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

[Matthew.Taylor]

21 hours ago, ElsieD said:

@Matthew.Taylor  I just looked through my recipe files, and I came across a recipe you posted for millionaire's Bars.  Will you be updating this recipe?

Here's the recipe I used for the shortbread above. Hope you enjoy.

 

 Millionaire’s Shortbread

SHORTBREAD INGREDIENTS

1.      9 Ounces (2 Sticks plus 2 Tablespoons) of Unsalted Butter, at room temperature.

2.      ½ cup White Sugar

3.      ¼ cup Dark Brown Sugar.

4.      ¾ teaspoon Kosher Salt.

5.      1 and ¼ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

6.      1 and ¾ cup All-purpose Flour.

7.      ½ Cup Cornstarch

8.      1 heaping cup of Pecan Halves

Steps.                   

1.      Turn Oven to 300 degrees F, and spread Pecans over a baking sheet.

2.      Toast for five minutes. Check them, and if you want them more toasted, bake for another few minutes, checking every minute. (NOTE: Nuts burn easily, so make sure you are careful).

3.      Chop up Pecans coarsely.

4.      Combine both sugars, Salt, and Butter in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a normal bowl). Mix on Medium-low speed until just combined, 1-2 minutes. Add Vanilla and mix until just combined.

5.      Pour in flour and cornstarch and mix just until a dough has formed.

6.      Mix in toasted pecans just until combined. (NOTE: Consider doing this by hand in order to avoid overmixing.)

7.      Take a baking sheet (NOTE: Make sure the sheet has relatively high sides in order to take in the caramel and chocolate, consider sides 1-2 inches high), and line it with parchment paper (or spray it with non stick spray, but parchment will make later steps easier).

8.      Turn oven to 350 degrees F, and bake for 16 to 20 minutes, or until lightly brown.

9.      Let cool completely.

SALTED CARAMEL

Here’s the hard part.

INGREDIENTS.

1.      3 Cups of Granulated Sugar.

2.      ½ A cup of water.

3.      1 Cup of Heavy Cream,

4.      3 and ½ sticks of SALTED butter, cut into cubes and chilled.

STEPS.

1.      In a heavy bottom saucepan, pour one cup of sugar, and all of the water. Over medium heat, stir until the sugar is completely melted.

2.      Once completely melted, gradually pour in the remaining sugar, stirring until it is all melted and become a bubbling syrup.

3.      Turn heat to low-medium low, and continue to stir. (NOTE: This is very important to remember, eventually the sugar will lose so much moisture that it appears to return to the state of granular sugar. This is SUPPOSED to happen! You have not screwed up! This caramel must essentially melt twice!) (You may want to consider using a pastry brush to brush some water on the sides of the pan in order to dissolve some of the sugar that builds up on the sides. This is not necessary, but without it, the pan WILL need a good deal of soaking in soapy water when it’s time to clean up.)

4.      After it has clumped up and re-melted into a dark amber liquid, begin to slowly pour the heavy cream in, stirring as you go.

5.      Once the cream is fully in, take the pan off the heat. Stir in all the butter at once, until fully melted. (NOTE: If you want a thicker caramel, consider cooking for a bit more, perhaps 1 minute, without stirring)

6.      At this point, you have two options, process the caramel with an immersion blender until completely smooth, or just use a wooden spoon, though this will take longer.

7.      Pour caramel into a bowl, and cover in plastic wrap. Place in refrigerator and chill until smooth and firm. You may have to stir the caramel some while there.(NOTE: When I did this, there was a layer of liquid on top of the caramel. This is not a problem, just whisk it well, and it will start looking like real caramel.)

CHOCOLATE:

INGREDIENTS.

1.      1 TO 2 CUPS of Chocolate chips.

2.      Flaky/Coarse Sea Salt (optional)

3.      Cocoa nibs (optional)

STEPS.

1.      Place chips in a microwave proof bowl, and heat in the microwave on thirty second intervals. Stirring after each interval, until completely melted and smooth.

ASSEMBLE.

1.      Take shortbread in pan, and place in work area.

2.      Pour caramel into the middle of the shortbread (this is why the parchment is better, it will keep the toppings and fillings from pouring out, this is also why a higher sided pan is better.)

3.      Spread the caramel out, edge to edge. (optional, you may put the filled shortbread in the fridge to firm up a bit if you wish)

4.      Pour melted chocolate over the top of the caramel, spread edge to edge.

5.      Let chill for ten to twenty minutes, and then sprinkle optional ingredients on top.

6.      Chill til firm, and serve.

Edited March 9, 2022 by Matthew.Taylor (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Dorie Greenspan's new book, Baking with Dorie has a recipe for World Peace Cookies 2.0.  

As far as changes from the original, I love, love, love the addition of freeze-dried raspberries, like the rye flour and dislike the cacao nibs.  I kept thinking I got some walnut shells in there by mistake! 

[shain]

Fanshu tangshui - sweet ginger "soup" with sweet potato, and in this case also chestnuts, jujubes and dry longan.

A lovely dessert on a cold day.

 

Edited March 11, 2022 by shain (log)

[MikanPotatos]

Made some Passion fruit pudding and brownies.

 

Dark Chocolate Brownie with Walnuts and Pecan bits.
Passion Fruit Pudding with Cassis Caramel and Strawberry Cream Cheese.

[RWood]

Happy Birthday to me 😋. I finally had time to make my octopus cake. Dunno if I would make it again unless lots of money was involved 😉. Those suckers wore me out!

[Shelby]

25 minutes ago, RWood said:

Happy Birthday to me 😋. I finally had time to make my octopus cake. Dunno if I would make it again unless lots of money was involved 😉. Those suckers wore me out!

WOW!

[Kim Shook]

1 hour ago, RWood said:

Happy Birthday to me 😋. I finally had time to make my octopus cake. Dunno if I would make it again unless lots of money was involved 😉. Those suckers wore me out!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  🎈🧁

[oli]

7 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!  🎈🧁

Some people are so talented

[TdeV]

Robyn, that cake looks fabulous! Will you tell us what's in it?

[RWood]

30 minutes ago, TdeV said:

Robyn, that cake looks fabulous! Will you tell us what's in it?

It’s marble cake, basic I know but it’s my favorite. I served it with raspberries and raspberry Pinot sauce. 
 

[Kim Shook]

Not mine, but my MIL.  Yesterday she brought over the most delicious Key Lime Pie:

 

Colored the most atrocious shade of Herman Munster green:

😳😄 She said something about how she couldn't resist making it greener to commemorate the day, but I've seen her Key Lime Pies before and they are always very green.  She must think mine are so dull.  😁

 

[Kim Shook]

Just a creamy chocolate layered thing:

Taste of Home recipe from a December 1999 issue!  Cooky crust, melted chocolate bar, marshmallow and whipped cream filling, and crumbled crust and toasted almond topping.  When I was making the filling, I thought it needed a bit more of a chocolate punch, so I added a tablespoon of cocoa.  Good decision, but it probably should have gone into the whipped cream rather than the warm melted marshmallows and chocolate.  It kind of seized up and left some specks, as you can see.  A keeper, though. 

[jkirwan]

Had some really nice ripe pineapple and made an upsidedown cake from it

Served with some whipped cream

 

Turned out pretty good considering it was my first attempt at a dessert like this

[shain]

Strawberry and ricotta crumble. With vanilla ice cream.

 

 

 

[shain]

Strawberry, ricotta  and vanilla babka.

 

 

 

[RWood]

Birthday cake for a friend’s daughter. She loves lizards. 
Marble cake with chocolate buttercream. Bearded dragon (sorta 🙃) is modeling chocolate. 

[ElsieD]

31 minutes ago, RWood said:

Birthday cake for a friend’s daughter. She loves lizards. 
Marble cake with chocolate buttercream. Bearded dragon (sorta 🙃) is modeling chocolate. 

 

You produce works of art.  I'm blown away whenever I see one of your creations.  Where did you learn to do all this?

[heidih]

Oh your cakes must bring such joy. Love that the lizzie is in "push-up position". Always cracks me up.

[RWood]

6 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

You produce works of art.  I'm blown away whenever I see one of your creations.  Where did you learn to do all this?

Just self taught in cakes, that kind of stuff isn’t taught in pastry school. I usually buy a small model of whatever creature I’m trying to make. I have to have a 3D reference. So, my T Rex now has a bearded dragon buddy 😉. Anything else, I just wing it and hope 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻.

[ElsieD]

22 minutes ago, RWood said:

Just self taught in cakes, that kind of stuff isn’t taught in pastry school. I usually buy a small model of whatever creature I’m trying to make. I have to have a 3D reference. So, my T Rex now has a bearded dragon buddy 😉. Anything else, I just wing it and hope 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻.

 

You sure are good at it.  I took a couple of cake decorating courses once.  The one thing you were supposed to master was the Wilton Rose.  I never did.

[TicTac]

16 hours ago, RWood said:

Birthday cake for a friend’s daughter. She loves lizards. 
Marble cake with chocolate buttercream. Bearded dragon (sorta 🙃) is modeling chocolate. 

You have some serious skill. 

 

My guilty pleasure as of late has been watching 'Is it cake?' on Netflix, after my wife passes out in bed.  The quality you are producing is right up there with some of those folks (though my guy Andrew the Green is next level unreal)!

[kayb]

21 hours ago, RWood said:

Birthday cake for a friend’s daughter. She loves lizards. 
Marble cake with chocolate buttercream. Bearded dragon (sorta 🙃) is modeling chocolate. 

Now THAT is a cool birthday cake. My grandson would be ecstatic.

[Katie Meadow]

19 hours ago, kayb said:

Now THAT is a cool birthday cake. My grandson would be ecstatic.

I would be ecstatic.

[MikanPotatos]

 

Made some chocolates

[Kim Shook]

I made a couple of goodies for the grand nieces and nephews.  Cookies and Rainbow Crispy Treats:

 

These are tooth-achingly sweet, and I didn’t even drizzle with white chocolate like the recipe called for!  I’m betting the kids will love them, though.