Your Daily Sweets: What Are You Making and Baking? (2016 – 2017)

[shain]

Plum tarts. One with crumble topping and the other with a lattice. I felt that my lattice work was somewhat sloppy, so I scattered some almonds that I wanted to use up, to do some distraction. Both made with hot water dough (David Lebovitz recipe)

 

[Patrick S]

4 hours ago, JohnT said:

@Patrick S, just to get a bit of perspective on your Vanilla Cream Hemispheres, what is the diameter and thickness of your Sablé Breton bases. 

 

Thank you,  John! The bases are just over 3" in diameter, and about 0.3" thick. I baked them in small tart rings.

[Smithy]

2 hours ago, Patrick S said:

 

Thank you,  John! The bases are just over 3" in diameter, and about 0.3" thick. I baked them in small tart rings.

 

They really look delicious. The flakiness of the bases made me think you'd cut the dough with something circular, the way one might cut biscuit dough. I didn't know they'd actually been baked in the rings.  Thank you for that information.

[curls]

@shain looks like we were on the same wave length today! I baked a pruimentaart (plum pie) with prune plums.

[Patrick S]

18 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

They really look delicious. The flakiness of the bases made me think you'd cut the dough with something circular, the way one might cut biscuit dough. I didn't know they'd actually been baked in the rings.  Thank you for that information.

I actually did both. Cut it with a circle cutter and then baked in the rings!

[Patrick S]

My daughter wanted to work with me in the kitchen, and wanted something cheesecakey, so we made some simple blondies with cheesecake layering, and threw in some Caramelia chocolate as well. I used the leftover Sable for a crust.

Edited August 7, 2016 by Patrick S (log)

[rarerollingobject]

This was a Concorde cake I made a little while ago for a colleague's farewell, reminded of it by @kriz6912's beautiful example. It's really such a stunner of a cake, and easy enough too, once you get the hang of your oven's treatment of meringue.

 

[ElsieD]

22 hours ago, Chocolot said:

9 minutes ago, rarerollingobject said:

This was a Concorde cake I made a little while ago for a colleague's farewell, reminded of it by @kriz6912's beautiful example. It's really such a stunner of a cake, and easy enough too, once you get the hang of your oven's treatment of meringue.

 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

16 hours ago, Smithy said:

@rarerollingobject, that is exquisite detail in the piping. At first I thought those were real cornflowers next to the roses for size comparison. 

 

 

 

Me too! Only I was thinking bachelor's buttons. Stunning work, @rarerollingobject!

[keychris]

 

 

 

Hot Chocolate Tart from Kirsten Tibballs' new book, "Chocolate".

 

[rarerollingobject]

And this was Weekend Cooking Project #2; giant, colossal, freaking stupid-huge meringues; pistachio, chocolate chunk, pomegranate syrup and freeze-dried raspberry. Each the size of a baby's head, but tastier!

 

I have all my work team hopped on sugar.

 

[shain]

Made a favorite of mine - knaffe.

It's made out of Kadaif - thin noodles made from a lean and dry dough (much like philo). A pan is buttered generously and layered with the kadaif. Then a layer of a certain cheese, preferably from goat milk, which it is somewhere between fresh mozzarella and feta or hallumi in terms of texture. A second layer of kadaif. The pan is heated until the noodles are crisp, then flipped to crisp the other side. The cheese melts to a slightly elastic and slightly chewy texture. Then a generous drizzle of sugar syrup (often flavored with rose or citrus blossoms). A scatter of pistachios to finish it.

 

 

It is more common to buy it from vendors. They make a huge plate, and slice a heavy portion - hot, syrupy and greasy (in all the right ways). It's nice, but I more often find it a bit too much.
I make mine with much less syrup, so it's more crisp and less sweet (and also free from colors).

This time Iv'e added some very nontraditional figs (both on top and inside), and decided to chop the pistachio, instead of grinding it (for some crunch).

 

[rajoress]

Some beautiful baked items showcased here! Here is my latest - a beach themed birthday cake that had to drive 90 miles in the heat - luckily the humidity wasn't too bad! Design from iambaker.com.

Ruth

[blue_dolphin]

On a much more homely note... the ubiquitous Marian Burros Torte recipe with little fresh figs instead of plums and a sprinkle of toast dope.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

 

15 hours ago, rajoress said:

Some beautiful baked items showcased here! Here is my latest - a beach themed birthday cake that had to drive 90 miles in the heat - luckily the humidity wasn't too bad! Design from iambaker.com.

Ruth

 

Are those very realistic starfish also edible? If so, very cool, and very nice work either way. Glad your beautiful creation survived the 90 mile drive in the heat.

[rajoress]

@Thanks for the CrepesThanks so much for your nice compliment! I have perfect chocolate molds for starfish and shells but we've been in the middle of a hot humid summer and drought so my chocolate making equipment hasn't seen the light of day since the spring. I found these at a craft store along with some real ones that I almost purchased by mistake! Of course these were in a bag of 6 so now I have extras if anyone needs them....

Thanks again!

Ruth

[Gunnsr42]

looks amazing. Nice job. 

[rarerollingobject]

Cupcakes, with which to practice ma piping skills. 

[Patrick S]

Dacqouise baked in a frame, covered with feuilletine, Caramelia ganache, and a modified version of Herme's deep chocolate cream. 

[Jim D.]

Patrick,

Like all your creations, that looks fantastic.  Do you have room in your house for another person?  And how do you stay looking like your photo with all these temptations?

[Patrick S]

14 hours ago, Jim D. said:

Patrick,

Like all your creations, that looks fantastic.  Do you have room in your house for another person?  And how do you stay looking like your photo with all these temptations?

 

Thank you, Jim! There's always room for one more. I sample everything I make, several times, but try to resist the urge to go crazy with portions. Occasionally I fail epically, and eat 3 kouign amann, or something like that, right in a row. I go to the gym about 4 nights a week, which helps balance it out. If I didn't do that, I'd probably have some big trouble.

[shain]

For a lack of better thread, I think it's close enough of being called a sweet:

Granola of oats toasted in a little butter with almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, raisins, poppy seeds, millet, a little brown sugar (I don't like overly sweet granola). + egg whites to help it clump together a little.

 

 

I usually have granola over yogurt with apple cubes, but since the apples are not at their best over this time of year, I guess I'll opt for nectarines, or maybe grapes.

Edited August 16, 2016 by shain
Pics were to big (log)

[Chris Ward]

Wow, some very handsome patisseries here - they make my buns look positively boring.

These are pretty similar to the buns I used to get from my school tuck shop back in the 1970s. Very moorish.

Recipe here:

https://eatsleepcookschool.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/brioche-buns/   

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I was planning on baking tonight, but I was going to make cookies. My nephew and his girlfriend, wife-to-be next month, will make one of their rare and much anticipated visits tomorrow. Since my brother wants to go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant with everyone who is coming, I knew I'd have time on my hands tonight and planned to make cookies the "kids" (they are both in their mid-twenties) could take with them. I figured we'd all be too full from the restaurant experience to eat dessert, but cookies are easily transportable and people their age burn calories like a furnace. Especially when they're in the military like they both are. They are always having fitness tests they have to pass and have to stay in great shape for them.

 

Well my brother called, after dinner tonight and finally told me where he wanted to eat tomorrow and asked me to make a birthday cake for his son. I was a bit annoyed at the late notice, because the nephew's birthday was last month, and I wasn't anticipating it. I agreed to shift gears and bake a birthday cake without saying a word about the late notice. My brother is well aware I have no car and can't just run out anytime and shop for ingredients, so he offered to bring me ingredients tomorrow. This would be too late, as the only time I had to bake was tonight. I used what I had on hand on hand.

 

I made a yellow cake with a cocoa marble made with part of the batter swirled through it. I made it in this Nordic Ware Christmas Wreath bundt pan, which would be totally inappropriate for a belated birthday cake except for one thing. My nephew gave the pan to me for Christmas a few years ago on one of his rare visits, and I have never made him a cake in it. Don't know when I'll get another chance either, as he has a lot going on in his life, and I have no way to travel. He hasn't visited at Christmas since he gave the pan to me. I was afraid the sort of intricate design would stick in the pan, but I had no trouble at all releasing it intact after cooling in a bit in the pan.

 

This was the first cake I have cooked in my 1970's GE electric oven in years after it finally got a working thermostat. Edited to clarify: I have made other cakes in the broken oven without a thermostat, but it is beyond challenging. It requires an oven thermometer, a timer and much diligence. God, I love my working thermostat!

 

This cake came out very well, I think. I glazed it with a dark chocolate glaze made from 2 oz. unsweetened  chocolate, a cup confectioners sugar, a t. vanilla, salt that the recipe did not call for (but I think makes the taste of the glaze) and enough boiling water for consistency. Second edit: there were also 3 T butter melted with the chocolate for the glaze. 

 

I stuck a plastic pick I had that says "Happy Birthday" in it and put five birthday candles in it for the five of his 25 years. I thought about some multi-colored non-pareils I had in the pantry, which always says birthday to me, but I do not appreciate their hard crunchiness disrupting the texture of a cake. I keep them for sugar cookies which are already a bit hard and crunchy.

 

Sorry I have no picture, but like the car, and a cell phone, or any sort of camera, I just don't have a lot of things. I do have a lot of love for my nephew, though, and I hope my homemade, and homely cake conveys that. 

 

 

Edited August 17, 2016 by Thanks for the Crepes (log)

[rajoress]

@Thanks for the Crepes That's a lovely story and I'm sure the birthday boy will love the wreath cake!! :-)