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

[chromedome]

It looks wonderful. 

 

I have about five bags of red currants from my parents' bushes in my freezer at home...gonna have to do something with those one day soon, I think. 

[kriz6912]

Hazelnut milk chocolate mousse, dulce de leche, crispy feuilletine & praliné bottom

And a movie...

 

 

[Kasia]

On 3/18/2017 at 2:37 AM, chromedome said:

It looks wonderful. 

 

I have about five bags of red currants from my parents' bushes in my freezer at home...gonna have to do something with those one day soon, I think. 

 

Hope you will enjoy it

[pjm333]

Irish Soda Bread !

[Kasia]

Today my proposal is how to get used to chia seeds in desserts. Though at first you might object to the dessert's consistency, it is worth persevering because it is really tasty.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
2 tablespoons of chia seeds
50ml of milk
200ml of coconut milk
4 tablespoons of honey
½ teaspoon of vanilla essence
3 plums
half an apple
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

 

the whole recipe is here

 

 

[RWood]

Really fast little Harry Potter cake for a friend's birthday. I had more details I wanted to add, but I was so behind I threw this together the day before. She loved it though. 

[sartoric]

Yesterday I made an upside down nectarine cake. These were recalcitrant nectarines who clung to their stone like crazy, sending me crazy trying to separate them. Does anyone know an easy way to de stone fruit like this ?

 

 

[David Ross]

For some silly reason, I think that I should only make lemon bars in Spring.  And while I associate lemon bars with Spring, I should think I need to make them more often.

[andiesenji]

9 hours ago, sartoric said:

Yesterday I made an upside down nectarine cake. These were recalcitrant nectarines who clung to their stone like crazy, sending me crazy trying to separate them. Does anyone know an easy way to de stone fruit like this ?

 

 

I blanch and chill them to slip the skin off then cut them into narrow wedges right to the stone. I sacrifice one slice to make a "portal" then use a curved citrus knife to separate the flesh from the stone.  

I've been doing this about 60 years, first with cling peaches, then nectarines, large plums, etc., and have never found an easier method. 

Once you get the "trick" of it, you will find it is fast and easy.

[sartoric]

Boiled no egg fruitcake. 

I acquired a booklet in 1974 from Lowan Whole Foods. They had just imported a 36 inch Baltic stone mill to grind their locally grown wheat, pretty exotic in rural Australia then. Anyway, I recall making this cake sometime in the '70s, and enjoying it. Some things never change.

 

[ElsieD]

17 hours ago, sartoric said:

Boiled no egg fruitcake. 

I acquired a booklet in 1974 from Lowan Whole Foods. They had just imported a 36 inch Baltic stone mill to grind their locally grown wheat, pretty exotic in rural Australia then. Anyway, I recall making this cake sometime in the '70s, and enjoying it. Some things never change.

 

 

 

What kind of fruit is in there?  In appearance it looks like a cake my mother used to make which was raisin based.  She would boil the raisins prior to incorporating them into the batter.  I hadn't thought of it in a long time until you posted this.

[sartoric]

Mixed fruit @ElsieD, sultanas, raisins, currants, cranberries and peel. It is so very easy, boil the fruit with water and bicarb, add cinnamon and nutmeg, cool, add flour and baking powder.

[Kasia]

Today I would like to share with you a very common cake we do in Poland - poppy-seed cake. We do it very often for Christmas or Easter holidays. Some people say it helps them to fall asleep  

 

Ingredients:
1 tin of poppyseed mass
4 eggs
1 vanilla pudding
1 tablespoon of flour
125g of butter
200g of brown sugar
150g of white chocolate
a fistful of chopped hazelnuts
a fistful of raisins

 

the whole recipe here

 

 

[Kasia]

On 3/29/2017 at 5:03 PM, David Ross said:

For some silly reason, I think that I should only make lemon bars in Spring.  And while I associate lemon bars with Spring, I should think I need to make them more often.

Dear David Ross the picture is tempting  could you share the recipe for these bars?

Edited April 4, 2017 by Kasia (log)

[Anna N]

@Kasia

 

 You are more likely to attract David's attention using the @ feature.  That way when he logs on he will get a notification that his name has appeared in a post. It is easy to use. Just type the at (@) symbol and then begin typing the poster's name. You can then click on that name and it will insert it into your post.

@David Ross

I hope he gets this and responds to your request. 

Edited April 4, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[Kasia]

@Anna N

thank you Anna - its very useful function 

Edited April 4, 2017 by Kasia (log)

[David Ross]

Glad to share.  I start with a shortbread style crust in a 9 x 9 glass baking dish.  A lot of recipes call for a 9 x 13 dish, but I like the lemon bars really thick rather than thin so I use the small baking dish.  The amount of lemon juice and zest would be surprising to a lot of folks, but that's what gives the bars deep lemon flavor.

Filling-

1/2 cup flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups fresh lemon juice

Grated lemon zest from a medium-size lemon

6 eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp. salt

 

Stir the flour and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add the lemon juice and lemon zest and stir to combine.  In a another bowl, add the eggs, egg yolk and salt and whisk.  Add the egg mixture to the bowl with the flour, sugar and lemon juice and whisk until smooth. 

 

Crust-

1 cup flour

1/2 cup melted butter

1/3 cup powdered sugar.

Sift the flour and powdered sugar together into a bowl.  Pour in the melted butter and stir to combine until it comes together into a dough.  Form the dough into a layer in the bottom of the baking dish. I put a sheet of parchment in the bottom of the dish, large enough so the parchment reaches over the top of the baking dish.  This allows me to pull the lemon bar "tart" out of the baking dish once it's cooled.  Put a small sheet of parchment on top of the dough and add pie weights.  (I happen to use dried beans for weight to keep the crust from rising).

 

Par-bake the crust in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes just until the edges start to turn golden.  Pull the crust out of the oven and pour in the lemon filling and return the baking dish to the oven.  Reduce the temp to 325 and bake for about 35 minutes until the center of the filling is set.

 

Cool the lemon bars in the baking dish to room temperature, then cover and cool in the fridge for about 6 hours.  (It has to be chilled so when you sprinkle the powdered sugar on top it doesn't melt).  Pull the lemon bar "tart" out of the baking dish.  Dust the top with powdered sugar (through a fine mesh screen) and dot with fresh raspberries.  I also use blackberries, marionberries and loganberries in the summer.  It's also good with poached rhubarb.

 

Hope that helps.  You'll like the recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[David Ross]

When I made these I got a lot of positive likes on my Facebook page.  But what's funny is a lot of my friends like to bake and make sweets, yet they all said they had never made lemon bars because they were "too hard" and took "too much time."  They were also surprised that I used so much lemon juice.  The recipes they had looked at called from somewhere in the range of 2 or 3 tbsp. of lemon juice.  Well, I think with my photo it convinced them. 

[Kasia]

Thank you @David Ross I hope I will manage with that

[Kasia]

Today my last invention:

 

Quick and simple dessert with mango

 

Ingredients: (for 4 people)
2 mangos
500ml of 30% sweet cream
300g of mascarpone cheese
100g of white chocolate
150g of oat cookies

 

the whole recipe is here

 

 

 

[Kasia]

My kids love them - Raspberry “kisses”

 

Ingredients for 12 "kisses":

 

75g of dark chocolate

18 raspberries

100g ricotta cheese

2 teaspoons of caster sugar

 

the recipe is here

[Smithy]

30 minutes ago, Kasia said:

My kids love them - Raspberry “kisses”

 

 

Those are very pretty! I don't think I've seen basil paired with chocolate or raspberry before. Is it just for looks, or do the flavors play well together?

[Kasia]

15 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

Those are very pretty! I don't think I've seen basil paired with chocolate or raspberry before. Is it just for looks, or do the flavors play well together?

 

Basil is mainly for the presentation however........ my husband ate everything  

Edited April 7, 2017 by Kasia (log)

[ElsieD]

On ‎4‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 7:04 AM, David Ross said:

Glad to share.  I start with a shortbread style crust in a 9 x 9 glass baking dish.  A lot of recipes call for a 9 x 13 dish, but I like the lemon bars really thick rather than thin so I use the small baking dish.  The amount of lemon juice and zest would be surprising to a lot of folks, but that's what gives the bars deep lemon flavor.

Filling-

1/2 cup flour

2 cups sugar

1 1/4 cups fresh lemon juice

Grated lemon zest from a medium-size lemon

6 eggs

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp. salt

 

Stir the flour and sugar together in a large bowl.  Add the lemon juice and lemon zest and stir to combine.  In a another bowl, add the eggs, egg yolk and salt and whisk.  Add the egg mixture to the bowl with the flour, sugar and lemon juice and whisk until smooth. 

 

Crust-

1 cup flour

1/2 cup melted butter

1/3 cup powdered sugar.

Sift the flour and powdered sugar together into a bowl.  Pour in the melted butter and stir to combine until it comes together into a dough.  Form the dough into a layer in the bottom of the baking dish. I put a sheet of parchment in the bottom of the dish, large enough so the parchment reaches over the top of the baking dish.  This allows me to pull the lemon bar "tart" out of the baking dish once it's cooled.  Put a small sheet of parchment on top of the dough and add pie weights.  (I happen to use dried beans for weight to keep the crust from rising).

 

Par-bake the crust in a 350 oven for about 15 minutes just until the edges start to turn golden.  Pull the crust out of the oven and pour in the lemon filling and return the baking dish to the oven.  Reduce the temp to 325 and bake for about 35 minutes until the center of the filling is set.

 

Cool the lemon bars in the baking dish to room temperature, then cover and cool in the fridge for about 6 hours.  (It has to be chilled so when you sprinkle the powdered sugar on top it doesn't melt).  Pull the lemon bar "tart" out of the baking dish.  Dust the top with powdered sugar (through a fine mesh screen) and dot with fresh raspberries.  I also use blackberries, marionberries and loganberries in the summer.  It's also good with poached rhubarb.

 

Hope that helps.  You'll like the recipe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've never tried it, so you can give it a shot. My sense is the lemon filling wouldn't hold up well and when defrosted, it might separate or be mushy.

 

@David Ross. Dumb question - can this be frozen?  After baking it of course.  Thank you.

[LS-Chocolade]

Made a easter egg in a shell for friends who own a fish company. The egg does not close 100 percent because these double mold has a slightly different size.