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

[pquinene]

I've been craving champulado. I made a small pot a few hours ago. It's short or medium-grain rice, water, milk, sugar, cocoa powder and a bit of corn starch:

Edited January 23, 2013 by pquinene (log)

[jmacnaughtan]

Out of the Elements of Dessert: Fig Ice Cream, Jasmine Tea Cake, Scottish Shortbread Crumble, Chocolate Sauce. The entire dessert was supposed to be contained within a melting chocolate box, but I gave up on that...

I've been looking at this recipe- how well do the flavors work? Does the chocolate not just overpower the fairly delicate fig and jasmine?

[Baselerd]

Out of the Elements of Dessert: Fig Ice Cream, Jasmine Tea Cake, Scottish Shortbread Crumble, Chocolate Sauce. The entire dessert was supposed to be contained within a melting chocolate box, but I gave up on that...

I've been looking at this recipe- how well do the flavors work? Does the chocolate not just overpower the fairly delicate fig and jasmine?

I have to first say that for the ice cream I did not have access to fig leaves so I used diced figs instead. The fig flavor was slightly overpowered by the chocolate, but not so much to where I couldn't appreciate it. The jasmine cake flavor was a bit light (probably by design, it was nice and refreshing), but it worked well - although I might increase the amount of ground jasmine tea if I make it next time since I prefer heavier desserts usually.

[rod rock]

That is one yummy looking champulado Pquinene!

Edited January 23, 2013 by rod rock (log)

[pquinene]

My first attempt at making macarons was from a volume-measured recipe. They looked pretty but were hollow and crispy. Below is a pic of my second attempt using this link:

http://www.eatlivetravelwrite.com/2012/03/why-do-my-macarons-have-hollow-shells-a-work-in-progress/#comment-61857.

An oven thermometer is an absolute must. Also, using this specific recipe, pull the macs out at 16 minutes. They don't come off the parchment paper until they are completely cooled! Forget about being able to lift them off the sheet while the pan is still in the oven or you will cook them to a crisp.

Then end result was delicious and you must absolutely wait till the next day to enjoy their best taste and texture.

Chocolate and Coconut Macarons

[Kim Shook]

Paula – I’ve bookmarked that site. They look amazing.

I did two desserts for our daughter Jessica’s family birthday celebration on the 25th. Daiquiri Poundcake:

And Pumpkin Poundcake with lemon curd:

The curd is home made by my step-sister's English mother (we have odd connections in my family) and she gives it to us every year for Christmas. Absolutely delicious and completely unlike store bought.

She had a celebration for friends at her apartment on the 26th and my contribution was PB&J cupcakes:

Since I haven’t yet found a great yellow cake, I did these with angel food cake. I used angel food for them the last time that I did them and liked that change a lot.

[Darienne]

Well done, KS

[flourgirl]

I finally got around to making a bacon ice cream. It came out soooo good . I used a basic base made with brown sugar and baked the bacon with dark brown sugar. I think what made it extra good is that I used the house cured bacon at work . It's so good on it's own, I knew it would come out great.

The top got mushed from the lid before I could get the picture.

My husband will think he died and is in bacon-haven. Looks yummy.

[RWood]

I finally got around to making a bacon ice cream. It came out soooo good . I used a basic base made with brown sugar and baked the bacon with dark brown sugar. I think what made it extra good is that I used the house cured bacon at work . It's so good on it's own, I knew it would come out great.

The top got mushed from the lid before I could get the picture.

My husband will think he died and is in bacon-haven. Looks yummy.

It is really good. I only made a gallon the first time, and it sold out over the weekend. I just made another gallon yesterday. We'll see how long that one lasts .

[jmacnaughtan]

Zumbo entremet n°2: Tanzanie.

I used a standard 4.5cm high cake frame- the recipe doesn't state the height you need, and I should have used 6cm. That meant I couldn't fit in the chocolate jelly, but the rest of the layers are (sorry for no cut pictures, the cake disappeared too quickly):

Flourless chocolate cake

Tanzanie 75% cocoa ganache with salted chocolate shards

Cocoa meringue

Vanilla "crème brûlée" (I just made an anglaise and set it with 1% gelatin)

Chocolate sabayon mousse

Standard chocolate glaze

[janeer]

That is beautiful

[Baselerd]

Here's the coconut vacherin from Eleven Madison Park, quite a few components. It was a ton of work (even by EMP standards), but the result was delicious - especially considering the lack of chocolate.

-Coconut Sorbet

-Passion fruit kaffir lime sorbet

-Coconut crumble

-Coconut meringue filled with passion fruit curd

-Pineapple (Bruléed and compressed with coconut syrup)

-Green Mango salad

-Coconut-Lime Yogurt

-Passion fruit pulp, mango, papaya

-Coconut oil

[DianaM]

That looks beautiful! Am very jealous of your quennelling skills.

[Baselerd]

Thanks! It's not as hard as it seems - you just need to temper the ice cream/sorbet to the right texture and make sure you soak your spoon in hot water between quenelles.

[Kim Shook]

Darienne – thank you, ma’am!

Baselerd – all that coconut goodness! I would SO love to taste that.

For Valentine’s Day dinner, I did Mr. Kim’s favorite – caramel apple crème brulee:

With an excessively brulee-d brulee. I’ve never had that problem before. I’ve always used one of those little kitchen torches before and now I have a big one and I’m wondering if it is too intense? Anyone else ever have this happen? This is just a regular vanilla bean crème brulee with a layer of sautéed apples and dulce de leche under the custard:

It makes for a messy looking crème brulee once you start eating, but it’s really, really good:

[Kerry Beal]

Texas Cowboy Cake from the Just a Pinch website.

Haven't tasted it yet - gave my dad a small loaf and will take another to work tomorrow. Interesting technique - boil the sugar, water, coffee, butter, dates and raisins together then add to the dry. No eggs.

[gap]

Kerry - let us know what you think of it . . . I've printed out the recipe as something I think I'd like to try (and eat)

Edited February 25, 2013 by gap (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry - let us know what you think of it . . . I've printed out the recipe as something I think I'd like to try (and eat)

Exactly why I printed it out - it looked very interesting. I'll let you know.

[Tri2Cook]

It does sound interesting. I might have to give it a try. I'll probably do a little minor tweaking to the fruit content. I don't mind a few raisins in things but I prefer the balance to be way more towards something else.

[cmflick]

IMG_0494.jpg

Texas Cowboy Cake from the Just a Pinch website.

Haven't tasted it yet - gave my dad a small loaf and will take another to work tomorrow. Interesting technique - boil the sugar, water, coffee, butter, dates and raisins together then add to the dry. No eggs.

Sounds kind of like a variation on panforte.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I've been so busy lately that I've been completely remiss in posting the yummlies I've been making. So here's a whole bunch, all at once.

Moist peanut-butter cake with peanut-butter cream filling and milk chocolate swizzle

Gigantic (20" across) carrot cake for a friend's baby shower.

Cheesecake with spiced vanilla peach topping.

Coconut chiffon cake, filled with cherry, decorated with coconut IMBC

Key Lime Pie (yes, I know, but the customer is always right, even when he's wrong....)

My grumpy friend Tuny's birthday cake.

Detail of the grumpy birthday gnome.

And finally, since I did so much ICBM I had beaucoup egg yolks left. So I made Pasteis Encocãos, which are like Pasteis do Belém but with lots of shredded coconut in them. That's vanilla helado de paila with the tart, topped with Reine Claude and vanilla jam.

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry - let us know what you think of it . . . I've printed out the recipe as something I think I'd like to try (and eat)

Exactly why I printed it out - it looked very interesting. I'll let you know.

So here we go - nurses are loving it. I find it a bit 'lean' but I think with a nice slathering of sweet butter it would be just perfect. Now we do have to allow for the fact that I cut back the sugar from 3 cups to 2 (still came out sweet) and used cold infused coffee concentrate in place of the cup of strong coffee. It makes big loaves and if you want to add the glucose/booze slather on top after the first hour - make sure you have it in a big enough pan that it isn't poking over the top.

Pana - love the grumpy gnome!

[pquinene]

I made plain almond macarons with basic meringue yesterday. This morning, I'm working on the final trial (hopefully) of creating a "perfect" macaron using a very stable basic meringue...in an electric oven with upper and lower heating elements. These are unfilled macaron discs bent in half:

Edited February 28, 2013 by pquinene (log)

[basquecook]

beautiful. those do look pretty perfect. nice feet on those suckers.

[pquinene]

One more trial run for my almond macaron batter, but I did fill some last night.

Edited March 1, 2013 by pquinene (log)