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


Ama

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Host's note: this tempting topic is split into segments to reduce load on our servers; click here for the previous installment.

 

Mother's birthday was last week and she's tricky to bake for.  Ended up making baklava, which I served over lightly spiced pears and caramelized honey.  I tried to quenelle the frozen honey mousse, which worked until things got delayed and melted.  Went over really well and birthday gal was happy.

 The little caramel decoration was also my first time playing with that sort of thing.  I had thought to do nut spikes, which was working decently well...until a nut crumbled and I stuck the toothpick into my thumb instead. Settled on simpler decorations after that :) 

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19 minutes ago, Ama said:

...I had thought to do nut spikes, which was working decently well...until a nut crumbled and I stuck the toothpick into my thumb instead...

OK.  I give up. Google is not helping.  What's a nut spike?

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I had a bunch of egg whites I needed to use up, so I made several almond dacquoise. This one was filled with vanilla pastry cream, and served with warm strawberry sauce. 

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"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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Using up the last of the 2015 huckleberry crop.  I freeze enough to use throughout the year, then time the last bit to be used just days before I head to the farmer's market to buy the season's fresh berries.  By the way, the crop is very early this year.  We are now seeing fresh huckleberries when usually we don't see them for another 3 weeks or so.  I try to hold off as long as I can because the early berries are far too tart. 

 

First time using huckleberries in a clafouti. (The French spell it "clafoutis").  As is always the case with huckleberries, they were incredibly tart yet sweet, with a perfume and taste like no other thing on earth.

 

Shortbread crust of simply butter, powdered sugar and a bit of flour-

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In go the berries tossed in a bit of sugar-

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The custard poured in, a blend of milk, cream, egg and a hint of vanilla.  Oh and a trick from Robuchon, scatter in some of

the crust trimmings to help thicken the custard-

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The baked huckleberry clafouti-

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I'll typically dust a clafouti with powdered sugar.  Robuchon likes to broil it to

caramelize the sugar but I just dust it with sugar.  Best served warm, and of

course with either ice cream or whipped cream.

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Thanks David, now I will plan a road trip to our favourite picking site.  If you hadn't posted, i would have missed this years crop.

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We were dumbfounded when two weeks ago a local market showed huckleberries available--in the first week of July!  I get scared when I hear that as it means the weather through off the natural growing cycle, and I worry that the berries won't be around in September.  But I think it's also a sort of gold rush days around here every year.  Folks rush into the hills at the first sight of a huckleberry, yet folks like me hang on as long as we can to get the sweetest berries.  I'm off to a farmer's market in North Idaho this afternoon and I'll report back on what I find.

 

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Far more twee than anything I usually make, but I had a request for Hello Kitty themed wedding cake, so I ran with it.  Hearts and a veil to make it seem more wedding-y.  Sour cream butter cake with coconut buttercream (IMBC with a can of coco lopez and some toasted coconut) and marshmallow fondant.

 

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On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2016 at 10:09 AM, David Ross said:

We were dumbfounded when two weeks ago a local market showed huckleberries available--in the first week of July!  I get scared when I hear that as it means the weather through off the natural growing cycle, and I worry that the berries won't be around in September.  But I think it's also a sort of gold rush days around here every year.  Folks rush into the hills at the first sight of a huckleberry, yet folks like me hang on as long as we can to get the sweetest berries.  I'm off to a farmer's market in North Idaho this afternoon and I'll report back on what I find.

 

Well, fresh huckleberries are here and they are about 3 weeks early.  I cringe at the thought as the best huckleberries come in years where they are still being picked into September.  But we can't fight Mother Nature.  The prices vary widely right now, from $45 for a gallon bag at a farmer's market to $65 a gallon at a country store.  I have a gallon of fresh berries, but haven't tasted them yet.  Probably a traditional pie this weekend.  Of course, the pickers want to scare you into buying now rather than holding out.  According to them you have to get them now as they'll be gone next week.  Doubtful on that front and I think we'll see fresh huckleberries for about 3 more weeks. 

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On 7/22/2016 at 11:23 AM, kriz6912 said:


Concorde... Chocolate meringue, dark chocolate mousse.

 

Kris, wonderful, your Concorde is perfect timing for me. I've been asked for a gateau concorde for 200 people in September.  I have a couple recipes in my hands and not much time to try them all out. I saw Kisten Tibbal book is not released in the US until next month... Would you mind sharing the recipe in PM?

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On 7/22/2016 at 7:09 AM, David Ross said:

Well, fresh huckleberries are here and they are about 3 weeks early.  I cringe at the thought as the best huckleberries come in years where they are still being picked into September.  But we can't fight Mother Nature.  The prices vary widely right now, from $45 for a gallon bag at a farmer's market to $65 a gallon at a country store.  I have a gallon of fresh berries, but haven't tasted them yet.  Probably a traditional pie this weekend.  Of course, the pickers want to scare you into buying now rather than holding out.  According to them you have to get them now as they'll be gone next week.  Doubtful on that front and I think we'll see fresh huckleberries for about 3 more weeks. 

Went out yesterday to pick at a new spot close to Hayden Lake, but there were plenty of people including commercial guys with ATV, and couldn't find very much.  What we did find was rather anemic and enough to find 2 T.  So we headed to our favourite spot and did collect about 1 gallon.  I talked to a number of people about the small size and was told we need a good snow fall to get the plump guys.  Hopeful for next year.

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Made kouign amann again, again in the form of "kouignettes," in the style of Georges Larnicol. These are flavored with finely ground freeze-dried raspberry and strawberry. I used this instead of fresh fruit because I feared that adding too much water would interfere with the sugar caramelization. The powdered fruit worked great. 

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"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Vanilla cream hemispheres infused with Madagascan and Tahitian beans, glazed with a salted caramel glaze, on a sable breton base. My daughter helped me in the kitchen this week, and we had a great time making these. I hope all of you are having a lovely weekend!

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"If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced" - Vincent Van Gogh
 

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The other day; chocolate rocks. White chocolate ganache, shaped in a polymer pebble mould, dipped in more white chocolate and then into 30 Celsius water mixed through with droplets of black oil-based food colouring.

 

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Today; cupcakes. I'm getting into piping!

 

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

 

 

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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@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. They do, like other desserts and sweet things you post here, look darn good and well assembled. They have great visual appeal and would appeal to my palet as well. Well done!

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