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

[Jim D.]

14 hours ago, rarerollingobject said:

I'm so dedicated to office baking, I keep my own marble cake stand here!

 

OK, I've been looking at these incredible, over-the-top creations for months now, and I have to ask:  If it's not overly personal (and not terribly scandalous) what type of business is this? ... And what is the average weight per employee? 

[rarerollingobject]

7 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 

OK, I've been looking at these incredible, over-the-top creations for months now, and I have to ask:  If it's not overly personal (and not terribly scandalous) what type of business is this? ... And what is the average weight per employee? 

 

I'm very big in government. Literally. 

[cakewalk]

A while ago on Serious Eats Stella Parks did a whole thing about toasted sugar. Here's the link: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/05/how-to-make-caramel-without-melting-sugar.html I remember I thought it sounded great and wanted to try it, but (of course) I never got around to it and then forgot about it entirely. Today i was reading through some baking blogs and found the following post on Pastries Like a Pro. (I'm so glad she did the work and posted about it.) It is interesting. Has anyone tried this? 

https://pastrieslikeapro.com/2017/09/toasted-sugar-or-not/#more-15136

[ElsieD]

17 minutes ago, cakewalk said:

A while ago on Serious Eats Stella Parks did a whole thing about toasted sugar. Here's the link: http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/05/how-to-make-caramel-without-melting-sugar.html I remember I thought it sounded great and wanted to try it, but (of course) I never got around to it and then forgot about it entirely. Today i was reading through some baking blogs and found the following post on Pastries Like a Pro. (I'm so glad she did the work and posted about it.) It is interesting. Has anyone tried this? 

https://pastrieslikeapro.com/2017/09/toasted-sugar-or-not/#more-15136

 

I did this the other day out of curiosity.  I am a big fan of Stella Parks.  The author of the article you linked to did hers for 6 hours, I did mine for 2 hours as per the book, Brave Tart.  Excellent book, BTW.  My sugar is much lighter than PLAP, but strangely, not as sweet as untoasted sugar.  I haven't used any yet, but I am using it to make Kouign Aman which I plan to do within the next couple of days.  Based on taste alone, I would not be bothered doing this again, but I may change my mind once I do some baking with it.

[shain]

Sorry for the poor picture, this is however one of my favorite cakes for almost a decade. 

Poppy seed and coconut cake, with thin white chocolate ganache flavored with cognac.

[cakewalk]

7 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

I did this the other day out of curiosity.  I am a big fan of Stella Parks.  The author of the article you linked to did hers for 6 hours, I did mine for 2 hours as per the book, Brave Tart.  Excellent book, BTW.  My sugar is much lighter than PLAP, but strangely, not as sweet as untoasted sugar.  I haven't used any yet, but I am using it to make Kouign Aman which I plan to do within the next couple of days.  Based on taste alone, I would not be bothered doing this again, but I may change my mind once I do some baking with it.

Yes, in general it seems that it takes a lot of time (whether two hours or six) without much of a payoff. PLAP also mentions that the toasted sugar is less sweet. I think Stella Parks mentions it too. I loved her blog BraveTart, I thought it was wonderful and really missed it when she stopped, but I am less taken with her posts on Serious Eats. I'm glad to hear that you like her book. 

[ElsieD]

Kouign Aman.  Not as well shaped as they could be, but very, very good.  Within an hour of them coming out of the oven, 5 of the 12 had disappeared!

[cakewalk]

Cranberry Upside Down cake. I haven't baked in ages. This was my last bag of cranberries from last year. Need to make room for the new crop. 

[lindag]

2 hours ago, cakewalk said:

Cranberry Upside Down cake. I haven't baked in ages. This was my last bag of cranberries from last year. Need to make room for the new crop. 

 

 

That looks just wonderful!!!

[cakewalk]

Thank you! It was good, if I may say so myself. It's from a recipe I found on the internet ages ago, I forgot about it and then it turned up so I tried it again. There's just something about cranberries ... 

Let me know if you want the recipe, I'll PM it to you.

Edited September 18, 2017 by cakewalk
Added stuff. (log)

[cakewalk]

It's that time of year again. Marcie Goldman's Moist and Majestic Honey Cake. 

[MelissaH]

On 9/15/2017 at 3:22 PM, cakewalk said:

Yes, in general it seems that it takes a lot of time (whether two hours or six) without much of a payoff. PLAP also mentions that the toasted sugar is less sweet. I think Stella Parks mentions it too. I loved her blog BraveTart, I thought it was wonderful and really missed it when she stopped, but I am less taken with her posts on Serious Eats. I'm glad to hear that you like her book. 

I made a batch of toasted sugar shortly after the Serious Eats recipe came out. Mine took about 3 hours to turn a light beige color. To me, it does taste less sweet, and I use it in applications such as angel food cake that I often find too sweet for my tongue. Next time I'm going to bake longer and darker. It's something I do on a day when I'm home and not overly occupied with other tasks, or am working on something and need a reminder to get up and spend a bit of time looking at something other than the computer screen every so often.

[cakewalk]

Yes, angel food cake is an excellent application for the toasted sugar, for the very reason you mention. Have you stored the toasted sugar for any length of time? I'm wondering if it stores well so that it can be at-hand when needed for something like that. 

[MelissaH]

Mine's seemingly fine, after however long it's been. It clumps a bit, but I keep it in a container that seals tightly enough that I can shake it, which breaks up the clumps.

[cakewalk]

On ‎9‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 2:44 PM, ElsieD said:

Kouign Aman.  Not as well shaped as they could be, but very, very good.  Within an hour of them coming out of the oven, 5 of the 12 had disappeared!

Did you make them with the toasted sugar? Do you think it made a difference in the flavor? I think they look great. I've never made Kouign Aman, it's certainly time to give it a go. (A little later.) And I love that teapot!

[ElsieD]

@cakewalk  yes, i made them with the toasted sugar but can't really say if the fact that the sugar was toasted makes any difference in the flavour as the sugar on the outside caramalizes anyways.  Thanks for the compliment on the tea pot.  When I went looking for one, I was drawn to it because of the colourful polka dots.

[RWood]

Not the best photo, but I made Tiramisu for my cousins birthday dessert (don't think he's ever had it-but he really liked it). 

Family members beg for it, and I'm like "yeah, whatever". But I tend to forget how good it is 

[Anna N]

2 minutes ago, RWood said:

Family members beg for it, and I'm like "yeah, whatever". But I tend to forget how good it is 

 I can turn my back on most desserts but a good tiramisu.....

[Kasia]

Wholemeal chocolate muffins with raspberries  - RecipeGullet

 

 

[Smithy]

Those chocolate muffins look decadent and delicious, Kasia.  Thanks for posting the recipe.  That bit of molten chocolate in the interior must be a delicious surprise.

[pastrygirl]

My older sister is turning 50 so I made her a cake because I'm so nice ...

 

 

... and put chocolate dinosaurs on it because sibling rivalry will never die

 

[pjm333]

Tiramisu , Apple tarte tatin, Pumpkin Crinkle

[JohnT]

@pjm333 those mini's look very good! Mind letting me know the diameter of you tarte tatin's? I was experimenting making them a couple of months back but had to put my experiments on pause. I was cooking mine in two stages as the pastry was overdone with the apple not cooked sufficiently. I was using 9cm diameter pans but think 7cm diameter would be a far better size. I must start my experiments again and try and perfect them for bulk baking.

[pjm333]

JohnT,

   They were cast iron pans 3 1/2" I think, will measure when I go back to work, I cook the puff paste separately and add the apples when flipping over the pans.  I  needed 55 but made 65 because I new i would loose several & I had to throw a bunch back in the oven because they were not cooked enough. Here is the recipe for the caramel 

1 Cup water

2 T Light Corn Syrup

4 1/2 Cups sugar

12 ounces butter cut small pieces

     Caramelize the first 3 ingredients and remove from heat & add butter and whisk to blend and add to ice bath to cool down. If you are doing multiple Tatin's just make sure your apples are all similar sizes.  

[JohnT]

Thanks pjm333. I see your caramel is quite straight forward. I was adding a half vanilla bean to my caramel and also throwing in a tablespoon of brandy to give it a bit of "spice". I will try your caramel although corn syrup is banned here, so I normall sub it with glucose. My reduction to a 7cm pan would work well here as our apples are a bit on the smaller side as all the good and big ones are exported to Europe and the Asian countries - we get the dregs!