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

[Tropicalsenior]

Just now, heidih said:

Tried and True?

Trite & Trivial?

[Elkyfr]

 

15 hours ago, Kerry Beal said:

Scratch custard doesn't taste the same. 

 

Of course, birds do not use egg. I always like the pastry cream that I have always eaten since I was little, with the egg yolk and contains vanilla flakes, creamy and tasty.

[oli]

16 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

Trite & Trivial?

Tired & True

[Tropicalsenior]

16 hours ago, heidih said:

Tried and True?

Looks like @heidih gets the red balloon .

[Pete Fred]

I picked up a tin of chestnut purée and tried it a couple of different ways mentioned in David Lebovitz's blog post: paired with some fromage blanc and spread on brioche toast....

 

 

It didn't bring much to the cheese party, so I won't bother with that again, but it was nice on toast so I can see myself grabbing another tin at some point.

 

I also made a no-churn ice cream from a Nigella Lawson recipe. It's just the purée mixed with rum (or Armagnac in my case) and folded through sweetened whipped cream. It was OK but nothing special. I tried it with a slice of warm chestnut honey sponge...

 

 

...but it was less than the sum of its parts.

 

Away from chestnuts, I made Christina Tosi's Perfect 10 granola bars...

 

 

These were more of a 5/10 for me. I found them closer to powdery than chewy. But at least I did learn one thing: chocolate chips have no place in this type of confection.

[oli]

So anyone have a reliable recipe for the steamed honey pudding or will any recipe I find on the internet work?

Edited May 14, 2023 by oli (log)

[Anna N]

13 minutes ago, oli said:

So anyone have a reliable recipe for the steamed honet pudding or will any recipe I find on the internet work?

I would reach out to @Pete Fred

[heidih]

1 hour ago, Pete Fred said:

I picked up a tin of chestnut purée and tried it a couple of different ways mentioned in David Lebovitz's blog post: paired with some fromage blanc and spread on brioche toast....

 

 

It didn't bring much to the cheese party, so I won't bother with that again, but it was nice on toast so I can see myself grabbing another tin at some point.

 

I also made a no-churn ice cream from a Nigella Lawson recipe. It's just the purée mixed with rum (or Armagnac in my case) and folded through sweetened whipped cream. It was OK but nothing special. I tried it with a slice of warm chestnut honey sponge...

 

 

...but it was less than the sum of its parts.

 

Away from chestnuts, I made Christina Tosi's Perfect 10 granola bars...

 

 

These were more of a 5/10 for me. I found them closer to powdery than chewy. But at least I did learn one thing: chocolate chips have no place in this type of confection.

So kinda like Kaya toast  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022655-kaya-toast

[Kerry Beal]

On 5/13/2023 at 10:11 AM, Elkyfr said:

 

 

Of course, birds do not use egg. I always like the pastry cream that I have always eaten since I was little, with the egg yolk and contains vanilla flakes, creamy and tasty.

I'm well aware that Birds is arrowroot and other starches and vanillin - but it's what I associate with trifle and the custard that was served with some steamed puddings in my house. I've made 'real' custard to go with them - but isn't not the same. 

 

It's like the less than artisnal chocolate bar you were raised with - it's familiar - it's comfort. 

[OlyveOyl]

Mini Mary Ann cakelets, the cavity is filled with passionfruit curd.  Raspberries, blueberries and the first of the local strawberries…strawberries not sweet yet, but happy to have local berries. I had made a half dozen of the cakelets last week and froze two.  Delighted to have them today to have with the curd and berries!

Edited May 14, 2023 by OlyveOyl (log)

[Tropicalsenior]

56 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

It's like the less than artisnal chocolate bar you were raised with - it's familiar - it's comfort. 

Exactly. It's like a Twinkie that you could never replicate because it's nothing but pure chemicals but, oh that taste, and the memory because it was a Twinkie.

[Pete Fred]

16 hours ago, oli said:

So anyone have a reliable recipe for the steamed honey pudding or will any recipe I find on the internet work?

 

I used this Paul Hollywood recipe. You can watch him make it here. I would advise using very soft butter and having all the other ingredients at room temperature so that everything blends well.

[oli]

20 minutes ago, Pete Fred said:

 

I used this Paul Hollywood recipe. You can watch him make it here. I would advise using very soft butter and having all the other ingredients at room temperature so that everything blends well.

Earlier I saw that recipe and was going to use if no one came through. 

Thanks for the confirmation.

[Pete Fred]

Gâteau Breton is easy to throw together. It's just flour, butter, sugar and egg yolks, so it's kinda like a shortbready cake. Obviously the better the butter the better the cake. I've only ever made it with those four ingredients but it's not unusual to have a filling of some kind, most commonly prunes. Aldi had 3% off a bag of Agen prunes (French supermarkets have the weirdest discounts!) so that was excuse enough to give it a try...

 

 

It was fine but I think it's best when great French salted butter is the star of the show. I'll be going back to basics in future.

[rotuts]

@Pete Fred 

 

that looks delicious to me .

 

have you found French butter  , esp great 

 

different slated vs not salted ?

 

 

[Pete Fred]

Access to great butter is not a problem. Brittany, Normandy, and Charentes-Poitou butters are readily available in most supermarkets. For the gâteau breton I used Isigny butter with flaky sea salt crystals (3%). That's really good, especially if you can find the raw cream version. And I use salted butter for pretty much everything, baking included. (Don't get me started on lack of salt in sweet things. I'm gonna get an apron one day that says "Needs More Salt!" 😉)

 

I'm always intrigued when American authors and blogs insist on 'European-style butter' in their recipes. Is the regular stuff over there really noticably inferior? US butter seems to be 80% fat, whereas here it's 82-84%. Or perhaps American dairy cows are grain-fed rather than grass-fed? 🤷‍♂️

[heidih]

5 minutes ago, Pete Fred said:

Access to great butter is not a problem. Brittany, Normandy, and Charentes-Poitou butters are readily available in most supermarkets. For the gâteau breton I used Isigny butter with flaky sea salt crystals (3%). That's really good, especially if you can find the raw cream version. And I use salted butter for pretty much everything, baking included. (Don't get me started on lack of salt in sweet things. I'm gonna get an apron one day that says "Needs More Salt!" 😉)

 

I'm always intrigued when American authors and blogs insist on 'European-style butter' in their recipes. Is the regular stuff over there really noticably inferior? US butter seems to be 80% fat, whereas here it's 82-84%. Or perhaps American dairy cows are grain-fed rather than grass-fed? 🤷‍♂️

Thank you for joining me on the salted butter path. As a girl when I first started baking under the older ladies tutelage it was a beeezarre hunt for unsalted Fleischman's MARGARINE. Maybe some WW2 food sourcing influenced them? When I grew up it still took e so,e years to break away from that. I now use salted butter and it works in an enjoyable way in my baked goods. Yes I have read the pros and cons but let my tastebuds rule. The first year I used butter in my holiday gift baking the recipients told me "best ever" with sincerity. 

[Pete Fred]

Tahini Poppy Seed Pound Cake from King Arthur...

 

 

It took a long time to bake and was a touch dry but I liked it. There was good sesame flavour from the seed coating. Next time I'll load up the top more with sesame seeds for a bit more of that toasted note.

[ElsieD]

@Pete Fred. Who eats all those goodies?

[heidih]

4 hours ago, Pete Fred said:

Tahini Poppy Seed Pound Cake from King Arthur...

 

 

It took a long time to bake and was a touch dry but I liked it. There was good sesame flavour from the seed coating. Next time I'll load up the top more with sesame seeds for a bit more of that toasted note.

At fist glance I thought "sesame seed, poppy, plus tahi=ni?" Then the "duh" hit - tahini is made from sesame. Mostly I now have a craving for the poppyseed cake made with the SOLO product - very moist and loaded with seeds.

[Pete Fred]

2 hours ago, heidih said:

Mostly I now have a craving for the poppyseed cake made with the SOLO product - very moist and loaded with seeds.

 

Agreed. Love poppy seeds.

 

2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

@Pete Fred. Who eats all those goodies?

 

If it's any good I might stash some away in the freezer, but mostly it goes to neighbours. Or sometimes just random people I meet. There's Jean who I pass on the road walking into town and we exchange pleasantries in my ropey French. I saw where he lived one day and now I'll leave an occasional treat on his window ledge if I'm walking by. Another time I got talking to a fella in Aldi who liked my hat; he's sometimes there on a Sunday morning at the same time as me so I'll stick a slice or two in my backpack on the off-chance we cross. There's also the goat cheese lady at the market who used to get a weekly bag of goodies until she went low-carb around Christmas to shed a few pounds. And if I do an odd-job for a friend of a friend then more often than not I'll throw in some cake or cookies just to get shut of the stuff.

[heidih]

17 minutes ago, Pete Fred said:

If it's any good I might stash some away in the freezer, but mostly it goes to neighbours. Or sometimes just random people I meet. There's Jean who I pass on the road walking into town and we exchange pleasantries in my ropey French. I saw where he lived one day and now I'll leave an occasional treat on his window ledge if I'm walking by. Another time I got talking to a fella in Aldi who liked my hat; he's sometimes there on a Sunday morning at the same time as me so I'll stick a slice or two in my backpack on the off-chance we cross. There's also the goat cheese lady at the market who used to get a weekly bag of goodies until she went low-carb around Christmas to shed a few pounds. And if I do an odd-job for a friend of a friend then more often than not I'll throw in some cake or cookies just to get shut of the stuff.

That is great. I used to do my big bake for Christmas gifting and had a pretty large list of folks that looked forward to their trays. Then I heard many were inundated at Christmas especially in large offices. Client/vendor stuff. So I switched to random gifting when it is unexpected.  Now it is just the guards, fire tation, IT guys, amd a handful of friends. It has been mazing how the treats cemented (sweetened) long relationships. I had a hard time with the facilities maintenance guys at a large hospital (a male/female thing) - the baked goods really sweetened up their attitudes. 

Edited May 18, 2023 by heidih (log)

[ElsieD]

27 minutes ago, Pete Fred said:

 

 

 

If it's any good I might stash some away in the freezer, but mostly it goes to neighbours. Or sometimes just random people I meet. There's Jean who I pass on the road walking into town and we exchange pleasantries in my ropey French. I saw where he lived one day and now I'll leave an occasional treat on his window ledge if I'm walking by. Another time I got talking to a fella in Aldi who liked my hat; he's sometimes there on a Sunday morning at the same time as me so I'll stick a slice or two in my backpack on the off-chance we cross. There's also the goat cheese lady at the market who used to get a weekly bag of goodies until she went low-carb around Christmas to shed a few pounds. And if I do an odd-job for a friend of a friend then more often than not I'll throw in some cake or cookies just to get shut of the stuff.

 

Wish I lived on your route!

[TdeV]

1 hour ago, Pete Fred said:

If it's any good I might stash some away in the freezer, but mostly it goes to neighbours. Or sometimes just random people I meet. There's Jean who I pass on the road walking into town and we exchange pleasantries in my ropey French. I saw where he lived one day and now I'll leave an occasional treat on his window ledge if I'm walking by. Another time I got talking to a fella in Aldi who liked my hat; he's sometimes there on a Sunday morning at the same time as me so I'll stick a slice or two in my backpack on the off-chance we cross. There's also the goat cheese lady at the market who used to get a weekly bag of goodies until she went low-carb around Christmas to shed a few pounds. And if I do an odd-job for a friend of a friend then more often than not I'll throw in some cake or cookies just to get shut of the stuff.

 

Right, now I'm moving to France. 😋

[ElsieD]

19 minutes ago, TdeV said:

 

Right, now I'm moving to France. 😋

Please pick me up on your way through.