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

[oli]

9 hours ago, Pete Fred said:

I only need the flimsiest of excuses to road test another sticky toffee pudding recipe...

 

 

 

I had neither Sarson's nor nocturnal nonce leaf so used balsamic instead. And... it was good! Just enough sharpness to brighten it up and offset the sweetness a touch. I liked the cake, too; a bit denser than other sponges, with chunks of date for added texture.

 

So overall it was a winner.

Will this be you're new default recipe?

[Pete Fred]

8 hours ago, oli said:

Will this be you're new default recipe?

 

Hmmmm. Possibly.

 

Several years ago I did a side-by-side with four or five takes on STP, out of which came my 'default'. I think it was basically the Hawksmoor recipe with a couple of tweaks from elsewhere. But I recall thinking there wasn't really much in it, and that if the recipe is from a decent source then you really can't go wrong. Everybody's drinking from the same well.

 

Since then I've made a few 'cheffy' versions from the likes of Tom Kerridge, Ashley Palmer-Watts, and this one from Tommy Banks. They were all good, and they were all... Sticky Toffee Pudding. It pretty much is what it is.

 

I think most of the bang in a STP buck comes from the sauce. I've always liked the addition of some black treacle, and now this splash of acid, but it might not be for everyone.

[MaryIsobel]

I have been tasked/volunteered to contribute to my daughter's Musical Theatre fundraising bake sale- I volunteered. The bake sale is aimed at the high school students, rather than say a church bake sale where there are pans of cinnamon buns and bundt cakes. So, I'm looking at individually packaged treats. I'm going to do a dozen 6" frosted and sprinkled sugar cookies as in searching ideas, apparently kids like huge cookies. I'll either do big brownie squares or chocolate chip cookies using red and greem M&M's. Just wondering if anyone has any better ideas. Since I will be making 24 pieces, I don't want to go too crazy on decorating.

[AAQuesada]

Quince tart tatin based on a David Lebovitz recipe for Thanksgiving  served with a sauterns spiked whipped cream 

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, MaryIsobel said:

Just wondering if anyone has any better ideas.

How about individually packaged cinnamon rolls. Or slices of banana bread. Or king size muffins.

[ElsieD]

Cake pops?

[BeeZee]

“Birthday Cake” Rice Krispie Treats-kids love sprinkles . Cut up that big pan into squares. Low effort, looks festive.

[blue_dolphin]

I shared this Claire Saffitz video for holiday 7-layer bars over in the Thanksgiving topic:

Since I actually made them:

 

And they were quite good, I figured I’d share the deets here in hopes I might find it again myself 🙃

These are the ingredients as they appear in the video description:

 

And what I did, based on the video:

Mix the Biscoff cookie crumbs (I used TJ’s Speculoos cookies), the melted, cooled butter and the egg yolk, press into a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and use the bottom of a glass or measuring cup to compact and level the layer.

Bake at 350°F for 15 min

While it’s baking, prepare the filling ingredients.

Whisk the sweetened condensed milk with the egg white, a pinch of salt, 2 tsp vanilla & 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

Layer the ingredients on the baked crust in this order:

cranberries (no need to chop)

nuts (I used pecans)

crystalized ginger

oats

sweetened condensed milk

coconut

 

Cover pan with foil. Bake at 350°F for 10 min covered, then remove foil and bake 13 min more, until coconut is golden brown. 
 

My observations: 

My coconut wasn’t anchored in any way, making it hard to get nice squares. I used dried, flaked unsweetened coconut which the recipe calls for (to me, these are skinny shreds, like little matchsticks).  She used what I would call dried, unsweetened coconut chips (very thin, but flat shreds) and said to add the milk mixture BEFORE the coconut because the coconut seals the surface and prevents the milk from seeping in. That may be so, but if using the skinny shreds like I did, I recommend adding the milk last, as is usually done in regular 7-layer bars. 
 

I’m not entirely convinced the egg does anything but the crust did hold together nicely so maybe it helps. 

 

I brought these to Thanksgiving and they were largely ignored in favor of the standard pumpkin & pecan pies but every one who tried them asked to take some home. They’re not terribly sweet and excellent with a cup of coffee. 

 

 

 

[Pete Fred]

I've never taken much interest in my medlar tree...

 

 

 

The French name for the fruit is cul de chien (dog's arse), hopefully for their appearance rather than flavour...

 

 

My reticence was mainly down to the 'bletting' process being a bit Ye Olde England, and processing the flesh looked like too much effort. But this year I decided to harvest them and give it a go...

 

 

I gathered about 6 kg (13 lbs) in total and, after a lot of hard work, ended up with 3 kg of pulp...

 

 

I can see how this was a welcome treat for our medieval ancestors at the beginning of winter, but I was underwhelmed. I didn't mind eating the odd one out of hand (seed disposal is a little, errrrr, inelegant), especially when they had a bit of tang, but a big bowl of pulp was nothing to write home about.

 

I had some quince poaching syrup leftover from a few weeks back, so sweetened a portion with that, along with some spices (cinnamon, clove)...

 

 

It was fine. Once the novelty wore off I froze most of it, maybe to be used as a side-blob for a tart or slice of cake in the future.

 

Whilst looking around for things to do with the rest of the pulp, a medlar tart popped up in my feed (with lots more info about medlars if you're curious). I didn't end up making that one, but decided that a tart would definitely make a dent in my medlar mountain. Given that the medlar mush was a bit like pumpkin purée, I went in that direction, ultimately settling on a sweet potato pie by Claire Saffitz (YouTube) as the template, but mostly winging it in terms of sweeteners (a mix of dark brown sugar, cassonade, golden syrup, black treacle). Despite all of that and the spices, the filling was still lacking, so I threw in some Grand Marnier and lemon juice/zest hoping they would give it a lift. I'm not usually this experimental, tending to stick to a recipe, but mediocre medlar calls for desperate measures.

 

 

 

I cooked it gently for a relatively soft set, and bruléed a slice to distract from the unrelenting brownness of it all. It was... fine. Think of it as a 'Meh'-dlar Tart. I will not be submitting it for inclusion in the next edition of Larousse Gastronomique.

 

Going back to the tart I skipped over earlier, there was a link to a recipe for ma'amoul cookies that made use of the medlar flesh...

 

 

 

Medlar and walnut on the left; date a orange flower on the right. 

 

You will be shocked - shocked! - to learn that I didn't think much to the medlar version, but I did like the dates. I've made ma'amoul a couple of times before, quite a while ago, but forgotten that I was a fan.