Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2015)

[cakewalk]

Those are beautiful. Did you use a cookie press? Or were you able to pipe them? I wanted to make them and tried piping, but they wouldn't budge. I tried adding a tablespoon or so of milk, still wouldn't budge. They're not quite the same when they're just dropped onto a cookie sheet. I guess I will have to break down and buy a cookie press.

Almond butter cookies to take to a friend's house. I'm always on the lookout for that elusive recipe for Italian bakery style cookies! These were good but a different texture than the bakery ones. 

 

Love all the pics on this thread!

Ruth

[rajoress]

Thanks Cakewalk! Those were piped with a couple of different star tips. The dough is tough but once it warms up from your hands, it gets a little easier to pipe (but definitely a workout in the beginning!)

[Franci]

Almond butter cookies to take to a friend's house. I'm always on the lookout for that elusive recipe for Italian bakery style cookies! These were good but a different texture than the bakery ones. 

 

 

I don't know how Italian American bakery do, I'm not familiar with their recipe. But the one with the candied cherry are very typical in my area and in Sicily but there is no butter in there, at least in the one I know: it's just almond flour, eggwhites and sugar.

I also use frolla montata (whipped pasta frolla, with soft butter) to make cookies with a similar shape but no almond flour.

[Kim Shook]

CP – beautiful chocolate yogurt cake.  I make a ‘cheater’ (starting with a mix) strawberry yogurt cake and I really like what the addition of yogurt does to the texture.

 

Anna – I love the look of that double ginger cake.  Great texture.  Mr. Kim is a ginger lover and I’m sure he’d like that.  You seem to be gravitating to ginger lately.  You might like these cookies: http://www.recipecircus.com/recipes/Kimberlyn/COOKIES/Three-Ginger_Cookies.html

 

Kerry – those cakes were amazing.  I’d love to sit and watch someone create one of those!

 

We ended up with a huge box of Rice Krispies.  I’m tired of them and can’t buy a different cereal until I make room for it.  So I made a batch of Peanut Butter Rice Krispy treats to use them up:

Took a few next door, will keep a couple and the rest will go to work with Mr. Kim tomorrow.

[Anna N]

Kim,

Thanks very much for the link to the recipe.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Hey Kim,

 

I love homemade Rice Krispies treats, but never tried them with peanut butter. The husband would appreciate them probably more than I would.

 

I just don't like the frantic scramble to get the mixing and spreading done before the marshmallow mixture sets up and becomes unworkable. It's a matter of seconds.

 

I've always made it in time (barely), but I prefer cooking without adrenaline.  I'd never make it in a professional kitchen. 

[Darienne]

Love those Rice Krispie Squares made with cayenne in them.  Delicious and different.

[ChocoMom]

Mmmmm..... Nothing like Rice Krispie Treats to awaken the child inside me. I love those things!   Just for fun and variety, I've made them using Cocoa Krispies and added Reeses PB chips to them. Those were mighty tasty.

 

I've not tried them with spices or savory flavors, though. The addition of cayenne sounds very interesting. I wonder what cheddar and garlic would taste like in there, too...   Well, it seems that now is time to add a couple inches to the waistline and go experiment.    If it turns out poorly, the chickens and turkeys will devour the remains. Gotta love those little buggers!  Thanks for the idea!

[tinyragebaking]

Rice Krispie Treats are super tasty! I love how fun they are as a sweet treat.  They're also super easy to add different flavors! 

I finished fiddling with another Momofuku Milk Bar cookie recipe, the Blueberries and Cream.  I reduced each the sugars a tiny bit, added lemon zest and grapefruit juice to the milk crumb.  Omitted the dried blueberries and just threw in 1 TB of chopped rosemary instead: 



It's just barely set because the Mr. prefers gooey, chewy cookies.  I'm pleased with how it came out! 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

ChocoMom!

 

The next time I get my adrenaline jones on, I'm using Cocoa Krispies, but no PB chips.

 

I love Cocoa Krispies. Why didn't I ever think of this?

 

Thank YOU for the idea!

[emmalish]

Mmmmm..... Nothing like Rice Krispie Treats to awaken the child inside me. I love those things!   Just for fun and variety, I've made them using Cocoa Krispies and added Reeses PB chips to them. Those were mighty tasty.

 

I love making them by melting chocolate with the marshmallows. Unfortunately, then I want to eat the whole pan by myself. 

[ChrisTaylor]

 

For some strange reason I decided to make fudge. And, hey, Donald Link's book was right there. Peanut butter fudge. There you go. Only I, as someone who has never made fudge, decided to make a few improvements:

• Took him up on his suggestion to cut back on the amount of sugar, considering I don't like really sweet desserts. A total 4 cups of sugar was scaled back to barely 3.
• A slug of bourbon went in because ... why not?
• I dusted it with a little flaky sea salt in addition to the crunched up peanuts.
• In addition to dusting it with crunched-up peanuts I also threw a few into the fudge mixture.

 

Thoughts:

• It's still really, really, really fucking sweet. I reckon I'd die if I ate it with the original 4 cups of sugar and a sweeter, American-style peanut butter. I'd just die.
• The bourbon made the fudge smell awesome when it was simmering but the flavour/aroma died off during the setting stage. That's a shame. It's almost like a problem that can only be solved with more bourbon.
• The peanuts I bought weren't very good (local nut shop changed hands a few months ago and the quality of products and service deteriorated significantly overnight). It'd be nice to have a kick of fresh roasted peanut on top.
• I wonder how little sugar I can put in while still getting it to set.

[Tri2Cook]

Looks good. I don't think I can help you with your quest to make candy with less sugar though. That just seems a bit like trying to make a steak with less meat to me. Candy is pretty much sugar with assorted textures and flavors. Sugar is it's base unit of existence.

Edited January 24, 2015 by Tri2Cook (log)

[tinyragebaking]

The fudge does look good! I think fudge in general is just super saccharine sweet. I've tried to make fudge as well from multiple recipes as well and just still found it too much for my tastes.  Maybe something like this might be more in line with what your looking for? 

[ChocoMom]

That fudge looks fantastic!  I can't help you with the sugar issue, but the bourbon - maybe.   I make a couple different confections using honey bourbon. For one of them, I soak the nut pieces in the bourbon for a few hours- or days  - and then slowly dry/roast them in the oven. The honey component gives the nuts a nice shine, once done. And, the nuts retain the bourbon flavor well. Probably doesn't have to be honey bourbon, but I like shiny things- and I go with the honey version.

 

So, maybe on your next go-round with this, try using some drunk nuts in the fudge and crush a few to dust with. If you don't do the fudge again, make the nuts anyway. They're quite tasty once they're salted.

 

Andrea

[Franci]

Crepes made from leftover cookies using much more milk than indicated in the recipe

http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/2013/12/ohcrepes.html

Edited January 27, 2015 by Franci (log)

[Anna N]

Franci,

I truly admire how often you push the envelope! "Leftover cookies" would have left me scratching my head.

[jmacnaughtan]

"Left-over cookies".

 

I don't understand this term.

[Franci]

"Left-over cookies".

 

I don't understand this term.

 

Ah. ah, it's a better way to say: stale cookies? I bought come chocolate cookies that my children didn't want to eat, plus there were some lemon cookie crumbles, plus a little bit of vanilla cookies that also are not being eaten fast enough.

 

Another way I use up old cookies is an Umbrian cake, crescionda, looks like one of that popular magic cakes, but my children don't like that kind of cakes...so crepes.

[rajoress]

I had a snow day due to the blizzard of 2015 and made these pinwheel sables from Cooks Illustrated baking book. Lovely sandy texture.. Thanks for looking!

Ruth

[FrogPrincesse]

Pecan brownie and eggnog ice cream.

 

 

[jmacnaughtan]

Ah. ah, it's a better way to say: stale cookies? I bought come chocolate cookies that my children didn't want to eat, plus there were some lemon cookie crumbles, plus a little bit of vanilla cookies that also are not being eaten fast enough.

 

Another way I use up old cookies is an Umbrian cake, crescionda, looks like one of that popular magic cakes, but my children don't like that kind of cakes...so crepes.

[Franci]

 

 

The crescionda looks interesting- do you have a recipe you'd be willing to share?

 

The only tested recipe I have is this:

 

CRESCIONDA

4 eggs,

100 g butter melted

50 g cocoa

lemon zest

120 g sugar

300 g pulverized dry amaretti

210 g pulverized cookies (petit beurre)

1 teaspoon baking powder

500 ml milk

butter and flour to dust the mold (24 cm)

 

Preheat the oven at 180C. Whip eggs and sugar. Add the liquified cold butter, add the shifted cocoa and lemon zest. Add the milk and to finish the pulverized cookies and baking powder. Bake about 40 minutes

 

My crescionda it's pretty dense but I don't recall the neat 3 layers that I've seen in some pictures.

 

The recipe for the picture I linked comes from a cooking forum where a lot of people tried it. Very different than the recipe I followed. 

 

4 eggs

8 amaretti pulvirezed

40 g petit beurre pulverized

3 tablespoons sugar

2 rounded tablespoons flour

500 ml milk

100 g grated dark chocolate (or 2 tablespoons cocoa powder)

a pinch cinnamon, lemon zest, a small glass of rum and a pinch of salt.

People suggested the 24 cm tin and everybody seems to like more with chocolate than cocoa. Also they separated the eggs and whipped the whites. Surely more custardy than mine.

I'll have to try it.

[jmacnaughtan]

The only tested recipe I have is this:

 

 

 

Both of them look interesting, I'll have to give them a go.  Thanks for those!

[emmalish]

Pecan brownie and eggnog ice cream.

 

 

That sounds amazing! I want this for lunch...