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

[Pete Fred]

6 minutes ago, oli said:

Tell me what your brownie tastes like compared to brownies we all have had numerous times before.

It looks quite different to me so I was just curious.

 

I'm not sure there's much you can do taste-wise with a brownie, other than the quality of the chocolate and quantity and type of sugar. I guess it's more of a texture thing with Mr Young's brownies. They're on the fudgy side. 🙂

[Tropicalsenior]

I had a little bit of dough left over when I made Char Siu Bao today so I made a tiny batch of tiny cinnamon rolls.

Each one is about two bites.

[oli]

4 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I had a little bit of dough left over when I made Char Siu Bao today so I made a tiny batch of tiny cinnamon rolls.

Each one is about two bites.

How cute, I'll take two.

[Tropicalsenior]

Sorry about that but you spoke about 5 minutes too late.

[kayb]

Kids came over for dinner today and I warmed up a chocolate cobbler and dished it up with ice cream.  In yet another testimony to the CSO, I made this thing a week ago and reheating it on steam bake made it taste like I’d just pulled it out of the oven.

 

Recipe here. For a quick dessert using stuff you likely have in the pantry, it’s hard to beat. I didn’t have any selfrising flour, so I used AP with soda and baking powder.

[Tropicalsenior]

31 minutes ago, kayb said:

chocolate cobbler

Just read the recipe and it is what we used to call pudding cake. Thank you, it looks like a great recipe. I haven't made it in years but I think it's time to try it again.

[Katie Meadow]

Continuing with "Snacking Cakes" I baked the carrot cake with dates. My first disappointment with this book. Not bad, just kinda boring. Good for children who won't eat vegetables, but I've had better carrot cake.

[Pete Fred]

I always seem to have an abundance of egg whites. So in the the last couple of weeks I've put them to good use. The first port of call is usually financiers.

 

A buckwheat one from a Christophe Felder recipe...

 

 

And a hazelnut one by Cedric Grolet...

 

 

But when I need to use up a lot of egg whites (nine!) then I make L’annécien by Maxime Frédéric...

 

 

The texture's soft but bouncy (in a good way!). When I first made it last year it seemed to me it was basically a Gâteau Lorrain (similar to Angel Food Cake, only with butter), hence the cross...

 

 

The Bundt version is the way to go because the mould is dusted with crunchy sugar for added interest.

[RWood]

Mini scones. Bacon, cheddar and scallions and white chocolate, apricot and pecan. 

[oli]

1 hour ago, RWood said:

Mini scones. Bacon, cheddar and scallions and white chocolate, apricot and pecan. 

Are the chocolate, apricot and pecans separate scones or are they rolled into one? I like apricots in my biscotti as it give it a contrast between in textures, but haven't used them in scones.

Edited March 7, 2023 by oli (log)

[RWood]

12 minutes ago, oli said:

Are the chocolate, apricot and pecans separate scones or are they rolled into one? I like apricots in my biscotti as it give it a contrast between in textures, but haven't used them in scones.

All in one. I don’t particularly like apricot or white chocolate that much, but this combination is pretty good. 

[Pete Fred]

Another day, another way to put egg whites to good use. François Payard's Chocolate-Walnut Cookie...

 

 

I'm a fan. Very easy to make, and gluten-free if that's your thing.

 

[Tropicalsenior]

Yesterday I made the Sparkling Gingerbread Cake. I like a strong Ginger flavor and it seems like this one probably would have it. Wow, oh boy did it ever. It calls for a tablespoon each of fresh and powdered Ginger and a quarter cup of crystallized ginger. My fresh ginger had quite a bit of a bite as did the crystallized ginger that I had made by @liuzhou's recipe. I must say that it is the first time that I have taken a bite of cake and had it bite me back. This recipe is a keeper.

 

[ElsieD]

@Tropicalsenior. I love that cake!

[Tropicalsenior]

39 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

@Tropicalsenior. I love that cake!

Me too! I'm glad to finally find a recipe that satisfies my taste for ginger. I'll never make it any other way.

[Kim Shook]

3 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Yesterday I made the Sparkling Gingerbread Cake. I like a strong Ginger flavor and it seems like this one probably would have it. Wow, oh boy did it ever. It calls for a tablespoon each of fresh and powdered Ginger and a quarter cup of crystallized ginger. My fresh ginger had quite a bit of a bite as did the crystallized ginger that I had made by @liuzhou's recipe. I must say that it is the first time that I have taken a bite of cake and had it bite me back. This recipe is a keeper.

 

Mr. Kim will love this.  Thanks for posting the link.  His favorite cookies that I make also use all three sorts of ginger.  I got that book from the library and it is definitely going on my wishlist.  

Edited March 8, 2023 by Kim Shook (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Kim Shook said:

His favorite cookies

Thanks for the recipe. After looking it over, it is next on my list.

[Katie Meadow]

4 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Me too! I'm glad to finally find a recipe that satisfies my taste for ginger. I'll never make it any other way.

I'm not surprised that Yossy Arefi's ginger cake packs a punch. She's very generous with spices in many of the recipes in Snacking Cakes. I thought the carrot cake called for too much fresh grated nutmeg, so I cut back a bit and was glad I did. As for the sesame cake, that also has a substantial amount of tahini.but that really works for me.

 

Yesterday I baked the Blueberry Blackberry Ricotta Cake, mainly because my husband came back from the store with blackberries. My experience with commercial blackberries is that they are often tasteless or just off. We used to have several blackberry patches that we could pick from ourselves, and those were delicious; not any more--they've been paved over or sprouted buildings. So, these weren't the greatest blackberries. If I made it again I would just use blueberries. The cake tasted even better for breakfast this morning. So if you like blueberry muffins you will love this cake. The ricotta gives it a really nice texture. I also think cutting back a little on the sugar would be a good idea; that's not unusual for me, though with many cakes. 

[Smithy]

On 3/8/2023 at 5:54 AM, Pete Fred said:

Another day, another way to put egg whites to good use. François Payard's Chocolate-Walnut Cookie...

 

 

I'm a fan. Very easy to make, and gluten-free if that's your thing.

 

 

Those look delicious! Is this the recipe you used? 

[Pete Fred]

9 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Those look delicious! Is this the recipe you used? 

That’s the one. 👍 It’s a very good cookie. 

[Pete Fred]

I took some Semolina Almond Cookies (Dorie Greenspan) round to a friend's...

 

 

I had a feeling I'd posted them here a few years back, and when I checked I was a little surprised to read that I didn't particularly rate them at the time. 🤯

 

Not sure why. I've made them several times since and think they're delightful. I can only think they must've been better the next day and I didn't bother to follow up.

 

 

 

[TdeV]

Those cookies look totally fabulous! Do you have a recipe for that, @Pete Fred

[Pete Fred]

They're Dorie's Moroccan Semolina and Almond Cookies.

 

She writes of them...

 

It was a picture in a French magazine that won my heart and set me to dreaming about what these cookies would be like. In the picture, the sugar-coated cookies were cracked — I later learned that in Morocco the cracks are often called smiles — and you could see the slightly rough crumb in the crevices. I couldn’t tell if the cookies, sometimes called ghrieba, sometimes ghoriba, would be airy or substantial, but I was betting on a shortbread-like texture, and I was right. I was also betting on a certain very agreeable graininess because of the semolina. Semolina falls somewhere on the texture continuum between whole wheat our and cornmeal; it’s golden and it’s high-gluten, which is why it’s the flour of choice for pasta. In a cookie, it provides a bit of bite and a slight grit, the kind of presence the French would call sablé, or sandy. And then there’s the almond flour, for flavor, of course, but it also adds another mysterious layer to the cookie’s surprising elegance.

[Pete Fred]

I was very taken with the Paul A Young brownie from last week. In fact they're so good I made some more...

 

 

This was baked a little longer (pulled at 82C) for a firmer set. The wet-look is more an artefact of dipping the knife in hot water.

 

There is a recipe and a video of him making them on daytime telly. (Or on YouTube if that won't play in your location.)

[Kim Shook]

Made a pie from a 2003 Taste of Home “Quick Cooking” magazine that I brought home from my NC Grandma’s sometime years ago.  Cooking from those magazines brings back memories of her – she subscribed to all of the different Taste of Home publications and read them so carefully.  I honestly don’t know that she ever actually COOKED from them, but she loved talking about the recipes and encouraging me to make things that she’d noticed.  David Ross was also a fan of the magazine and I remember his excitement and pride when he had a recipe published.  The pie was Peanut Butter Cup Pie:

 

Just a toss together in 5 minutes, instant pudding, Cool Whip, freezer pie, but it was creamy and chocolatey.  It needed more of a peanut butter punch so next time I’ll double the Reeses cups and add either a PB ribbon or some PB powder.