Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2015 – 2016)

[Patrick S]

4 hours ago, Toliver said:

Patrick S,

Your Nutella Brioche Flower looks far better than the one shown in the original recipe you linked to. I am sure the glaze helps with that but yours looks like it rose more and ended up more golden. Good job! 

How did it taste?

 

Thank you so much, Toliver! I've been trying to step up my bread game since this past winter, and over the past month or so I've been particularly interested in mastering viennoiserie (hence the danish braid and the Nutella flower). I should have posted a different recipe - the one I linked to above actually uses a simpler forming technique.  This Youtube video shows the technique I actually used. For the first rise, I let the dough rise covered in the fridge overnight (most recipes just call for an hour at warm room temperature). The second rise before baking was about one hour, again longer than what I see in most recipes. For the egg wash, I've found that using 1 egg+1 egg yolk+1t water gives much darker and (to me) more appealing color than the other alternatives. And I apply the egg wash very liberally. For the danishes, I actually applied the wash twice - once after forming, and again right before baking. The taste was great, and packed quite the Nutella punch, which I suppose is no surprise since I used almost the whole jar.

[Patrick S]

4 hours ago, oli said:

What a talented individual you are.

 

Thank you, oli! I am so grateful to have the eGullet community to share these projects, these mini-adventures, with.

[rotuts]

thank you for the ref. to the YouTube vid.

 

makes me wonder how the world got anything done before Y.T.

[oli]

Thanks for the YouTube, otherwise i wouldn't even try it. Now, I just haveto make some time.

I've always admired you're photography for a long time.

Edited March 22, 2016 by oli (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

17 hours ago, rotuts said:

thank you for the ref. to the YouTube vid.

 

makes me wonder how the world got anything done before Y.T.

 

We apprenticed ourselves to master pastry chefs and toiled in hot kitchens for poor pay but good coffee….  (At least, that's how I did it.  If I never have to make and fill another paté-choux, I will be a happy girl.)

[rustwood]

A while back I watched a different star bread video and was delighted with how my first try came out.  It wasn't up to par with Patrick's beautiful work, but it was pretty darn good for a first try.  Everyone was so impressed by it - even though it was actually far easier to make than it looked (to me at least).  The second time I made it I got cocky and rushed through it.  It definitely wasn't as nice looking to my eye, but it seemed to wow my guests just as much as the first one had.  Of course it doesn't hurt that it is a very tasty recipe (cheese and herb star bread from Food52).  I wish I had a whole menu of recipes like that one - tasty dishes that look impressive but aren't actually all that difficult to make.

[cakewalk]

Hamantaschen season is in the works. Every year I swear I'll never make them again, but you see where that gets me. I made the prune filling (which wasn't all that great), for the others I used apricot jam and Trader Joe's Cocoa Almond Spread. The cocoa almond spread was by far the best. Happy Purim!

 

[cakewalk]

Hot cross buns. Happy Easter!

Edited March 26, 2016 by cakewalk
Reduce size of photos (log)

[pjm333]

Apple tarte tatin !

[ChocoMom]

On 3/20/2016 at 9:32 AM, ElainaA said:

This defines "food porn". I wanted to lick the screen. 

 

I second that emotion.  Or desire. Or whatever it is..... Wiping drool off the computer now....

 

Lovely piece of art, Patrick. Just lovely!  

[shain]

Purim was a couple of days ago and I planed on making Hamantaschen (Oznei Haman = Ears of Hamman). But I got short on time and decided to skip the more traditional shaping method. I spread the poppy seed filling over the dough and rolled it into a log then sliced it into spirals.

The sough is a shortcrust pastry with ground toasted almonds, orange zest and vanilla. The filling is ground poppy seeds, milk, orange zest and a little cognac. It is important to ground the poppy seeds using a roller mill, as blade grinders don't work well for it. For this reason I buy it from the local grocery, which keeps a 60 years old grinder used just for this purpose.

 

 

 

Below is a photo from one year ago.

 

 

Edited to add a photo of the old machine:

Edited March 27, 2016 by shain (log)

[Patrick S]

Ispahan croissants, based on Pierre Herme's recipe. Inside croissant is a small baton of raspberry and lychee gelee set with low-acyl gellan, and a thin layer of rose-infused almond paste. Finished with some simple icing and a garnish of crushed dried raspberries. My croissant forming needs a little more work, but these tasted great and have good eyeball appeal.

[Patrick S]

16 hours ago, ChocoMom said:

 

I second that emotion.  Or desire. Or whatever it is..... Wiping drool off the computer now....

 

Lovely piece of art, Patrick. Just lovely!  

 

Thank you so much!

[rotuts]

Im not much of a baker, so perhaps my views are suspect.

 

in my defense, im an Exceptional Baked Goods Eater.  Nothing like the aromas one encounters going into a Bakery :  yeast, honey, sugar, cinnamon  etc

 

It doesn't need to be in France, but, well, .....

 

they are so many accomplished bakers on this thread. If we separate out the Bread-ies  ( crusty folks them ) from the Goo-ies   [ed.: Goo-ies = someone who bakes patisserie]

 

@Patrick S   

 

you are right up there at the head of the pack.

 

pleased I am that Aromas have not reached the WWW ( yet )

[jmacnaughtan]

It's not Easter without chocolate, so I made a chocolate cake.

 

Chocolate Orange Cake

 

 

Orange cake (soaked with orange, vodka and Pousse Rapière)

Orange curd

Chocolate mousse

Glazes

[Tri2Cook]

2 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

It's not Easter without chocolate, so I made a chocolate cake.

 

Chocolate Orange Cake
 

Orange cake (soaked with orange, vodka and Pousse Rapière)

Orange curd

Chocolate mousse

Glazes

Looks good... as always. Sounds tasty... also as always.

[RWood]

I didn't go traditional Easter, but this is the special for this weekend: Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cake.

Brownie base, chocolate cremeaux, peanut butter mousse and salted peanut brittle.

 

[pastryani]

Birthday cupcakes for a friend - chocolate cupcakes with mocha frosting.

 

 

[ChocoMom]

Due to the absence of mixers. beaters, and other proper tools for baking and cake decorating, I had to do everything by hand. So, things came out a little more, uh, shall we say, rustic.    Hence, the purposeful exclusion of photos.  So, I will describe instead:

Kids dessert....Peepcakes.   Chocolate cupcakes, iced, topped with green coconut and speckled jelly beans. And,  a Peep Chicken stuck on top of the "eggs" . My niece and nephews live for sugar, so this was perfect for them. 

Grownups desserts... 4 layer cake. White chocolate cake with lemon zest, lemon curd, another layer, raspberry filling, another layer, lemon curd, top layer..thinly iced, plus thin icing on sides. Made a white chocolate ganache, poured over the whole thing. Decor... beat the heck out of an egg white. Coated 1/2 pint of fresh raspberries with it, the rolled in granulated sugar and set to dry. Did all this Saturday evening.  Sunday afternoon, before dinner, I plucked nearly every mint leaf off my little plant, and placed them evenly around the cake in groups. Plus a larger set in the center. Using the sugar-coated berries, and some fresh berries, did little bunches all around the cake. The leftover berries made a lovely boarder around the base of the cake. 

While the finished product was not up to my usual visual standards, my brother in law claims it was one of the best desserts I ever made.  Adding lemon zest into the cake batter was key.  

On my list of things to replace from the house fire: The KitchenAid. Wilton cake pans, off set spatulas, cake decorating set, spinner table, and cooling racks.  Working with only a wooden spoon, a fork, and no cooling racks was a bit of a challenge. Post fire, I am beginning to find more things I took forgranted.  It is, however, profitable for learning to improvise.

[Patrick S]

Wanted to keep it simple for Easter dessert and make something the little ones would enjoy (rose-lychee not being among their favorites, those weirdos). Glazed some with vanilla, and some with a Callebaut dark chocolate glaze.

[keychris]

 

This is our traditional easter cake

[rajoress]

Lovely photos everyone - some gorgeous stuff on this thread. Here was my small addition to Easter dessert - chocolate dipped mini cream puffs and chocolate cookies ala petit ecolier (those wonderful biscuits topped with molded chocolate!). Thanks for looking!

Ruth

 

Edited March 29, 2016 by rajoress (log)

[rajoress]

Edited March 30, 2016 by rajoress
sorry for the duplicate....! (log)

[shain]

Chocolate and cinnamon babka with a toasted hazelnuts topping.

[Franci]

I'm not sure if this should go on dessert or breads. I was trying the Italian cornetti recently with problems of butter leaking. I think I know what was my problem...under proofing.

 

I made these "triangoli" alla marmellata of master Omar Busi. Mine didn't hold the shape as nicely as his and I'm usually hyper critical with myself, but this time OMG! The flavor and texture, I am so pleased with my result.