Your Daily Sweets: What are you making and baking? (2012–2014)

[minas6907]

Very very nice! Where did you get that recipe?

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

[pquinene]

Very very nice! Where did you get that recipe? Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Hafa Adai Minas6907,

That's hello in Chamorro, the native language of Guam.....though I do live in North Carolina.

I've actually been working on this recipe for a month! I am doing trial #18 today; the picture above is very close, but I want to test one more variable. It's a basic meringue recipe with the macs baked in an electric oven (upper and lower heating element). I will post a link to the recipe here. Because it's very detailed it's too long to copy/paste to the forum (details on meringue, macaronage, oven heat). I will post on my website as well, paulaq.com>macaron book.

Edited March 2, 2013 by pquinene (log)

[merstar]

I made these at around 2 AM. Delicious!

http://brownieboxblog.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/thick-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies/

[merstar]

Ignore - Double post.

Edited March 3, 2013 by merstar (log)

[Kim Shook]

Beth – your cakes are lovely and the coconut chiffon sounds especially delicious.

pquinene – your macarons are gorgeous!

merstar – they look wonderful and I LOVE that you made them at 2am!

I tried the Morning Buns from “Cook’s Country” on TV. The pastry is a version of a quick, “easy”, kinda/sorta croissant dough. All rolled and ready for a rest in the fridge:

At this point I was very excited and thought that they looked beautiful. Out of the oven and inside:

They were fairly flakey and tasted wonderful, but didn’t rise nearly as much as they were supposed to. The method of incorporating the butter into the flour/salt/yeast mixture involved placing it all into a large ziplock bag and alternately rolling and shaking it to make flour-coated long butter flakes. My yeast was fresh, so I’m thinking that here was where I must have messed up. Lightly scented with cinnamon and orange and sticky with the warm sugar, they tasted great. Just could have risen a bit and been a little lighter and flakier.
Here is the recipe. If anyone has the time to go and look at it and offer any advice, I’d very much appreciate it.

[merstar]

Kim,

Those morning buns look fantastic! I could eat them right off the screen!

Meryl aka merstar

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Kim - the method of dusting/rolling the flour and yeast over the butter is what's retarding your rise. When working even with very fresh yeasts, if they get encapsulated by fats (butter in this case) they suffocate and die off, leaving you a nice yeasty flavour but doing nothing as far as leavening goes. I had this exact problem when I started to work with yeasted puff pastry, and until I figured it out I'd get the same result you're seeing - tender and flaky and with the yummy yeasty flavour, but not very tall.

Looking at that recipe, I'd hydrate the yeast in the orange juice or make a paste with it and the water, but otherwise proceed as written. That will give the beasties a bit of a head start, and should prevent them from becoming as trapped in the butter. That, in turn, should result in taller, flakier buns.

EDIT - alternately, you could approach that recipe in a very different way. Since you're mixing in the liquids for the dough right at the end of the process, you could try this: rather than mucking about with the ziplock and the rolling pin, cut about 3/4 of the butter into the flour/sugar/salt mixture as though you're making shortcrust. Once it's cut, add the liquids (with the yeast hydrated in the OJ), then roll out as suggested and coat the sheet with the remaining 1/4 of the butter (knead it under cold water to make it flexible enough while keeping it cool - this is a croissant trick). Then roll up and proceed as written. You'll still get flaky pastry that way (and if you're crazy like me, you'll fold the dough a couple of times before you roll it up and chill it, to increase the interleaving), and it should definitely resolve the rise issue since you'll be boosting the yeast with butter puffage.

Edited March 3, 2013 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[Kim Shook]

Meryl - thank you, ma'am!

Beth - thanks for the advice - I think I'll try your first suggestion. The OJ and the water are both VERY cold. Will it be ok to put the yeast into them at that temperature?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Kim - it shouldn't be a problem. If it were, I'd expect the yeast to die in the chilling process, but it just goes into hibernation. That's why these rolls are proofed at 200F.

[pquinene]

Very very nice! Where did you get that recipe? Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Here is the link to my recipe:

PaulaQ's French Macarons...w/video demonstration

Well, for some reason I can't put a link on here.

Recipe is on my site, www.paulaq.com > macaron book....scroll down for the link.

Edited March 5, 2013 by pquinene (log)

[cmflick]

Very very nice! Where did you get that recipe? Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

Here is the link to my recipe:

PaulaQ's French Macarons...w/video demonstration

Well, for some reason I can't put a link on here.

Recipe is on my site, www.paulaq.com > macaron book....scroll down for the link.

Nice job on the video. The amount of detail is excellent. Will your book describe what didn't work in your trials? Sometimes that's just as important as what does work, i.e., what to avoid doing!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Yet another coconut chiffon cake (this one family! I swear....) Above was my grumpy friend Tuny's grumpy cake. This is his grandfather, who is a rabid fan of the Barcelona football team. I'm not sure that it's all that visible in the photo, but his head is photoshopped onto the yellow-jerseyed player's body.

Edited because the photo didn't want to show up for some reason....

Edited March 9, 2013 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Decided to try the yeasted chocolate cake from the folks at Ideas in Food. Mixed the batter, left it alone for 4 hrs, folded it, left it alone for another 18 hrs...




...panned it, left it alone for another 1/2 hr and baked...




...let it cool and cut a small slice...




...and didn't like it. I really hate saying that. Ideas in Food is one of my all-time favorite food blogs. I've learned a lot, been inspired a lot and have very rarely been less than thrilled with the results of their recipes. This was one of those rare times. The cake is surprisingly light, moist, has a nice crumb and is not overly sweet. I'm just really not enjoying the combo of chocolate and a distinct yeasty sourdough taste at all. I'm entirely sure it's a me thing. I'm guessing there will be plenty of people who will love it and think it crazy that I don't. It was a fun project anyway.

[Kerry Beal]

Decided to try the yeasted chocolate cake from the folks at Ideas in Food. Mixed the batter, left it alone for 4 hrs, folded it, left it alone for another 18 hrs...

...panned it, left it alone for another 1/2 hr and baked...

...let it cool and cut a small slice...

...and didn't like it. I really hate saying that. Ideas in Food is one of my all-time favorite food blogs. I've learned a lot, been inspired a lot and have very rarely been less than thrilled with the results of their recipes. This was one of those rare times. The cake is surprisingly light, moist, has a nice crumb and is not overly sweet. I'm just really not enjoying the combo of chocolate and a distinct yeasty sourdough taste at all. I'm entirely sure it's a me thing. I'm guessing there will be plenty of people who will love it and think it crazy that I don't. It was a fun project anyway.

Perhaps the yeasted vanilla cake might be a better way to go.

[benthescientist]

It's strawberry season here in Aus. I've gotten into the habit of buying punnets of overripe berries and extracting their juice low and slow over simmering water. The result is a clear, intense strawberry juice that can be reduced to a syrup. I also wanted to try my hand at a desert where a chocolate shell was cracked to reveal something on the inside.

This was the result: chocolate mud cake, strawberry syrup and cream (a failed vanilla panna cotta!). Fresh home grown strawberries, mint and strawberry popping candy on the side. I'd keep the chocolate cake for a dish with raspberry and focus on the strawberries and panna cotta next time.

[Tri2Cook]

Perhaps the yeasted vanilla cake might be a better way to go.

Yeah, I considered that possibility and also considered greatly reducing the proofing time on the chocolate version. It does a full proof in the initial 4 hours, I'm pretty sure the other 18 is mainly for flavor development. I just wasn't a fan of the flavor that developed. This one's going to the ravens, I'll have to decide if I want to risk wasting another one or two in the name of experimenting. On a brighter note, I did the peanut butter custard from their book yesterday. The custard is good... so the ravens will be getting their cake plain.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Carole Grogloth Hawaii]

No oil pumpkin cake - Carole Grogloth, Molokai Hawaii by Carole Grogloth Hawaii, on Flickr

The Very Hungry Caterpillar cupcakes look really cute, what creative idea! I made this a no-oil pumpkin cake which everyone enjoyed.

Carole Grogloth Molokai Hawaii

[rajoress]

Coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate - for Passover. Thanks for looking!

Ruth

[Darienne]

Coconut macaroons dipped in chocolate - for Passover. Thanks for looking!

Those look incredible! My mouth is watering.

[merstar]

I made this again - delicious. (I used Ghirardelli for the chopped chocolate):

Chocolate Swirl Sour Cream Coffee Cake:

http://www.godiva.com/recipes-chocolate-swirl-coffee-cake/RecipeArticle17,default,pg.html

[Baselerd]

I recently made a modern (only in plating) tiramisu recipe (link to recipe)- very delicious and not too involved. Includes soaked sponge cake, espresso ice cream, espresso creme anglaise, mascarpone mousse, and Kahlua gelee.

[DianaM]

I recently made a modern (only in plating) tiramisu recipe (link to recipe)- very delicious and not too involved. Includes soaked sponge cake, espresso ice cream, espresso creme anglaise, mascarpone mousse, and Kahlua gelee.

Looks delicious, and definitely sounds doable.

I did have a good chuckle when I checked out the recipe: the components are measured using 3 different measuring systems, LOL.

[Baselerd]

Yeah the use of multiple measuring techniques was somewhat interesting - I assume these were some sort of back-of-the-envelope notes he had jotted down. The pastry chef (Antonio Bachour) has the best food porn though so I trusted the recipe.

[DianaM]

I know good food porn when I see it , so I added him as a flickr contact a while ago. I think I was looking for a namelaka recipe, and I found one on his blog. His work really is exquisite.

Someone here on eG posted a question about a pic from here: http://instagram.com/tonistpastry

I bookmarked this page as well, and have been drooling over his pics, as well as chef Bachour's, ever since.

[Kim Shook]

Ben – all that looks gorgeous and delicious! What are the little log-looking things?

rajoress – I agree with Darienne – those macaroons are lovely!

An item from the cake mix fix up book that I recently bought – Neapolitan cake bars:

These are actually really good. I added some coconut extract to the white cake layer and that emphasized the similarity between these and those Neapolitan candy bars. This book is one of those check-out ‘impulse buy’ items that I somehow can’t seem to resist. The food is not the kind that I usually cook, but something about those little booklets with the easy recipes and bright pictures of each dish just draws me in. I probably have a hundred of them and have probably made 1% of the recipes!