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

[FrogPrincesse]

@rarerollingobject Beautiful as usual!

 

(and I have to point out that this is not "my" ginger pie, it is Matt Rowley's recipe, a fellow San Diegan)

 

[shain]

Jerusalem style kugel. Egg noodles coated in caramel, flavored with black pepper, cinnamon and a little ginger. Baked all night and served warm, with pickles.

 

[BeeZee]

@shain, I am on board with the kugel, but can't wrap my head around the pickle...

[shain]

52 minutes ago, BeeZee said:

@shain, I am on board with the kugel, but can't wrap my head around the pickle...

 

It's just customary, I guess. I think it works, sort of a palate refreshment.
I'll forgive you if you pass on it  

[pastrygirl]

6" chocolate cake for a catering today, theme: trees! 

[rotuts]

@pastrygirl  

 

so out stagnating 

 

its a bit of a shame that you can't send me a small tranche as an attachment in an email

 

we foo live in the Dark Ages of sending Taste Treats around via the "Return" on your computer 

[rarerollingobject]

I had six apples to use up and not enough going on in my life, so I made a giant apple rose tart for breakfast this morning. 

 

Shortcrust pastry base made with orange juice and zest, blind baked, brushed in apricot jam and then with slices of apple fanned out over in. Dusted in ginger, sugar and baked, glazed with stem ginger syrup and more apricot jam and eaten warm.

 

Them apples; you would like them. 

[jmacnaughtan]

Inspired by the snacking while egulleting thread...

 

Prune, walnut and chocolate tart

 

 

Chocolate pâte sucrée

Chocolate, prune and walnut croustillant

Boozy prune

Chocolate mousse

Chocolate glaze

Roasted walnuts

 

To finish the Valentine's weekend dinner.  Because nothing says romance like a boozy prune. 

 

Nothing.

[teonzo]

 

COKETRAILS

Coca-Cola fluid gel covered with coconut powder.

This dessert must be consumed with a straw, while you open your arms like an airplane.

 

Sorry guys, but I have a lot of fun making this kind of dumb things.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[FrogPrincesse]

Rustic rhubart tart with frangipane

 

 

 

[kayb]

A poor attempt, beside all those posted here, but I dipped some strawberries in honor of Valentine's Day coming up.

 

 

Actually, I dipped them myself because I looked at them at Kroger, which was charging $16.95 a dozen for them. I got a quart of berries for $2.50, and a package of chocolate coating for something under $3.50. (Yes, it's grocery store quality chocolate, but I have no doubt it was the same thing Kroger was using to dip theirs.) Mine are not as pretty, but I feel relatively certain they're just as good, and I made 30 of them for roughly $6. There are five left in the refrigerator now, 24 hours later.

 

A question. Back in the dark ages when I was a child, my mother made lots of candies, including dipped sweets. I recall her melting chocolate with paraffin; it made a thinner chocolate, didn't tend to seize up, and hardened to a less brittle coating. Anyone familiar with the proportions, etc., or is this technique totally out of favor? 

 

My mother would have used grocery store chocolate as well. In rural West Tennessee, we had no concept that higher-quality chocolate than Nestles chips existed.

 

Edited February 13, 2017 by kayb (log)

[quiet1]

On 1/31/2017 at 5:51 PM, ChocoMom said:

And....knowing full well that my father in law is the birthday boy tomorrow....and not everyone loves carrot cake like he does, I made a Key Lime Cake, with Key Lime icing to appease the non-carrot cake people.   It was supposed to be Ina Garten's lemon cake, but, I'd forgotten which home the lemons were at and when it came time to make the cakes...the lemons were in the wrong place. So, I pulled the limes out of my workshop and improvised. Glad that I did, because that icing is nothing short of addictive, delicious, and did I mention addictive?  The sweetness can be overwhelming, so a pinch of tartaric acid took care of that in a jiffy. 

 

I would LOVE a recipe for this.

[Toliver]

15 hours ago, kayb said:

A question. Back in the dark ages when I was a child, my mother made lots of candies, including dipped sweets. I recall her melting chocolate with paraffin; it made a thinner chocolate, didn't tend to seize up, and hardened to a less brittle coating. Anyone familiar with the proportions, etc., or is this technique totally out of favor? 

Every Christmas my mom makes Rice Crispy Peanut Butter Balls that get dipped in chocolate. Like you mentioned, she uses paraffin in her melted chocolate. She doesn't measure the amount of wax that she uses. She just "eyeballs" it. When the chocolate dries, it's shiny and you can eat them without the chocolate melting on your fingers (they're small...one-bite and they're gone).

I am familiar with the method but I am sorry I can't offer any specifics.

[kayb]

5 minutes ago, Toliver said:

Every Christmas my mom makes Rice Crispy Peanut Butter Balls that get dipped in chocolate. Like you mentioned, she uses paraffin in her melted chocolate. She doesn't measure the amount of wax that she uses. She just "eyeballs" it. When the chocolate dries, it's shiny and you can eat them without the chocolate melting on your fingers (they're small...one-bite and they're gone).

I am familiar with the method but I am sorry I can't offer any specifics.

I recall Mama breaking off little squares of paraffin to add to the chocolate -- likely chocolate chips, or maybe the big squares of chocolate -- but I have no recollection of how many. Seems like paraffin was a relatively minor component -- maybe an 80-20 ratio? 

 

[Toliver]

13 minutes ago, kayb said:

I recall Mama breaking off little squares of paraffin to add to the chocolate -- likely chocolate chips, or maybe the big squares of chocolate -- but I have no recollection of how many. Seems like paraffin was a relatively minor component -- maybe an 80-20 ratio? 

 

My mom has a big block of paraffin and shaves it off with a knife to be used in the chocolate. Squares or chips would make it so much easier to use.

[Kerry Beal]

 

Doing a little recipe trouble shooting - a particular cookie was not working well so I fiddled with it. Took it from creamed butter and sugar to caramelized sugar allowed to melt the butter, converted to a slice and bake refrigerator cookie using pretty much the same proportions as the defective recipe. The original chocolate chunks were 1 part chocolate chips, 1 part Cacao Barry Inaya. I used Callebaut Brazil - which I wouldn't do again - it's a 70% that I find quite acidic and almost sour. I think it would be fabulous with 50 - 50 my regular belcolade milk and dark. 

 

Texture is pleasing and cookie itself is not too sweet which is my preference.

 

 

Edited February 15, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Tri2Cook]

41 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Doing a little recipe trouble shooting - a particular cookie was not working well so I fiddled with it. Took it from creamed butter and sugar to caramelized sugar allowed to melt the butter, converted to a slice and bake refrigerator cookie using pretty much the same proportions as the defective recipe. The original chocolate chunks were 1 part chocolate chips, 1 part Cacao Barry Inaya. I used Callebaut Brazil - which I wouldn't do again - it's a 70% that I find quite acidic and almost sour. I think it would be fabulous with 50 - 50 my regular belcolade milk and dark. 

 

Texture is pleasing and cookie itself is not too sweet which is my preference.

Butter melted in caramelized sugar as a cookie base! I wish I'd thought of that. I'll definitely be steal... errr... "borrowing" that one.

[Kerry Beal]

4 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

Butter melted in caramelized sugar as a cookie base! I wish I'd thought of that. I'll definitely be steal... errr... "borrowing" that one.

It's actually based on a cookie I've made for years from the International Cookie Cookbook by Nancy Baggett. The Pecan Praline cookie. So I kind of stole it too!

 

Also changed the baking soda from the failed cookie to baking powder. Seems to have removed the spread problem with the original. 

Edited February 15, 2017 by Kerry Beal (log)

[pquinene]

I've been so busy since January 1 filling up my freezer with "fast food" that I haven't had a chance to post. Sometime in those weeks I did get to make simple banana doughnuts. We call them bonelos aga (bo-nye-lus a-ga) on Guam. The batter is shaped and squeezed from one hand into the oil.

 

[shain]

Knafeh - Layers of crisp and buttery kadaif "noodles", between them warm, chewy and slightly salty cheese, syrup with lemon, rose extract and cinnamon, pistachio.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

10 hours ago, shain said:

Knafeh - Layers of crisp and buttery kadaif "noodles", between them warm, chewy and slightly salty cheese, syrup with lemon, rose extract and cinnamon, pistachio.

 

shain,

 

I had not heard of this before or seen it, so I went to find out more on the internet. It seems Martha Stewart uses shredded phyllo dough in one recipe and here it says the kadaif noodles are flour and water batter poured through a sieve onto a hot metal cooking tray. There's a little more info on wikipedia, and then I went and looked at images for knafeh. 

 

I can honestly say that the texture shown on your image of the cut slice looks more inviting to me than any of the other images in the link. Would you be kind enough to tell us more about the ingredients and how you made this lovely-looking dish?

[shain]

@Thanks for the Crepes You are correct in describing how the kadaif is made - here is a video worth watching. I googled shredded phyllo, and it seems it's referring to real kadaif, it is not really shredded. That said, I think hand-shredded phyllo sheets will be an acceptable substitute. 

 

You are also correct in that my knafeh differs from tradition, I use much less syrup, hence many of the kadaif stays crisp, and less sweet. I usually keep more hot syrup on the table for those who seek the more common sticky and soft texture (and those with a sweet tooth). Since it is crisp, it doesn't cut as neatly. 

I often also include sliced fresh fruits, like figs and strawberries. 

 

BTW, some knafeh is made with semolina rather than kadaif (pic). 

And there are other sweets made with kadaif (pic). 

 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Thank you @shain!

 

That is an amazing video, and it seems that the specialized equipment explains why I have never seen or heard of this delicacy. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[chromedome]

It is sometimes available in the frozen case of Mediterranean or gourmet grocery stores, alongside the phyllo. I've seen it occasionally, but never when it was practical for me to buy some and play with it.

[Kim Shook]

@Kay  – I found this re: chocolate and paraffin – 12 oz. chocolate to 2 oz. paraffin.  I remember this method and using it years ago because I’ve always felt that truly tempering chocolate was beyond me and I can’t afford the machines.  What I do now is to melt the chocolate VERY slowly in the microwave – trying to keep the temperature under 94F.  I then set a heating pad to medium, put it in a bowl and put the chocolate bowl on top of it.  It stays nice and ‘dip-able’ and as ‘in temper’ as I’ve ever been able to achieve!

 

@shain – that Knafeh looks and sounds so wonderful!

 

I did a project with a batch of @Dorie Greenspan's Bubble-Top Brioche.  Though they turned out fine, I had some trouble with the brioche.  It started with the kneading.  The dough never would come together in a ball and pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl like it is supposed to.  I didn’t have this problem when I made them before.  They didn’t rise very well, either:

They were flat and oozed over the sides of the baking cups:

 

 

I just tucked it all back into the cups and went ahead with the baking.  They turned out a little flat, but otherwise fine:

 

The bottoms were a bit pale:

This DID happen last time and I just flipped them and toasted them lightly under the broiler.  The crumb and texture were great:

 

 

Toasted:

 

The project idea started with some show I saw on The Cooking Channel – Unique Sweets, I think.  One of the bakeries did a bun of some sort, split and spread with lashings of whipped butter and lightly toasted.  Then they were spread with sweetened condensed milk and toasted until it caramelized.  Then topped with a sprinkling of sea salt.  The result:

These were amazing.  Not overly sweet, but just exactly enough.  The sea salt was perfect!  I would like to know what I did wrong with the brioche, though!