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

[Kim Shook]

pjm – I need to get one of those tips – I love the look of those billowy waves!

judiu – thanks for the cooky cutter tip. I’ll give that a try next time.

Diana – your macarons are lovely. And that cup/bowl that they are in??? Oh, my – I am deeply in love with that pattern!

Ruth – I’ve looked at the King Arthur website and can’t find any recipe for "holiday cutout cookies”. I found “holiday butter cookies” and “chocolate cutout cookies”, but not both ‘holiday’ and ‘cutout’. Do you think that it’s the “holiday butter cookies” since they ARE cutouts? Thanks so much and I’m sorry to be so much trouble!

Alleguede – those cakes are astonishingly gorgeous!

[pquinene]

I spent most of my day yesterday making guyuria. Guyuria is a Guam cookie with possible roots in Oaxaca, Mexico. The dough is just flour, butter, and coconut milk. Once all the dough is fried and cooled, a sugar coating is applied, dried, and applied again. The photos below are from two different batches.

GUYURIA

Edited February 7, 2014 by pquinene (log)

[Alleguede]

What is Ochoa?

I am not Alleguede, but I think he meant Ocoa, one of the new single origins from Cacao Barry, made with their Q-fermentation method.

Yes it was early and the autocorrect was on French and might not like the ocoa either great to cast thin

[Franci]

Pquinene, I bet I'd like your guyuria.

It' not carnival yet but I made chiacchiere today.

[Tri2Cook]

I spent most of my day yesterday making guyuria. Guyuria is a Guam cookie with possible roots in Oaxaca, Mexico. The dough is just flour, butter, and coconut milk. Once all the dough is fried and cooled, a sugar coating is applied, dried, and applied again. The photos below are from two different batches.

I think I want to try these. Do they really fry for 30 minutes as stated in the recipe?

[jmacnaughtan]

Pquinene, I bet I'd like your guyuria.

It' not carnival yet but I made chiacchiere today.

Nice, they look like oreillettes. Do you flavour the dough?

That reminds me to make some bugnes for mardi gras...

[Franci]

Nice, they look like oreillettes. Do you flavour the dough?

That reminds me to make some bugnes for mardi gras...

Yes, indeed, they look similar to oreilletes. In the South of France, where we lived until September, they are called bugnes. The bugnes I'm used are make with yeast.

For chiacchiere I don't use any yeast or baking powder. The dough gets a nice flavour from a mix of grappa and marsala, plus lemon zest.

[pquinene]

I spent most of my day yesterday making guyuria. Guyuria is a Guam cookie with possible roots in Oaxaca, Mexico. The dough is just flour, butter, and coconut milk. Once all the dough is fried and cooled, a sugar coating is applied, dried, and applied again. The photos below are from two different batches.

I think I want to try these. Do they really fry for 30 minutes as stated in the recipe?

Yes, they do take between 25 and 30 minutes, 27 minutes on average. With my stove here, I fry just under medium heat with the dial between the 7 and 8 on the face of the clock (as opposed to medium to medium-high in recipe...a different stove). The key is to test one cookie first. It should not brown much in the first 5 to 10 minutes of frying. By the 25-minute mark, it is a golden brown -- not too light, not too dark. I actually use the timer in the microwave above my stove. Once I have loaded an entire batch into the oil, I start the timer to count down from 30 minutes. Once I see the timer at 5 minutes, I look at the color of the cookies. If it's dark enough, I take them out. If not, I keep frying. This ensures the dough is crispy all the way through the cookie.

It takes me about 3 to 3.5 hours to make and shape all of the dough, but then it takes another 1.5 to 2 hours to finish frying the dough. Finally, it's another three hours to coat and dry the sugar. I'm going to enjoy some in just a few minutes -- a lot of work, but so worth it. One year, I hid some in the cabinets -- out of sight, out of mind -- and found them many months later. The guyuria were still crisp and delish -- I usually store them in three layers of Ziploc gallon bags.

Edited February 7, 2014 by pquinene (log)

[Tri2Cook]

Thanks! Sounds like something I'll have to save for when I have an entire day to devote to it but they're definitely going on the "must try" list.

[jmacnaughtan]

Nice, they look like oreillettes. Do you flavour the dough?

That reminds me to make some bugnes for mardi gras...

Yes, indeed, they look similar to oreilletes. In the South of France, where we lived until September, they are called bugnes. The bugnes I'm used are make with yeast.

For chiacchiere I don't use any yeast or baking powder. The dough gets a nice flavour from a mix of grappa and marsala, plus lemon zest.

Where were you living? I've always known bugnes to be the little yeast-risen knots and oreillettes to be the flat, crispy ones. That may just be a Lyon thing though. I'll never make oreillettes again- I still have greasy memories of long, long mornings in front of the industrial size frier...

[Blether]

I'd a hankering for fruit pie-filling, American style (thickened with cornflour) and cherry-picked from three different recipes - this one for a tart case, this one for custard and this one for filling - to make a blackberry custard tart. I cut back on the cornflour for the custard by almost half, only used three heaped teaspoons of sugar for 500g / a pound-and-a-bit of blackberries, and just cooked them for maybe 5 minutes at most. Assembled with everything at (cool) room temperature.

[Kim Shook]

Blether – that tart looks wonderful. The custard looks almost like cheesecake.

Made these brownies for a birthday at Mr. Kim’s office:

They are just brownie mix topped with marshmallow fluff and chocolate. They are supposed to have a layer of salted peanuts between the fluff and the chocolate, but there are some folks with nut allergies, so I had to leave them off. Without the nuts they are just way too sweet.

[Blether]

Thanks. Kim. It's good to see you posting again..

You know, in the tart recipe with the almond pastry it says "this is a good dessert to feed a crowd". It was with the first servings that I realised what that meant - that thick layer of rich almond pastry is filling ! It's about the quantity of pastry you'd normally use for a double-crust pie just a fraction smaller. There's nearly half a pound of butter in there. So I'm glad I saw it coming and cut way down on the sugar in the fruit - it's still rich, but there's something to cut through all the sweetness.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Blether (log)

[judiu]

Kim, are the nut-allergic folks allergic to seeds, too? Might look into subbing pepitas or sunflower seeds for the peanuts... Just sayin'.

[Kim Shook]

judiu - that's actually a good idea. I love those chocolate and candy covered sunflower seeds. I get Mr. Kim to check.

[pquinene]

I'd a hankering for fruit pie-filling, American style (thickened with cornflour) and cherry-picked from three different recipes - this one for a tart case, this one for custard and this one for filling - to make a blackberry custard tart. I cut back on the cornflour for the custard by almost half, only used three heaped teaspoons of sugar for 500g / a pound-and-a-bit of blackberries, and just cooked them for maybe 5 minutes at most. Assembled with everything at (cool) room temperature.

Oh, I so want some!

[judiu]

Kim, you say that like I never had one before...%) I love pepita kernels, they're salty and crispy. Could you sub in plain Chex mix or some such?

[Blether]

Oh, I so want some!

Thanks

It's been so long since I had blackberriy anything. These appeared frozen & (of course) imported in the supermarket. I mostly expected indifferent fruit in uninspiring condition - I thought I'd have something like a jam, texture-wise. I couldn't believe it when I opened the bag after defrosting (in the fridge), and it was like you'd come back from the hedgerows and hand-picked the absolute best berries of the crop and kept them aside. Really beautiful fruit.

[judiu]

And no stickers or bug bites, either! %)

[pquinene]

It's been snowing and freezing here in Holly Springs, NC. I made half a batch of champulado -- Guam chocolate rice pudding -- since I'm the only one in my family who loves it. Low and behold, my husband and daughter had a change of heart. We're all out now, but it was good while it lasted.

Champulado

[Kim Shook]

Kim, you say that like I never had one before...%) I love pepita kernels, they're salty and crispy. Could you sub in plain Chex mix or some such?

Checked with Mr. Kim and it turns out that I was mistaken. No nut allergies - the guy just thinks that salty peanuts take away from the sweetness of the brownies. Um..yeah, they sure as sh*t DO! Without the peanuts they are toothachingly sweet!

[rotuts]

Kim: how to you get the thin layer on top of the Fluff ? do you chill the brownies + Fluff first ?

what type of chocolate do you melt ? double boiler ? Microwave ?

[Kim Shook]

rotuts - I just heat the fluff for about 30 seconds in the microwave, then spread it on the brownies right out of the oven with an offset spreader (this is where the peanuts get sprinkled on normally). The chocolate is chopped and sprinkled on the fluff and then the whole thing goes into the oven again for a couple of minutes. It melts almost immediately and gets spread with a spreader.

[Alleguede]

For valentines day... A little bit of love...

[jmacnaughtan]

Nice work, Alleguede! Those hearts are great- did you make little 2-person ones, or are they large-scale entremets? And I don't suppose you want to share your recipe for the red glaze?