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

[Anna N]

Yorkshire tea cakes.

Split and toasted with lots of butter.

These would have been so much better if I had engaged my brain before pushing start on the Thermomix. I usually mix doughs for 30 seconds to a minute before starting the kneading process. Of course they don't usually contain dried fruit! Big fat raisins were reduced to flecks. Discoloured the dough too. Still tasted good.

[ninagluck]

@ Kim shook, recipe for pumpkin seed crisps:

3 egg whites

1 good pinch of salt

50 g sugar

100 g all purpose flower

100 g pumpkin seeds

 

beat egg whites with sugar and salt until stiff, put in the seeds and sift flour into mixture and fold in

bake in a greased, dusted loaf tin at 180°C for 25 min. take it out of the tin and let it cool. cut with a bread slicer into 2-3 mm slices

and bake for another 7-8 min.

 

enjoy with a glass of wine!

Edited May 20, 2014 by ninagluck (log)

[Kim Shook]

Andie – I’ll be trying that recipe.  I’ve only ever made the recipe with the sweetened condensed milk.  I love using Whip-it, but can’t always find it, so I’ve started using plain gelatin.

 

Nina – thank you so much for the recipe – I’ll try those soon.

 

300 Cookies for the Episcopal Church Women’s Board Meeting at our church on Thursday:

 

German shortbread (stamped):

 

Sprinkled:

 

Emma’s Chocolate Snaps:

Whew!  Now all I have to do is organize serving them breakfast, cooky snack, box lunches, sending them off with cooky bags and cleaning it all up (with a LOT of help – even Mr. Kim is over at the church tonight setting up tables with some other fellows).

[emmalish]

Oh my gosh, Kim, that's so impressive! I really love the look of the stamped shortbread. Where did you find something like that?

[andiesenji]

Kim, I buy the 30-pack units of Whipit at Smart & Final.  I use a lot - last year I got it from Amazon  (only ships to U.S.) 

essentially the same price as at S&F.  I'm sure there must be a supplier near you who carries it - my box has an expiration date in 2016 so it must be shelf-stable for an extended period.

[shubashuba]

I'm actually not sure if this belongs here, but the chocolate-centric thread is a bit intimidating...it's evident from the second pic that this isn't really showroom worthy, but I finally plucked up the courage to make chocolates! It's getting warm in the UK and I happened to find some cheap(ish) moulds, so I decided it's going to be now or never. I'm fairly happy with it, and it wasn't half as scary as I thought (to be fair, I imagined chocolate would drip all over the room so I pretty much covered up everything with newspaper and treated it like going to battle). It was probably easier because the molds are new...the filling was some homemade kaya (pandan coconut jam from Southeast Asia) that I had leftover. It's probably not ideal, but I never really paid attention to chocolate fillings before. It only occured to me after I made the base layer (i.e. the fun bits) that it probably needs some sort of structural integrity/keeping properties >.>

 

 

Edited May 21, 2014 by shubashuba (log)

[emmalish]

Welcome shubashuba! If it's a sweet and you made it? It's absolutely welcome here!

 

But seriously, I know what you mean about feeling intimidated by the skillz displayed in that thread, but they're the same friendly bunch that you see in this one. I don't make chocolates often (wow, it's actually been about five years now... how did that happen?), but I have posted in the chocolates thread a few times.

 

And they're all happy to help out with advice (if you want it). And there's also the "chocolates with that backroom finish" thread if you want to ease into things. That's more like where my stuff belongs. ;-)

 

Unfortunately your photos aren't showing in your post. I can see them by clicking on them though and I think your chocolates are looking great! And that filling sounds delicious. When you make a post here, if you click on the "more reply options" button on the bottom right, you'll also get the option to upload images from your computer and insert them in your post. Just let us know if you're having trouble with it and we'll help you figure it out.

[pjm333]

Frasier !

[merstar]

I made this with my own glaze. Excellent.

Lemon Loaf

http://www.dashofbutter.com/2014/05/19/copycat-starbucks-lemon-loaf/
 

[leonidas]

Frasier !

WoW....!!!!!! it looks great and i'm sure it tastes the same also....!!!!! 

 

Can you give please some info about the green layer...???

 

Thank youuuuu.....  

[jmacnaughtan]

Frasier !

 

I love Frasier!

 

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[pjm333]

The Green layer is green marzipan !

[jmacnaughtan]

I've been trying to incorporate melon into a dessert, so here's the first attempt: a melon and strawberry tart.

 

 

Pâte sucrée

Cantaloup confit

Strawberry meringue 

[Franci]

It looks very nice. I got stuck on the memory of a very nice melon tarte I tried many years ago and had to go and look for the recipe online http://aaaaccademiaaffamatiaffannati.blogspot.com/2007/07/rosa-di-melone.html

Edited May 26, 2014 by Franci (log)

[jmacnaughtan]

Thanks.  That's a gorgeous tart in the link.  I've been thinking about using slices, but I'm worried that there would be problems when cutting it.

 

Also, I've been trying to find a way to amplify the melon flavor.  This uses vanilla, lemon and sugar, cooked down gently with some pectin.  It's almost there, but is still a little bland.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Melon liqueur perhaps?

[Matthew Kirshner]

I made these cakes for a client recently. 

 

 

This is a Hazelnut Cake:  Vanilla sponge, Hazelnut cream filling, with Hazelnut buttercream, and a mirror ganache glaze.  She told me it must be very hazelnutty!!!  I acutlly made my own hazelnut paste for this and I believe it came out very well.

 

 

This is my version of a Strawberry Shortcake:  Vanilla Sponge, French Crème with sliced strawberries, Vanilla Buttercream and fresh dipping strawberry décor

[Tammi Townsley]

Wow after looking at these desserts, I feel sad saying my humble attempt last night was cream cheese cookies.  The cookies were a bit of a pain because they stuck to everything as soon as the dough warmed up.

[Tri2Cook]

Wow after looking at these desserts, I feel sad saying my humble attempt last night was cream cheese cookies.

Don't feel sad about that. Cookies are awesome.

 

[emmalish]

Wow after looking at these desserts, I feel sad saying my humble attempt last night was cream cheese cookies.  The cookies were a bit of a pain because they stuck to everything as soon as the dough warmed up.

 

I'm with Tri2Cook. Cookies are always welcome. (spoken as someone who rarely bakes anything else) 

[Smithy]

Wow after looking at these desserts, I feel sad saying my humble attempt last night was cream cheese cookies.  The cookies were a bit of a pain because they stuck to everything as soon as the dough warmed up.

As the others said, you can never go wrong with cookies. By the way: welcome to the eGullet forums!

[Tammi Townsley]

Thanks everyone!

 

My goal is to produce desserts that look "professional".    I will try to post pictures as my decorating skills improve.  it did make me wonder how professionals work with sticky dough like the cream cheese cookies which were supposed to be roll out cookies.  I know the recipe was a riff off of the Polish kolacziks which seem to be simply creamed cream cheese, butter and flour.  Any suggestions or recommendations?

 

Since I am new, I am limited to two posts a day, so if I am slow to respond, it's because of this limitation.  

[jmacnaughtan]

Matthew, what is French Crème?

 

Nice cakes, by the way.

[Matthew Kirshner]

Matthew, what is French Crème?

 

Nice cakes, by the way.

 

Thanks,  the French crème is hard for me to explain, when we develop this at my the bakery I worked at, my boss came home from France after meeting with an old friend.  How he explain was it is a very low grade French buttercream, but with the pastry cream made with mostly a water instead of milk or cream.  it is held together with mostly starch. after mixing on the stove we add 5% butter then beat the mixture with a paddle until chill.  According to the French baker, this is a good alternative to pastry cream that can has a longer shelf life.  Normally I would just make pastry cream, but being I did not want pastry cream to sit in the fridge, this is the best alternative.

[Kim Shook]

shubashuba – I like the look of your candies.  And pandan coconut jam filling sounds delicious!

 

pjm – that Frasier is lovely.

 

jmacnaughtan – your tart is just beautiful.  I love how you’ve formed the meringue.

 

Saturday night we had a little dinner party.  Dessert was coconut chocolate pound cake and Eton mess with lemon curd:

 

Isn’t that crumb gorgeous?

 

 

For the third year in a row, I made the cake for the website anniversary party for a young friend.  He requested that I not change one thing:

(Picture is from last year, but it looks just the same.) Chocolate Coca Cola cake with my fluffy white chocolate icing.  The symbol on top is made from homemade fondant and is supposed to be a “play” button.

 

We celebrated my mother’s birthday last night.  Last November one of our honorary nieces made a fantastic Reeses Cup cheesecake and my mother loved it and said that she wanted nothing but that for her birthday.  That’s what she got: