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

[Shelby]

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Nick Malgieri's Sicilian fig bars. Or as Kerry beal would likely dub them "not your father's fig newtons".

I would have liked this a million times if I could.  Fresh figs or dried figs or a fig jam?

[Anna N]

I would have liked this a million times if I could.  Fresh figs or dried figs or a fig jam?

Dried figs cut up and mixed with apricot preserves, dark rum, cinnamon and cloves, cooked with a little water until just thickened, about 10 minutes, cooled and then puréed.

[Darienne]

From Anna N: Extra? Extra? What is this extra? One went to my daughter's family and one is in my freezer being safeguarded for my bachelor son who has dinner with me each Thursday. His is missing the slice I had to try. Thank heaven for family to take my baking else I would weigh even more than I do now! It is delicious.

 

(My computer is refusing to work properly this morning.)

 

We, alas, have no family within giving goodies to.  But we do have neighbors who will love us and in town businesses which will appreciate the fairly regular donation of confections and other sweet goodies. 

[RWood]

I asked for a few baskets of figs for ice cream, and I ended up with a whole flat. So I made this for a special this weekend.

Fig Cornmeal Cake-rosemary and honey roasted figs, buttermilk ice cream and a red wine fig syrup.

[Katie Meadow]

RWood, it should not take me more than a couple of hours to drive down to Monterey. See you soon! But really, I need to make that fig dessert. Can I get a recipe for everything but the buttermilk ice cream (already have a good one for that.) Thanks!

[Shel_B]

RWood, it should not take me more than a couple of hours to drive down to Monterey. See you soon! But really, I need to make that fig dessert. Can I get a recipe for everything but the buttermilk ice cream (already have a good one for that.) Thanks!

 

RWood ... would you be kind enough to provide the recipe for that luscious looking dessert?  Toots loves figs, and I'd like to try my hand at that.

 

Katie ... may I get your buttermilk ice cream recipe?  I have one but have not been truly satisfied with it.

[RWood]

RWood ... would you be kind enough to provide the recipe for that luscious looking dessert? Toots loves figs, and I'd like to try my hand at that.

Katie ... may I get your buttermilk ice cream recipe? I have one but have not been truly satisfied with it.

Sure, no problem. I will figure out everything I did and post it tomorrow when I get back to work. Everything is there and I am computer-less at the moment. Trying to type it all out on this phone will make me cross-eyed

[Anna N]

In time for back to school/work cookies for the lunchboxes. These are Dorie Greenspan's chocolate chip cookies. I will be returning to my trusted Fine Cooking recipe next time.

[cyalexa]

My husband's favorite dessert, coconut pineapple upside-down cake.

[William Colsher]

 

elBulli 1813 Coca De Vidre. Oh man these are tasty. They're made with anise liquor (I used ouzo) and pine nuts. I'm thinking I'll make 'em with Bourbon and pecans tomorrow.

[lesliec]

They look great, William.  What's the texture - crunchy?

 

I'm not sure if the recipe's in the El Bulli book I have.  Which year are these?

[William Colsher]

They look great, William.  What's the texture - crunchy?

 

I'm not sure if the recipe's in the El Bulli book I have.  Which year are these?

They're like "vidre" - glass - shatteringly crispy. The recipe is in the 2010-11 volume of the 2005-2011 set.

[lesliec]

Great, thanks.  Haven't got that one; I may have to get creative.  What's the active ingredient - something like isomalt?

 

Wifey and I went to a screening of El Bulli: Cooking in Progress as part of the annual Wellington on a Plate food festival last week, so my interested in fun stuff has again been piqued.

[William Colsher]

Great, thanks.  Haven't got that one; I may have to get creative.  What's the active ingredient - something like isomalt?

 

Wifey and I went to a screening of El Bulli: Cooking in Progress as part of the annual Wellington on a Plate food festival last week, so my interested in fun stuff has again been piqued.

Nothing that exotic - just sugar,  a little water and ouzo, then paint the syrup on obulato squares, pop on some toasted pine nuts and dry in the oven.

[RWood]

RWood ... would you be kind enough to provide the recipe for that luscious looking dessert?  Toots loves figs, and I'd like to try my hand at that.

 

Katie ... may I get your buttermilk ice cream recipe?  I have one but have not been truly satisfied with it.

 

OK,

Here is what I can remember.

 

Figs:

1 pt figs, halved

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 T honey

4 sprigs rosemary

Toss together and pour into a shallow baking pan. Cover with foil and bake at 400 for about 15 mins until soft but still firm enough to pick up.  I covered them to get more juice out of them. Remove figs to cool and reserve liquid

 

Cornmeal Cake

3 oz butter, melted and cooled slightly

1/2 cup + 2 T flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup creme fraiche

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

 

Combine dry ingredients.  Whisk butter and creme fraiche together, the whisk in egg, yolk and vanilla.  Fold into the dry.

 

Melt together 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 oz butter and 2 T honey.  Whisk until smooth.

 

I used these large soup cups we have, so I got about 6 out of this batch.  I would guess a 4-6 oz ramekin is about the same.

 

Pour just enough of the brown sugar mixture to cover the bottom of the ramekin.  Arrange figs cut side down.  Divide batter between ramekins.

Bake at 350 until golden brown and caramel is bubbling around edges.  Test with a toothpick to make sure cake is done.

Cool for a few minutes then invert on a plate.  These warm well later on as well.

 

The syrup was a combo of the juices from these figs and some I had roasted in red wine, cinnamon stick, vanilla bean and sugar that will be in ice cream.  I reduced it slightly then strained it.  

 

Here is the buttermilk ice cream I use if needed

 

2 cups heavy cream

4 yolks

3/4 cup sugar

3 cups buttermilk

1 cup creme fraiche

1 T lemon juice 

pinch salt

Basic anglaise, then cool before adding the buttermilk, lemon and creme fraiche.  I really like this better than most of the others I've made.  I'm a sucker for creme fraiche anyway

[Katie Meadow]

RWood thanks so much! 

 

Shel, the ingredients for my buttermilk ice cream has somewhat different proportions, and no creme fraiche: 1 1/4 c heavy cream, 1 vanilla bean, 4 large egg yolks, 1 1/2 c sugar, 4 c buttermilk. The direx are intimidating; my husband has made this twice, and although it was very good, it is indeed not for the semi-lazy and cholesterol watching like me. We haven't made it for years, using instead the buttermilk sorbet recipe you have. I don't see how RWood's ice cream could be anything but swoon worthy.

[Anna N]

This is the jam tart recipe from David Lebovitz' blog made with apricot jam and baked in an oblong tart pan. It is an incredibly easy recipe and if I felt the need to have a dessert repertoire this would surely form its backbone. Serve it plain, serve it with ice cream, or serve it with crème fraîche, it is delicious. When you have to pull a rabbit from a hat this is the rabbit you want to pull!

[suzilightning]

We have moved from white donut peaches to regular white peaches and now the cling yellows ... the early apples are just coming in now and some types I have never seen before.   Peach kucken with two of the monsters and making a clafoutis to take to a meeting with the other two and a leftover half pint of raspberries.

[jmacnaughtan]

I've started thinking a lot about soufflés.  This is handy because I've got about a kilo of egg whites and various fruit purées kicking around the freezer.

 

 

Here's my second attempt at a dessert one, plain banana.  The structure and appearance are good, but it's way too sweet.  I adapted the recipe from a blackberry soufflé, but it has none of the sweetness or bitterness of blackberries.

 

 

[Anna N]

jmacnaughton,

Did you develop the recipe for a single serving? I have a number of Boiron purées in my freezer which I would love to use up. But there is only me so you can see where I might be interested in learning a technique for making a single soufflé. If you did indeed make a single serving could you share your proportions?

[jmacnaughtan]

Anna N,

 

With these ones I made 4, but I imagine you could halve the recipe easily.  I don't think I'd take it down further though, because whipping very small amounts of egg white can be tricky.  Luckily, however, you can bake these, let them cool down and then hold them for a few days without any adverse effects.  They'll still rise as high and taste the same (case in point, I just had one for breakfast).

 

Here's the recipe I used:

 

200g banana purée

15g cornflour

30g schnapps

90g egg whites (around 3)

100g sugar (I'd probably take this down to 60/70g)

melted butter, sugar

 

1. Heat the purée in a pan.
2. Combine the cornflour with the schnapps.
3. Incorporate into the hot purée and boil for 30 seconds, stirring continuously.
4. Transfer to a sheet of cling film, cover and leave to cool to room temperature.
5. Brush melted butter all the way up the sides of the ramekins/cups and leave upside down in the fridge to set.  Brush a second layer, then coat with sugar.
6. Whip the whites with the sugar on medium speed until they reach firmish peaks, then add the rest and mix on high until you have a stiff meringue.
7. Put the purée mixture into a different bowl, loosen with a whisk and whisk in a third of the meringue to loosen it further.
8. Gently fold in the rest of the meringue until the mixture is homogeneous.
9. Transfer to a piping bag, cut a fairly wide hole in the end and pipe into your cups/ramekins, filling past the top.
10. Level out with a spatula so the mixture is perfectly level with rim.
11. Bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes, dust with icing sugar and serve.

[Anna N]

Thank you so much for the soufflé recipe. I hope to try it this week.

Anna

[curls]

 

sour cream coffee cake

[JohnT]

I am still experimenting with my individual portion desserts - yesterday I made "Peppermint Crisp Tarts" in 7cm ring moulds. I do not think it should be called a "tart" as they have no pastry case. The bottom was made using crumbled Tennis Biscuits (cookies), but no butter used as a binder. Tennis Biscuits are a thin commercial biscuit made with a coconut pastry. The "mousse" is made out a can of caramalised sweetened condensed milk with stiffly whipped cream folded in with a crumbled bar of Peppermint Crisp. This is a chocolate bar made by Nestlé in South Africa, that envelopes peppermint sugar strands, which are bright green. I think this chocolate is only made and available in South Africa. Normally you just let the dessert set in the fridge, but I froze them to be able to take them out of the ring moulds and then let the samples defrost. The photograph above is one still frozen - they need about 20 minutes to defrost before serving. I had some mousse left over, which I also froze - it makes a devine ice cream!

Normally this dessert is made in a large dish and spooned out. I thought of doing it in individual portions to see how that would work and to test what happens when they defrost. I have a bunch still in the freezer and am letting a couple sit and defrost in the refrigerator overnight to see if there is weeping that would affect the product.

John

[jmacnaughtan]

Continuing with the soufflés, I used this recipe.  It looks OK and the centre is pleasingly molten, but the flavour was a little subdued.

 

 

Does anyone have a better chocolate soufflé recipe?