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

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Pete Fred said:

so this might be a good reason to revisit.

I was reading this recipe yesterday for Gâteau Basque and it uses Jam. Might be a good one to check out.

[AAQuesada]

I had actually been thinking about chocolate Gateau Basque from seeing a version sold by Dandelion chocolate. That and this thread prompted me to try this  recipe. 

 

 

[FrogPrincesse]

@Pete FredI am very jealous of your abundance of cherries. Cherries are somewhat of an exotic fruit in southern California where I live. I have seen them at the store, but at $15/lb decided to pass. 

 

I made a strawberry-rhubarb biscuit cobbler recently (this was for a cookbook club event where we were cooking from Carla Lalli Music's That Sounds So Good). I love rhubarb and strawberry so I enjoyed this dessert. The biscuit dough used hard boiled yolks which is supposed to prevent gluten formation. It was my first time making or eating biscuits, so I am not sure what the texture is supposed to be like. They were soft and moist, but I think I prefer the texture of a crumble because it provides more contrast with the soft fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

[Pete Fred]

I saw an interesting technique for baked custard from a blogger based on an Ottolenghi/Goh recipe, so I went to the source. You make a stovetop custard and then bake it in a screaming hot oven until blackened and curdled; this monstrosity gets blitzed with a stick blender until smooth, then chilled to firm up a little.

 

I ended up with this...

 

 

Straight from the blitzing it had the texture of pastry cream. I baked the custard longer than indicated because I like that burnt milk flavour, so mine set up quite firm and ganache-like in the fridge, which made it rocher-able...

 

 

Good Lord! it was delicious, like a grown-up dulce de leche, or a smooth version of the skin from a baked rice pudding or flan Parisien.

 

I'll have to try it with a softer set at some point.

 

Incidentally, I made the meringue brittle element of the Ottolenghi recipe a few months ago but didn't think to make the custard. I can definitely see how this take on 'affogato' would work.

 

 

Edited June 4 by Pete Fred (log)

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, Pete Fred said:

I saw an interesting technique for baked custard from a blogger based on an Ottolenghi/Goh recipe, so I went to the source. You make a stovetop custard and then bake it in a screaming hot oven until blackened and curdled; this monstrosity gets blitzed with a stick blender until smooth, then chilled to firm up a little.

 

I ended up with this...

 

 

Straight from the blitzing it had the texture of pastry cream. I baked the custard longer than indicated because I like that burnt milk flavour, so mine set up quite firm and ganache-like in the fridge, which made it rocher-able...

 

 

Good Lord! it was delicious, like a grown-up dulce de leche, or a smooth version of the skin from a baked rice pudding or flan Parisien.

 

I'll have to try it with a softer set at some point.

 

Incidentally, I made the meringue brittle element of the Ottolenghi recipe a few months ago but didn't think to make the custard. I can definitely see how this take on 'affogato' would work.

 

 

Did you make it with the bay leaves?

[Pete Fred]

@Kerry Beal No, just vanilla and soft, light brown sugar as per O/G.

 

(As an aside, I've been using Ugandan vanilla beans of late and have been pleasantly surprised with the quality. At less than a third of the price of similarly sized Tahitian/Madagascan here in France, it's a relief not having to sell body parts to fund my hobby.) 

[Pete Fred]

Other than chug it by the spoonful I couldn't think of much to do with the baked custard. After a quick rummage in the freezer and pantry I came up with...

 

 

Tinned pear pan-fried in butter and sugar, brown butter cake, crumbs, and plum caramel.

 

It made for a nice photo but I'm not sure it worked as a plated dessert. And I will berate myself for putting the rocher on top of the crumbs. I never understand why chefs do this (apart from the visual). I don't see the point of taking a lovely smooth, creamy thing and immediately contaminating it with crunchy rubble. But I was weak and followed the herd.

[rotuts]

@Pete Fred

 

fine idea on the canned pear .  Ive used them  ( the better ones in a can )

 

for pineapple Pear UpSideDown Cake .

 

Ill try your version , on some PoundCake or simmilar.

 

thank you for the idea .

[RWood]

Happy 86th for my moms cousin Peggy!

 White almond cake with raspberry filling. My first attempt at palette knife flowers. Supposed to be rustic, so that helped 😋. 

[Pete Fred]

Brown cake...

 

 

 

Or, to give it its fancy-pants name, Buttered Walnut Cake with Espresso Glaze by Yossy Arefi.

 

Like most of her cakes it's a quick wet-dry method that yields a muffin-like texture. It was acceptable as cakey things go, but 'brown' about sums it up.

[Steve Irby]

Our local produce market had these really nice Chilton County peaches on the quick sale rack for $8.00 for about ~15-16 pounds.   I'll buy a flat or two each summer and freeze for smoothies or cobbler.  The peaches are usually bordering on over ripe or ding up and I' have to cull some.  These were pretty flawless.  As much as I love a peach cobbler it's hard to beat a galette or tart made with great fruit.  

 

  

 

 

[ElsieD]

48 minutes ago, Steve Irby said:

Our local produce market had these really nice Chilton County peaches on the quick sale rack for $8.00 for about ~15-16 pounds.   I'll buy a flat or two each summer and freeze for smoothies or cobbler.  The peaches are usually bordering on over ripe or ding up and I' have to cull some.  These were pretty flawless.  As much as I love a peach cobbler it's hard to beat a galette or tart made with great fruit.  

 

  

 

 

Do you ship?

[Steve Irby]

29 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

Do you ship?

Unfortunately I don't have the will power to build any inventory!  

[Jim D.]

On 6/5/2025 at 11:05 AM, Pete Fred said:

Other than chug it by the spoonful I couldn't think of much to do with the baked custard. After a quick rummage in the freezer and pantry I came up with...

 

I don't see the point of taking a lovely smooth, creamy thing and immediately contaminating it with crunchy rubble. 

 

"Contaminating"?  I think of it as providing a contrast for the mouth.  The inexplicable but undeniable pleasure of biting something crunchy and another something unresistingly smooth at the same moment must count for something.  It's what chocolatiers aim for when they combine a ganache of cream, chocolate, and butter with a layer of crunchy cookies.

 

[Pete Fred]

@Jim D. I don't disagree, but it strikes me that plated desserts like this are meant less to be eaten as a whole with each element in every mouthful. One can mix and match... except for the lovely smooth ice cream, which now can't fail but to have crumble attached. Of course I might also be the nerd who just wants to check the ice cream for ice crystals. ;-)

[OlyveOyl]

Apricot raspberry tart, a layer of raspberries sandwiched between two layers of apricots from the farmers Market.   This was the second week of apricots at the FM, hoping there will be a third week! We had this with rum ricotta ice cream.I have enough apricots left to make an ice cream 😁!

[Smithy]

@OlyveOyl, how nice that you can score apricots at your Farmers' Market, at least for a few weeks! I very much miss good apricots. They were abundant when I was growing up in Central California, and the last time I was there during the summer my sister and I discovered a neglected tree with apricots that lived up to our memories. The fruit simply doesn't make it to our grocery stores here with any flavor. I think it's the variety, bred for shipping rather than flavor.

 

You go! Keep showing off your good fortune!

[OlyveOyl]

@Smithy very hard to find good apricots here as well.  I once purchased apricots at Wegmans which came from an upstate (NY) orchard, they were so delicious, never to be found again! These were the best I’ve had in a long time.

Edited Sunday at 11:33 PM by OlyveOyl (log)

[Steve Irby]

My flat of marked down peaches has made a lot of neighbors happy.   I made four galette's which I gave away except for a couple of slices.   The flavor of the peaches, as @Smithy and @OlyveOyl commented,  matched the flavors of our memories.  For eight dollars I got four galette's, ~10#  of prime sliced peaches in the freezer and a whole lot of love.

 

[OlyveOyl]

@Steve Irby a bonanza of galettes! Lucky neighbors , and the galettes look wonderful and I’m sure taste delicious!!

[Smithy]

49 minutes ago, Steve Irby said:

My flat of marked down peaches has made a lot of neighbors happy.   I made four galette's which I gave away except for a couple of slices.   The flavor of the peaches, as @Smithy and @OlyveOyl commented,  matched the flavors of our memories.  For eight dollars I got four galette's, ~10#  of prime sliced peaches in the freezer and a whole lot of love.

 

 

You're inspiring me to give this a try. Good peaches can sometimes be had here in Duluth, and good nectarines are even more likely to turn up in our grocery stores. But then that leads to the question of what exactly I'd do with them. Can these be frozen, and still reheated and be good? Or should I plan on only making one or two galettes, which I'm sure I could share with / palm off on friends?

[Pete Fred]

Nicola Lamb's Substack had a deep dive into almond cakes yesterday. I already have several recipes to draw on should the urge take me, but gave hers a go anyway...

 

 

 

It's not the most exciting thing to look at and doesn't add much to what's already shown her article, but it's a nice cake and easy to make. I have a soft spot for this kind of thing, paired with minimally fussed-with fruit and a bit of thick cream. I'd just picked another tub of cherries fresh off the branch...

 

 

 ...and thought about making a quick compote, but ultimately couldn't be bothered just for the sake of a photo (sorry).

 

Anyway, simply warmed gently in the microwave gave it a lovely moist, buttery almondyness. It'll freeze well for a handy stash as the summer fruits come and go. And I'll now be on the lookout for some of those sweeeeeeeet apricots and peaches, as above.

[OlyveOyl]

@Smithy I frequently make 6 inch galettes rather than large ones for us.  I make pastry crusts and store them un the freezer so that fruit tarts are easily made spur of the moment.

 

Edited yesterday at 06:08 PM by OlyveOyl (log)

[OlyveOyl]

Double chocolate banana bread, served still warm and with melty chocolate pieces.

Topped with vanilla gelato, I usually make half into muffins rather than the entire bread/cake. The cake will last several days but the muffins are easier to eat due to all the chocolate chunks. (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

[FrogPrincesse]

I also love apricots. Cooking them intensifies their flavor so it makes even mediocre apricots taste good.

I made these individual galettes last weekend. The apricots were a bit tart (I added only a minimal amount of sugar) but I didn't mind.