as in spice cake cupcakes.

I'm thinking of a spiced napoleon for some reason. Then again, I'm a sucker for napoleons.

[GTO]

Hmmm...

How about:

Maple syrup Meringue with Fall fruits Ice cream.

or

Spiced pumpkin Cream Horn.

I'd buy either, lol.

[jgm]

If you want an old standard with a new twist, think about doing something with a pumpkin roll. I'm just a home baker, not a pastry chef, but people love those things. Personally, I've always wanted to try a gingerbread roll; the combination of spicy gingerbread and cream cheese would have to be a winner. And if you could work some chocolate into that, so much the better.

Or how about some sort of riff on gingerbread, with a chocolate covered apple slice as a garnish? I've never tried to coat apple slices with anything, and don't know how long they'd last, but if you can get it to work, it would be a combination people don't see all the time.

[gfron1]

All the common themes are being touched on. I'll add that my work in Amernick's book makes me think of many of her desserts as fall/winter comfort foods. She uses oats, raisins, spices, etc. That time of year I like brioche filled with pumpkin paste, or almond paste. Plays on cinnamon rolls. Plays on crumbles and cobblers. Struedels.

Hang in there with all that's going on in your life!

[Nina C.]

I love a good thick gingerbread but what about a guinness or stout ginger cake?

Applesauce cake

Would your audience like quince?

Indian Pudding if you can serve things warm

warm apple (crumble, tart. pie), use hazelnuts in the pastry, serve with warm salted caramel sauce

chocolate-walnut tart

honey and walnut tart

pecan and pumpkin pie (the two together in one pie is awesome)

Apricot tart with pistachio garnish

Brown Sugar Cake

Caramel Cake

Good luck with your Mom's health. I recently read that keeping a patient adequately hydrated is incredibly important with dementia - it can lessen the affects. I'm sure you knew that already but just throwing it out there.

[apronstrings]

I found a great recipe last year for an apple cranberry torte. It has an oatmeal crust that envelopes the sides of the cake. It uses a can of whole berry cranberry sauce, so if you're a purist you probably won't like that. It came from a lovely book entitled, Kosher By Design. Or Kosher By Design Entertains. Well, it's either one or the other. Very easy, and therapeutic to make with all the chopping and pressing. It was a hit on Thanksgiving.

Sorry about your mom. Hang in there.

[Tri2Cook]

I did my first fall dessert for the year, don't know if there's anything that would be of interest to you but it's HERE.

[merstar]

Cranberry Swirl Coffee Cake (made with homemade cranberry sauce)

Orange Butter Cake

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

Cinnamon Squares by Dorie Greenspan

Will PM any of these recipes to you if you're interested. They're all T&T.

Edited September 21, 2007 by merstar (log)

[Abra]

Tons of good ideas here, but also, how about little sweet potato tartlets maybe in a nut crust or cranberry pecan turtle bars or molasses something, like shoo fly pie or molasses bread pudding minis?

[chefpeon]

Hey,

thanks for those great ideas so far everyone!

CanadianBakin', I fill the cases for a small bakery/cafe/coffee house.....I do all the frou-frou desserts. There's other guys that work there that do all the artisan breads, danishes, croissants, pies, and coffee rings.

The stuff I do is stuff like, specialty cakes and tortes, small and large tarts, individual pastries along the lines of Napoleons, cream puffs, eclairs, rum balls, tiramisu, creme brulee, pots de creme, specialty cookies, and bars and brownies. Cupcakes........that sort of stuff. I'd love to do ice cream, but we have no way to keep and serve ice cream. I can do warm desserts (the staff can reheat items in the microwave). I also need to try to do items that don't require special packaging. I might do a warm bread pudding with a whiskey caramel sauce, but I have to look for attractive bakeable disposable cup-like things.

Cheers....Annie

[merstar]

Here's one from Bon Appetit you might want to check out - Ginger-Squash Cake with White Chocolate Frosting. A review is posted on the following blog:

http://www.cookiemadness.net/

Direct link to recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240095

[lapin d'or]

I really like nutty and spicy things in autumn:

Pear and almond tart

Anything with prunes and almond

Chocolate & Chestnut combinations

Walnut cakes or tarts

Apple and cinnamon muffins

Cinnamon sugar dusted doughnuts

Honey Cake

Anything with ginger - Lemon & ginger cheesecake is a big favourite

Dried pear and ginger muffins

Flapjack with lots of dried fruit and nuts added in

All the best to you

[alanamoana]

Hey,

thanks for those great ideas so far everyone!

CanadianBakin', I fill the cases for a small bakery/cafe/coffee house.....I do all the frou-frou desserts. There's other guys that work there that do all the artisan breads, danishes, croissants, pies, and coffee rings.

The stuff I do is stuff like, specialty cakes and tortes, small and large tarts, individual pastries along the lines of Napoleons, cream puffs, eclairs, rum balls, tiramisu, creme brulee, pots de creme, specialty cookies, and bars and brownies. Cupcakes........that sort of stuff. I'd love to do ice cream, but we have no way to keep and serve ice cream. I can do warm desserts (the staff can reheat items in the microwave). I also need to try to do items that don't require special packaging. I might do a warm bread pudding with a whiskey caramel sauce, but I have to look for attractive bakeable disposable cup-like things.

Cheers....Annie

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you can bake them in those italian paper cups that look like they're miniature pannetone molds. i think those are attractive enough to put into a case.

[JeanneCake]

I love this cranberry walnut tart from Epicurious - it is a huge seller for me in the fall once the fresh berries come in. You could sub hazelnuts or pecans...

Cranberry Walnut Tart

I also like a layer of gingerbread cake with a layer of pumpkin mousse and a layer of white choc mousse and spiced pecans for garnish.

Chocolate dipped gingerbread cookies (think choc covered graham crackers, same idea)

[HeatherM]

I know that spice cake has already been mentioned, but I like it with applesauce / lemon sauce / lemon curd / whipped cream if you wanted to take it a bit further.

[etalanian]

You must be exhausted. I know this may sound impossible to you, but try to find a little time every day for yourself; meditate for half an hour, do a little yoga or yoga breathing exercises, or something calming to help your inner spirit.

When I think of fall, I always think of making gingerbread with lemon sauce. It was my dad's favorite fall/winter dessert. Nice and spicy, with a tangy, tart, deeply flavored pourable lemon curd topping.

You can also make sour cream apple tarts with streusel topping. Walnuts or pecans, maybe some cranberries in there for sparkle.

Pumpkin bread pudding. Or any bread pudding, for that matter. So warm and nurturing.

Eileen

[freek007]

I know this isnt fall themed as fresh figs are a summer fruit, but I did a vanilla marscapone stuffed figs, and the vanilla marscapone is divine!

to 1pt of marscapone add 1 vanilla bean's worth of scraping (or you can stretch it farther w van extract for food costs, but the flecks of van bean are so nice) and 1-2 tbl of sugar, refrig for a day to let flavors marry...

Anyways, i think that marsapone piped atop fall fruits, maybe perched on a ginger snap cookie, would be great. Or maybe swirl for a marbled effect into a pumpkin pie... or as a pistou (sp?) in a sweet pumpkin soup w a ginger touille (again, sp?<pronounced tweel, as in cookie>).

[shaloop]

My favorite apple cake (which I made this morning) and is very simple but very good. Cinnamon Apple Cake from Cooking Light. Picture Here. The first recipe is the one I use, which I've always made it with butter even before the revision came out. I use Granny Smith Apples which are wonderfully tart against the sweet, crunchy crust.

[andiesenji]

Bread pudding, made with pumpkin yeast bread or rolls.

I always make a big pan of this for our Halloween party, served with warm spiced cream.

[Redsugar]

Pumpkin is, of course, always thematic in a broad selection of Autumnal desserts. As Nina C. has indicated, above, pumpkin & pecans combine wonderfully in pies. A long-standing recipe of mine has the following set of ingredients incorporated in the filling of a 10-inch tart lined with either sweet or flaky pastry:

Pecans; butter; pumpkin purée; spices; eggs; molasses; sugar; and sour cream. Depending on whether the pecans are arranged in neat concentric circles or more abstractly, this tart can be served as either a formal or an informal dessert.

Should you choose to prepare pumpkin crème brûlées, be sure to use cinnamon sticks in the custard. (See, eg., the recipe in Marian Morash’s The Victory Garden Cookbook.) Pumpkin pots de crème ought to be regarded as quite elegant choices, too.

As for pumpkin bread pudding, caramel sauce and sliced poached pears are both superb accompaniments. Bourbon & pure maple syrup are inevitable (but delectable!) flavor-pairings as well.

Lawrence

[foodie52]

Does anyone have a recipe for whole pears encased in pastry and then baked? I know I've seen that somewhere....

[natter]

Perhaps a s'mores made with gingerbread and pumpkin marshmallows. Also when I think fall, I think apple donuts.