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

[Franci]

Today I made for my father one of his favourite cookies, a biscotto from Ceglie Messapica. An almond shell with jam filling

 

[Franci]

Today we opened 2 different pistachio cakes I made yesterday to compare them. The one with the ground pistachio on the rim wins for everybody. Really nice and  fondant.

 

 

 

[Franci]

Ciambella a pasta dura with raisins and candied orange peel.

 

 

 

 

[oli]

Ciambella a pasta dura with raisins and candied orange peel.

 

ciambella a pasta dura 1.JPG

 

ciambella a pasta dura 2.JPG

I wonder what that looks like when sliced?

Boy you are such a busy body, a true energizer bunny.

Edited July 26, 2015 by oli (log)

[curls]

Peach & plum tart with almond cream (based on recipe in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook). Not the most photogenic tart but it was very tasty.  :-)

 

[Franci]

I wonder what that looks like when sliced?

Boy you are such a busy body, a true energizer bunny.

 

I'm not normally so productive but I'm taking advantage of this month of rest in order to try new things.

 

I'm sorry I didn't take a picture of the inside of the ciambella, it's gone but here is the same cake, where it has been used chocolate instead of candied orange (I like this better, it's more the taste of panettone for me). This version is a little richer but also often you can buy in store plain with sugar in grains (that I cannot find in the USA, only a little coarser belgian sugar but not this one).

 

Yesterday I had some relatives visiting so I made Christophe Michalak's frantastik fraise/pistache. I think the French use a pate de pistache which is done with caramelized pistache, almond etc...I used a pure Bronte pistachio cream so overall for me this cake was very intense, I should have reduced the quantity of pistachio. The base is a pate sablee, then a biscuit trocadero pistache, I replaced the strawberry pure with pectin with Rigoni d'Asiago strawberry jam, then white chocolate pistache chantilly, caramelized bronte pistachios, strawberries

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2015 by Franci (log)

[Shelby]

Fresh peach and blueberry pie.  

 

[Anna N]

Franci

I gained 10 lbs just looking at photos of your strawberry/pistachio confection. It looks incredibly rich but I love strawberries and pistachios.

[Franci]

Franci

I gained 10 lbs just looking at photos of your strawberry/pistachio confection. It looks incredibly rich but I love strawberries and pistachios.

Anna, look at the video of the Kosmik strawberry pistachio, I think it looks very nice. Ah, so, by watching the video I've discovered they use the same pistachio cream I used, so it's supposed to be intense.

Edited July 27, 2015 by Franci (log)

[Franci]

Savoiardi or biscuits a la cuillere

 

 

[Franci]

Today I made something typical from Bologna: pinza bolognese. It belongs to the same family of ciambella a pasta dura. In Emilia the simple ciambella is called "brazadela" and it is traditionally dipped in wine. This recipe comes from pastry chef Omar Busi. This recipe compared to my usual is more buttery, sweeter and more tender...that's the tendency of pastry chefs. The filling is usually mostarda bolognese, not to be confused with mostarda mantovana or cremonese.

 

 

Edited July 30, 2015 by Franci (log)

[kayb]

Franci, that strawberry pistachio dessert is simply gorgeous.

 

I have lots of fresh peaches, so I made a peach kuchen.

 

 

 

Very good, although the recipe called for baking an hour at 350, and this was after about 45 minutes. Slightly overcooked.

[JohnT]

Franci, that strawberry pistachio dessert is simply gorgeous.

 

I have lots of fresh peaches, so I made a peach kuchen.

 

peach tart done.jpg

 

Very good, although the recipe called for baking an hour at 350, and this was after about 45 minutes. Slightly overcooked.

kayb, interesting about being slightly overcooked after 45 minutes. Do you know how old the recipe is that you used and what type of oven did you bake in - conventional, fan assisted or convection?

[kayb]

kayb, interesting about being slightly overcooked after 45 minutes. Do you know how old the recipe is that you used and what type of oven did you bake in - conventional, fan assisted or convection?

 

The recipe is on Food.com, so I have no idea how old it may be -- I would presume not terribly old. My oven is a conventional one, and in fact, cooks lower than the temp on the dial; I have to set it up a little higher than the called-for temp. I don't think it should have made any difference that I was roasting a chicken beside it, should it?

[Franci]

I tried another Paradiso cake, this time from Iginio Massari. It's a very good cake, very rich buttery and a little crumbly, a recipe in English if you are interested. . In my mind this is the equivalent in the cake world of what a Viennese whipped shortbread cookie is in the cookie world. I think American pound cake has a much tighter crumb (which is not necessary a bad thing, in fact that could also be my preference)

 

 

[Franci]

Finally a successful recipe for ricciarelli di Siena

 

 

 

and I made my usual hazelnut cake from Langhe, just because my parents never tried it

 

 

[suzilightning]

GOOD, sweet fresh peaches have arrived here in NW NJ.  I also have some blueberries from south Jersey and some wild raspberries that have volunteered in the yard this year. 

 

To start out I have a peach and blueberries kucken in the oven.  Tossed the fresh fruit with some toast dope and flour and dropped the amount of sugar in the base recipe. 

I'm going to make an old fashioned - well at least to my family - fruit steamed pudding with the raspberries and the last peach for dinner.  Hard sauce to go on top of it.

 

Found an interesting recipe for sweet cornmeal muffins with blueberries from Donna Bell's Bakery book.

[Franci]

Brutti ma buoni=ugly but good. Contrary to many recipes on line, in this case I've cooked the meringue, a little bit like nougat. I didn't have any thermometer and was such a small quantity that was very difficult to control, still true to their name.

 

[Darienne]

I've posted this dessert, Malva Pudding, before in the Foods from Africa forum.  Thanks again to the eG folks who helped me on that dinner.  I've made it again (for the fourth time) today, mainly to see how it freezes.  It says it freezes well.

To me it was a fascinating experience.  The cake is baked and then the syrup, about two cups, is poured over the top and each time I just stand there and watch this incredible amount of sugary liquid disappear into the cake.   I photographed the sequence this time.

Just out of the oven

Poured the syrup onto the cake and by the time I picked up the camera, much of it was already absorbed.

Most of the liquid has disappeared into the cake.

Success is mine.

 

Some time later, I opened the microwave to use it, and discovered the melted butter which was destined for the pudding was sitting there.  So, the pudding did not get frozen whole, but rather we had to have a goodly sample to make sure that it was still edible without said butter.  It was delicious. 

[Smithy]

Darienne, that is an amazing photo sequence. Thank you for posting it!

Franci, I hope your parents are duly impressed by your accomplishments. If I lived near you, I'd be hangin' 'round your doorstep like some perpetual trick-or-treater, hoping you had extras.

[Franci]

Darienne, that malva pudding looks delicious!

 

Smithy, I truly wish I could gift you with some of this production.

 

Last week I went to Milan to Medagliani, that is like the JBPrince of Italy. I got some molds: the classic amorpolenta mold, some fluted brioche molds that are used for torta jolanda in Lombardy and some zuccotto molds for Parrozzo, let's see if I can manage to experiment these recipes this week

 

 

Today I've tried the Amorpolenta Varese. While I really enjoyed the Amorpolenta Bergamo , I truly disliked this version from pastry chef Pina. It's too sweet, buttery and crumbly for my taste. The difference between the two cakes, besides the mold- the one you see in the following picture for the Varese cake and a zuccotto mold for the Bergamo version (this cake is used as the base for Polenta e osei-polenta and birds- the sweet version of this loved savory dish in Bergamo)- is in the  ingredients and technique. Both have finely milled corn flour though.

 

 

 

 

[Darienne]

Franci,  your current baking spree is simply wonderful and overwhelming.  What fun!  Watch out lest a gang of unruly and hungry eGers turn up knocking at your door! 

[Franci]

Darienne, thanks for your compliments. I wish I could send samples everywhere I have less then a week left and then I go back to normality. Still a couple days of more fun!

 

Today  I made savoiardi again. Savoiardi are really an obsession of mine, like amaretti, so difficult to get them right. I had the misfortune of having a roommate from Sardinia at University and I've been introduced to this wonderful thing that Sardinian Savoiardi are. Light, spongy, not gummy, melt in your mouth. I wish I could make those! They are a dream. 

Today I made these savoiardi, that are more like traditional fresh savoiardi (ladyfingers). I let them dry in the oven again after cooking, in order to get  a little drier and slightly crunchy cookie, like the industrial version, and not as soft as the fresh version. Result is that my parents really liked them very much after I let them dry  in the oven, they didn't like them as much soft.

 

 

[curls]

Enjoying peach season with a peach coffeecake.

 

[andiesenji]

Nothing so fancy for me. Just some homely cinnamon rolls (with raisins and pecans).  I used a bread machine recipe for Hawaiian Sweet bread with some almond flour substituted for some of the regular flour.

I let the bread machine do all the mixing, kneading, rising, until it was time to pull it, stretch and roll it and "fill" with cinnamon, sugar, pecans and some homemade raisins from jumbo seedless red flame grapes.

 

These are much "sturdier" than regular sweet roll dough and freeze beautifully.  And they are medium-large. That is a 15 inch pizza pan on which they are baked.

 

Also no egg wash.  I brushed the tops with a lot of melted butter and then sprinkled with more of the cinnamon/sugar mix.

 

Edited August 7, 2015 by andiesenji (log)