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

[andiesenji]

I'm making scones - the dough is at present "resting" - chilling in the fridge prior to scooping and forming.  

I have resurrected an old recipe that uses no butter - only heavy cream (called "top" cream in the original recipe)

from some time in the late 1920s or early '30s, supposedly copied from "Weldon's favorite cakes and scones" by

a "cook at Merton's, Mousehole, Cornwall, 1938." 

[emmalish]

Okay, I've been a bit lax about posting what I'm baking. So here's a few weeks worth...

 

Way back when I made those cookie shot glasses, I also made these chocolate cutout cookies. They turned out great. They really hold their shape well and have a strong chocolate flavour.

 

 

Then I made these peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. All your favourite comfort food cookies rolled into one! A perfect combination.

 

 

These brown butter white chocolate macadamia nut cookies are insanely good. Fresh from the oven they were just okay, but the next day they were phenomenal. They were so popular I ended up making 2 batches of them.

 

 

And then I made these cowboy cookies from Mario Batali. What exactly constitutes a "cowboy cookie"? Is it just a kitchen-sink type cookie? Or are there specific ingredients that must be in there? This one has oatmeal, coconut, and butterscotch chips. Like the brown butter macadamia ones, they were so-so fresh from the oven, but the next day the flavours seemed to intensify. Great cookie!

 

 

 

 

[Kim Shook]

keychris – the orange caramel entremets looks and sounds fabulous.

 

Diana – that fraisier is beautiful and I would have loved that for Easter.

 

Beth – would you please consider sharing the recipe for the candied fig cheesecake.  They are now my 3 favorite words  .

 

jmacnaughtan – another incredibly beautiful fraisier! 

 

emmalish – I love the look of those chocolate cut outs.  How do they differ flavor-wise from the snaps?

 

Coconut cream pie that Mr. Kim’s mom requested for her Easter dinner:

 

This turned out very well.  My crust - CI’s vodka crust – was perfectly crisp and flakey.  Though my MIL made it clear that she thought that the vodka was an unnecessary affectation   . 

 

We had a friend of mine from way back in HS visiting us last weekend.  Dessert included Nick Malgieri’s Heart of Dixie pecan pie

 

I had to make a mid-crust panic call to my friend who originally gave me the recipe because my crust was WAY too dry, but a few sprinkles of vodka fixed it right up.

 

Second dessert was a gift to me from Pquinene.  I commented on how lovely her macarons were and she did an amazing and lovely thing – she sent me a whole boxful!  Along with the recipe for a coconut and strawberry cream filling and advice on how to store and how long to let sit after filling and before eating.  Thanks to her kindness, this is what I served:

Bite:

I think that I went a little skimpy on the cream.  Mr. Kim had to do the piping for me since my hands won’t handle it (YET, I hope) and I should have paid more attention to the amount.  But they were delicious.  My friend, who spends a lot of time in Paris, loved them. And a few went to Mr. Kim’s office where they were duly swooned over.  Thank you so much, Paula!

 

Our last dessert was my friend’s contribution – his grandmother’s sour cream poundcake:

Rich and dense, this was delicately scented with orange peel and was one of the best poundcakes I’ve ever tasted.  I’ve been promised the recipe.

[keychris]

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

 

 

still tasted pretty darned good

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Beth – would you please consider sharing the recipe for the candied fig cheesecake.  They are now my 3 favorite words  .

 

But of course!  I'm a lazy bum and don't candy my own figs, but I seem to recall that you do.  This is a dead-easy dessert provided you've got enough time to let it cool before you top it, and overnight for the topping to set up.

 

The Cake (make a graham-cracker bottom crust for it)

 

500g soft cream cheese

500g pressed ricotta

1 C sugar

3-4 eggs (the number depends on the size of your eggs and how creamy vs lumpy your cheese mix is.  The lumpier, the more eggs)

1 tsp vanilla

5-6 candied figs, chopped coarsely

 

In the mixer, blend the cheeses and sugar until the mixture is looking fairly homogenous.  Add the vanilla and eggs, and beat until smooth.  Fold in the figs.  Pour into a greased and floured springform with a graham-cracker base crust, then bake at 325 F for 1 hour.

 

If you want this to be even figgier, you can add some of the fig syrup to the batter as well.  I've found that it's not strictly necessary, though - the figs themselves will bleed into the cheese and suffuse it with figgy goodness.

 

The Topping

 

7-8 candied figs, chopped coarsely

About 125 mL of the syrup in which the figs were candied

A bit of water

2 sachets (2 tbsp) silver strength gelatine

 

Blend all that together until you've got a fairly thick paste.  Heat over very low heat until it smooths out, then pour over the cheesecake.  Allow at least 2 hours to set, preferably overnight.

[Anna N]

HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

 

 

still tasted pretty darned good

I do hope Houston is more awake than me. I stared at this for ages suspecting you of being one of those obnoxious perfectionists who point out a fault as bait for a compliment. Damn. Don't ya hate it when things spring a leak!

[emmalish]

emmalish – I love the look of those chocolate cut outs.  How do they differ flavor-wise from the snaps?

 

Gosh Kim, I'm not sure. They both had good chocolate flavour, but I made them weeks apart from each other so I can't really compare. I guess you'll just have to try them 

 

That pecan pie looks delicious! I love that you use vodka in your crusts – I've never heard of that before. Why vodka? (I don't do pies often, so I'm not very experienced with crusts)

[rotuts]

not to steal Kim's crust, but something vague was buzzing in my mind about this:

 

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-review-vodka-pie-crust-68851

 

sure enough, Id seen it at the Test Kitchen

 

have not make it, but buzz buzz buzz as Alton Brown used to say ....

 

and w Pecans !

[Kim Shook]

Anna – I think that these muffins (below) would be good for your project!  Here’s the link to the recipe, if you’d like to try them: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/PASTRIES/CIs_Vodka_Pie_Crust.html

 

Beth – bless you, my dear!  Our friends who have all of the fig trees were here for lunch yesterday and said they would call us to come down when they were loaded.  I’ll be making one for us and one for them as soon as I candy the figs!

 

emmalish – thanks – I saved the recipe for the cut outs and will try them once my 300 cooky baking project is done (I really need to start that soon since the event is the 22^nd of this month  ).  Rotuts is right about the vodka and that article explained it better than I could!  It really is a wonderful crust.  I used it again yesterday to make a savory pie and just omitted the sugar.  It came out wonderfully.

 

We had friends over for lunch yesterday.  Dessert was a new recipe from BH&G for Cocoa Banana Muffins:

These were really good.  Just a cocoa muffin with a slice of banana stuck in the middle.  With just a third of a cup of brown sugar and a little drizzle of honey they weren’t overly sweet, but just enough.  

[Franci]

This was my favourite cookie growing up.

The pastry is not sweet, the same dough we use for taralli, so: flour, extra virgin olive oil and white wine (black pepper is sometimes used) and some salt. The filling is usually grape jam and walnuts (very thick and a little sour) or quince jam. Since I didn't have the grape jam I made a compote with raisins, it is a good enough substitute but still the jam would have been better.

 

 

[rotuts]

with out going into details

 

Franci's cookies are the Best Ever  ( Italian )

 

along with pretty much everything she cooks 

 

just saying.

 

[emmalish]

not to steal Kim's crust, but something vague was buzzing in my mind about this:

 

http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-review-vodka-pie-crust-68851

 

rotus, thank you so much for that! 

 

If I ever get around to making a pie, I'll give that a shot. Forwarding it to a friend of mine who's a big pie guy.

 

 

emmalish – thanks – I saved the recipe for the cut outs and will try them once my 300 cooky baking project is done (I really need to start that soon since the event is the 22^nd of this month  ).  Rotuts is right about the vodka and that article explained it better than I could!  It really is a wonderful crust.  I used it again yesterday to make a savory pie and just omitted the sugar.  It came out wonderfully.

 

300 cookie project? What's this?

[Franci]

 

Franci's cookies are the Best Ever  ( Italian )

 

along with pretty much everything she cooks 

 

just saying.

 

 

Rotuts, you are really kind, you made my day

[Kerry Beal]

with out going into details

 

Franci's cookies are the Best Ever  ( Italian )

 

along with pretty much everything she cooks 

 

just saying.

 

I second that!

[pquinene]

keychris – the orange caramel entremets looks and sounds fabulous.

 

Diana – that fraisier is beautiful and I would have loved that for Easter.

 

Beth – would you please consider sharing the recipe for the candied fig cheesecake.  They are now my 3 favorite words  .

 

jmacnaughtan – another incredibly beautiful fraisier! 

 

emmalish – I love the look of those chocolate cut outs.  How do they differ flavor-wise from the snaps?

 

Coconut cream pie that Mr. Kim’s mom requested for her Easter dinner:

 

This turned out very well.  My crust - CI’s vodka crust – was perfectly crisp and flakey.  Though my MIL made it clear that she thought that the vodka was an unnecessary affectation   . 

 

We had a friend of mine from way back in HS visiting us last weekend.  Dessert included Nick Malgieri’s Heart of Dixie pecan pie

 

I had to make a mid-crust panic call to my friend who originally gave me the recipe because my crust was WAY too dry, but a few sprinkles of vodka fixed it right up.

 

Second dessert was a gift to me from Pquinene.  I commented on how lovely her macarons were and she did an amazing and lovely thing – she sent me a whole boxful!  Along with the recipe for a coconut and strawberry cream filling and advice on how to store and how long to let sit after filling and before eating.  Thanks to her kindness, this is what I served:

Bite:

I think that I went a little skimpy on the cream.  Mr. Kim had to do the piping for me since my hands won’t handle it (YET, I hope) and I should have paid more attention to the amount.  But they were delicious.  My friend, who spends a lot of time in Paris, loved them. And a few went to Mr. Kim’s office where they were duly swooned over.  Thank you so much, Paula!

 

Our last dessert was my friend’s contribution – his grandmother’s sour cream poundcake:

Rich and dense, this was delicately scented with orange peel and was one of the best poundcakes I’ve ever tasted.  I’ve been promised the recipe.

Kim, I'm so glad you all enjoyed the macarons! OMG, I was wondering why I was not getting egullet notifications...and realized I had to "follow" again for the new "chapter." Your pies look amazing too!

[Kim Shook]

rotus, thank you so much for that! 

 

If I ever get around to making a pie, I'll give that a shot. Forwarding it to a friend of mine who's a big pie guy.

 

 

 

300 cookie project? What's this?

Our church is hosting a board meeting of our diocese's Episcopal Church Women.  We are serving breakfast, box lunch and sending them home with cooky bags.  I'm in charge of the food and am baking the cookies.  Maybe 100 ladies, so I'm thinking 300 cookies!  Yikes.  Getting started as soon as I get done with Mother's day.  I'm making your chocolate snaps and the stamped German shortbread cookies that I posted awhile back.

[rotuts]

3 / lady ?  those cookies wont make it out of the parking lot.

 

[andiesenji]

These are very mundane compared to the fancy cakes and cookies y'all are producing.

 

I had some dough left over from making bread several days ago. It has been "resting" in the fridge.
This morning I awakened it, allow it to warm up a bit, rolled it out and applied a mixture of cinnamon and sugar and chopped pecans, rolled it up, cut into segments and into a baking pan on a thin layer of brown sugar. Allowed rise until doubled in size then into the oven.
Very nice with coffee. Tea would work too...

 

[emmalish]

Our church is hosting a board meeting of our diocese's Episcopal Church Women.  We are serving breakfast, box lunch and sending them home with cooky bags.  I'm in charge of the food and am baking the cookies.  Maybe 100 ladies, so I'm thinking 300 cookies!  Yikes.  Getting started as soon as I get done with Mother's day.  I'm making your chocolate snaps and the stamped German shortbread cookies that I posted awhile back.

 

Kim, you bake so much that just sounds like a normal week for you! 

[merstar]

I did two of my favorite quick breads - Cinnamon Swirl and Dark Chocolate.

[Anna N]

Two more loaves of banana bread. This time one will go home with my number 2 son after dinner tonight and the other is headed to my friend's elderly Dad.

[Franci]

Galettes bretonnes

Zaletti with fine cornmeal and raisins

[Ann_T]

Finally got around to picking some rhubarb from the garden.

 

 

My favourite pie - pure rhubarb.

[Anna N]

Galettes bretonnes

image.jpg

Zaletti with fine cornmeal and raisins

image.jpg

Franci

Both cookies look delicious but I am particularly interested in the galettes bretonnes. I have googled them but the recipes are all over the place. Can you share the recipe you used? Thanks.

[Anna N]

Malt loaf with gigantic raisins. It is delicious but so puny! I have asked for clues in another topic as to its lack of height.