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

[eugenep]

29 minutes ago, shain said:

@eugenep I'm not really sure. I don't think it's an issue with under baking. Try first soaking some plums in water to see if any bitterness becomes notable once the sweetness is diluted. If they taste good, you can try soaking the fruit in another spirit like rum, or even water. I don;t think it's an issue with under baking.  Sorry that I have no concrete answer to give, never had this happen. Although I did have some terribly bitter fresh plums ruin a clafoutis once.

My friend said that you don't just soak the prunes in brandy and instead bakers would soak it in black tea, sugar, brandy and so on. 

 

With these brandy soaked plums, they go on to use it for baking. 

 

When you soak brandy with prunes and use it to bake, do you just pour brandy over plums and let it sit for a few hours? 

 

Or do you soak the prunes in a complicated mixture of: sugar, black tea, water, brandy? 

 

your help is mucho helpful and appreciated. 

[shain]

3 minutes ago, eugenep said:

My friend said that you don't just soak the prunes in brandy and instead bakers would soak it in black tea, sugar, brandy and so on. 

 

With these brandy soaked plums, they go on to use it for baking. 

 

When you soak brandy with prunes and use it to bake, do you just pour brandy over plums and let it sit for a few hours? 

 

Or do you soak the prunes in a complicated mixture of: sugar, black tea, water, brandy? 

 

your help is mucho helpful and appreciated. 

 

I just mix with brandy and let it sit. I might add some warm water in cases where cooking time is very short (e.g. kaiserschmarrn, crepe filling, pancakes). This helps them be more plump and less boozy.

[heidih]

49 minutes ago, shain said:

 

We buy hazels (with skin) at 6.5$/lb. Walnuts are 5.4$. Peeled hazels are 7.6$.

I love baking with all nuts, and I don't think any is inherently better - it depends on the use case. But I do think that pecans and hazelnuts are those that manage to come through best.

Strawberry jam is most commonly used in Israel, and I enjoy it on the rare occasion it's a really good jam (ie home made - I never found a decent store bought strawberry jam). My mother used to use apricot jam, or less often plum, always home made. I'm pretty sure she never used nuts in her dough, though. And surely not hazels. I'll have to ask her.

Your nut prices sound decent. I think what we may have done was mesh Linzer with Ischler . The sandwich cookie with similar dough base and always used the mold from the Schaumrollen to make the hole for the red jam to peek through. I have no relative base to bounce this off of. BUT my mail guys re being super nice so I think they are hoping for sweets despite Pandemic.

[AAQuesada]

On 11/21/2020 at 5:56 PM, ElsieD said:

The amount of one of the ingredients seems wrong to me. It calls for 1/4 CUP of baking powder.  Can this possibly be right? 

 

On 11/22/2020 at 4:39 AM, teonzo said:

Definetely too high, the flour / baking powder ratio should be around 50:1. One of the many reasons why it's better going metric.

 

makes me think this recipe was converted from weight by some rote table. my guess is that original recipe was something 1 lb of flour and 2oz of baking powder. Which is a little heavy but maybe thats the style?!

[shain]

A sort of "magic custard cake" (a cake that separates into layers as it bakes). Flavored with cacao, nutmeg and a bit of cinnamon. Served warm with rum soaked dried fruits and hazelnuts. Also vanilla ice cream.

 

 

[Jeff1701]

Christmas Cookies. 

[Kim Shook]

2 hours ago, Jeff1701 said:

Christmas Cookies. 

It didn't come through for me.  

[ElsieD]

5 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

It didn't come through for me.  

 

Me neither.

[Jeff1701]

I'll try again! 

[Anna N]

On 12/11/2020 at 11:20 AM, ElsieD said:

 

Me neither.

What is supposed to come through?

[ElsieD]

18 minutes ago, Anna N said:

What is supposed to come through?

 

The link in @Jeff1701 's post does not work for me.

 

ETA:  just saw the update and can now see the  picture.

Edited December 12, 2020 by ElsieD (log)

[Anna N]

11 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

The link in @Jeff1701 's post does not work for me.

 

ETA:  just saw the update and can now see the  picture.

Thanks I didn’t even see that there was a link there. 

[kayb]

Fudge.

 

From left, white chocolate macadamia nut, peanut butter, and milk chocolate walnut.

 

As posted on the OT Holiday Decorating thread, purchased gingerbread houses from a kit, decorated by the resident elves.

 

A goodly amount of candy may have been consumed during the process.

 

 

 

 

[David Ross]

On 12/6/2020 at 11:36 AM, Chris Hennes said:

I just finished making Eric Gestel's Croissant recipe from The Rise:  it has a couple of things that were unusual (to me) in it. First, it has two separate overnight refrigeration stages, one just after making the the dough and before doing the lock-in, and the second after all the folds are complete, but before shaping. These long cold-proofs give the dough a great flavor, but also give the croissant surface that bubbly texture characteristic of cold-proofs (and to me, uncharacteristic of croissants).

 

 

The recipe also has you work with the butter much colder than I am used to, with 30 minute refrigeration in between every fold, plus rolling straight from the refrigerator in the morning both days. It seems to me it was developed for people working in a vey warm kitchen. I followed the recipe as written, but the layers of the croissants sort of blur together.

 

Wow what a beauty Chris and obviously the work was well worth it.

[David Ross]

The annual Sticky Toffee Pudding that I'll make for New Year's Eve. I'm not sure what the original source of the recipe was, probably one of my many holiday food and cooking magazines, then tinkered with until I got it just right last year.  Served with Rum Raisin Sauce, but if my Father was still with us, he'd have a huge scoop of the hard sauce Mother made.  You know, just butter and powdered sugar and maybe a few spoons of brandy.  We always bought a Plum Pudding and made the hard sauce, but I like the softer texture of the Sticky Toffee Pudding and all that gooey, warm caramel.

[Kerry Beal]

16 minutes ago, David Ross said:

The annual Sticky Toffee Pudding that I'll make for New Year's Eve. I'm not sure what the original source of the recipe was, probably one of my many holiday food and cooking magazines, then tinkered with until I got it just right last year.  Served with Rum Raisin Sauce, but if my Father was still with us, he'd have a huge scoop of the hard sauce Mother made.  You know, just butter and powdered sugar and maybe a few spoons of brandy.  We always bought a Plum Pudding and made the hard sauce, but I like the softer texture of the Sticky Toffee Pudding and all that gooey, warm caramel.

I grew up with hard sauce as a choice too - but not with sticky toffee pud!

[David Ross]

Just now, Kerry Beal said:

I grew up with hard sauce as a choice too - but not with sticky toffee pud!

That's what I say too!  My Father would sneak more and more hard sauce for his plum pudding.

[shain]

@David Ross Care to share the recipe? I've been looking at a few trying to decide which to make. Though I have to warn I might desecrate it with some coconut. Thanks!

[David Ross]

13 minutes ago, shain said:

@David Ross Care to share the recipe? I've been looking at a few trying to decide which to make. Though I have to warn I might desecrate it with some coconut. Thanks!

 

For the Rum Raisin Sauce-makes 4 cups of sauce

4 cups heavy whipping cream

2 cups packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup butter 1 stick of butter

1/2 cup currants substitute golden raisins

1/3 cup dark rum

 

For the Sticky Toffee Pudding-

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup chopped, pitted dates

2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup butter, softened 2 sticks of butter

2/3 cup sugar

4 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup brandy substitute dark rum

2 tbsp. dark molasses

2/3 cup chopped candied pineapple substitute regular raisins

1 cup golden raisins

2 tbsp. chopped candied ginger

1 cup chopped walnuts

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

whipped cream for garnish

 

Make the Rum Raisin Sauce-

Pour the whipping cream into a saucepan over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and butter and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to cook until the sauce is reduced and thickens about 10 minutes. Stir in the rum.

 

Pour half of the sauce into a bowl. This is the sauce we'll pour over the sticky toffee pudding. In the other half of the sauce, stir in the raisins. This is the sauce we'll use to pour over the baked sticky toffee pudding and serve on the side. Cover and refrigerate the two sauces until ready to use.

 

Make the Sticky Toffee Pudding and Serve-

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray the mold pan or bundt pan with non-stick spray. Place the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and stir to combine.

 

Pour the water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir in the chopped dates and baking soda. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir the mixture. The dates will start to melt and thicken, creating a sticky date paste.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugar until it's creamed and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla, brandy, and molasses and continue to beat until the mixture is combined. Add the pineapple, raisins, candied ginger and walnuts to the batter and mix again until the batter is combined. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture and then the date mixture. Continue to mix until all the ingredients are combined.

 

Spoon 1/2 cup of the rum sauce (without the currants), in the bottom of the mold pan. Then pour the batter on top of the rum sauce. Leave about 1" from the top of the pan for the cake to rise. Jiggle the pan so that the batter is evenly distributed.

 

Bake the sticky toffee pudding for 30 minutes. At this point, the pudding is only partially baked. Carefully pour 1 cup of the rum sauce (without the currants), on top of the pudding. Continue to bake the sticky toffee pudding for another 20 minutes, or until it's dark golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the pudding from the oven and let it rest on a cookie rack for 5 minutes.

 

Gently run the point of a paring knife around the edge of the mold. Place a cookie rack over the top of the mold and invert, turning the sticky toffee pudding over on top of another cookie rack. Tap the mold and gently release the sticky toffee pudding. Let the pudding cool for 5 minutes before serving.

 

Place the warm sticky toffee pudding on a serving plate. Pour some of the rum raisin sauce (with the currants), over the top of the sticky toffee pudding and around the sides. Serve additional rum raisin sauce on the side. Serve whipped cream on the side.

[shain]

Thanks a bunch!

[oli]

I remember my mom making this but she used a creme anglaise type of sauce. I don't know if it was a real creme anglaise but I suspect she used something very close. She used to be a chef for major companies and armed services in the NWT and Co. in America and if she could cut corners but give the same result she would go that route. A liquid vanilla pudding?

Anyways, that's the way I prefer my pudding, and I suspect, since I have not had the rum sauce it would be not as sweet.

Edited December 18, 2020 by oli (log)

[Kerry Beal]

1 hour ago, oli said:

I remember my mom making this but she used a creme anglaise type of sauce. I don't know if it was a real creme anglaise but I suspect she used something very close. She used to be a chef for major companies and armed services in the NWT and Co. in America and if she could cut corners but give the same result she would go that route. A liquid vanilla pudding?

Anyways, that's the way I prefer my pudding, and I suspect, since I have not had the rum sauce it would be not as sweet.

Maybe Harry Hornes or Bird's custard powder pudding?

[Kerry Beal]

 

Sticky toffee pudding - I have been wanting to make this again for a while - but I've been in search of the right recipe. Too many recipes are stodgy and I have wanted a fairly light one like I remember from my trips to the UK that hubby, dad and I took in the years before the rug rat's adoption occurred. 

 

In 2016 when @Anna N and I were in Manitoulin in the summer - I posted my mom's recipe for date and rhubarb cake and @JohnT mentioned that it was very similar to his recipe for sticky toffee pudding and posted a recipe there. I had copied the recipe into MacGourmet but noticed it called for 15 grams of butter which seemed a little meager. Anna found the reference to the recipe in the Manitoulin Unravelled thread and I've been down that rabbit hole now for hours! 35 pages!

 

But this is it - the Sticky Toffee Pudding of my dreams. I used date paste instead of dates and it was very satisfactory. 

 

Anyway - I'm at page 27 of 35 - so I'll catch you later. 

[curls]

So, @Kerry Bealdid you make this sticky toffee pudding with 15 grams of butter?  I’ll see about rereading that Manitoulin thread tomorrow!

[Kerry Beal]

11 hours ago, curls said:

So, @Kerry Bealdid you make this sticky toffee pudding with 15 grams of butter?  I’ll see about rereading that Manitoulin thread tomorrow!

Nope - used 150G