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

[curls]

Made my first batch of Paul Young brownies. First seen here https://forums.egullet.org/topic/157568-chocdoc-and-eg-friends-in-lala-land/?do=findComment&comment=2177722.

Made them in a round pan since I did not have a small enough square pan -- they still taste like brownies 🙂.  Oh my, what a tasty brownie, this one beats my previous favorite fudgie brownie by a mile. Made these with 73% Becolade Noir Vietnam chocolate. Thank you @Kerry Beal for all your help!

 

Now to find out if the office loves these or hates them (tempting those with New Year's resolutions to abstain from sweets).  😉

 

 

[Kim Shook]

Christmas Eve desserts:

 

Toffee and Happy Accident Candy:

 

PB cookies, Nyackers gingersnaps, mocha cookies:

 

Sugar cookies:

 

Sponge candy, peanut brittle, turtles:

 

Cinnamon pecans:

 

Not pictured – lemon chess tarts, gluten free sugar cookies, chocolate fudge and Reeses Cup fudge.

[Darienne]

39 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

Toffee and Happy Accident Candy:

 

Wonderful seasonal dishes....and what is Happy Accident Candy???

[Kim Shook]

1 minute ago, Darienne said:

Wonderful seasonal dishes....and what is Happy Accident Candy???

Happy Accident candy is the shards and crumbs from breaking up the sponge candy mixed into leftover melted chocolate from making fudge.  I always saved the shards and crumbs, thinking they were too good to toss and that they could go on ice cream or something and then never used them.  But one day, I was putting away the extra chocolate from fudge-making and saw the bag of crumbs and had an epiphany.  Thus: Happy Accident Candy!

[RobertM]

16 hours ago, curls said:

Made my first batch of Paul Young brownies. First seen here https://forums.egullet.org/topic/157568-chocdoc-and-eg-friends-in-lala-land/?do=findComment&comment=2177722.

Made them in a round pan since I did not have a small enough square pan -- they still taste like brownies 🙂.  Oh my, what a tasty brownie, this one beats my previous favorite fudgie brownie by a mile. Made these with 73% Becolade Noir Vietnam chocolate. Thank you @Kerry Beal for all your help!

 

Now to find out if the office loves these or hates them (tempting those with New Year's resolutions to abstain from sweets).  😉

 

 

Just don’t try and take them through TSA ......

[Fernwood]

Yet again I forgot to photograph the cookie platters for our holiday party, so I made a demo plate for (virtual) sharing.  We keep making the same assortment year after year because we can't agree to cut any of them.  

Sugar cookies (vanilla + lemon); Ginger Spice; Pistachio Cranberry shortbread (+ orange); Coffee Snaps; Spritz (vanilla + almond); Golden Bars (brown sugar & pecans); Meringues (peppermint + mini chocolate chips).  My daughter made this batch of meringues so tiny that it's tempting to grab them by the handful.

We will not discuss how many of these cookies made it back into the tins.

[kayb]

Such CUTE little meringues! I made a ton one year, when I made eggnog and had a big bunch of whites left over. Wasn't making eggnog this year so I didn't make any.

 

[Darienne]

I photographed today's dessert and went to put it up, noting the odd provenance:  My Blueberry Cobbler Recipe and then remembered that I had put together three different recipes into one to make it.  So it really is mine.  (sort of...)

 

Ed thinks he'd like some whipped cream on it.  Talk about gilding the lily.

[curls]

7 hours ago, RobertM said:

Just don’t try and take them through TSA ......

Should be like taking chocolates thru... just get them swabbed and examined. Did TSA take your brownies away @RobertM?

[Pete Fred]

My first bake of the year was a classic English-style egg custard tart.

 

 

It's from a recipe by Marcus Wareing who served it in his two Michelin star restaurant in London. That makes it sound a little more grand than it actually is: after all, it's just a custard tart. Having said that, it did win the first series of Great British Menu and he subsequently made it for The Queen. Unfortunately, royal protocol dictates that we'll never know whether she liked it or not. However, I can tell you that mine was very nice. 😜

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, Pete Fred said:

it's just a custard tart

 Ah.  But not so easy to get it just right. Yours looks perfect. It has been many years since I had a custard tart. I would be happy to sample yours.😋

[Pete Fred]

I have an aunt who lives in Mississauga. Sadly, the last time I visited was in the 80s, with no future plans to return; otherwise I'd be requisitioning her kitchen and dropping by with a slice or three.

[Anna N]

5 minutes ago, Pete Fred said:

I have an aunt who lives in Mississauga. Sadly, the last time I visited was in the 80s, with no future plans to return; otherwise I'd be requisitioning her kitchen and dropping by with a slice or three.

 What a delightful sentiment. Thank you.

[shain]

Carrot cake with brown butter, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, nutmeg, vanilla, orange zest and a little cinnamon.

Served with sweetened cream cheese mixed yogurt and lightly whipped.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2019 by shain (log)

[RobertM]

On 1/2/2019 at 10:24 PM, curls said:

Should be like taking chocolates thru... just get them swabbed and examined. Did TSA take your brownies away @RobertM?

No, they didn’t take it, but there was a great deal of concentrated attention directed towards me....including the head of the bomb squad .....and a close (but not quite) strip search......

[Pete Fred]

Another custard tart. This time it's the salted caramel one that Phil Howard served a few years back at his two Michelin star joint in Mayfair. (The UK guide certainly seemed enamoured with uncomplicated desserts back then!)

 

 

I like to take my caramel quite far - in this instance over 190°C (375°F). And I was quite bold with the salt.

 

Oh, and I brûléed the top for giggles coz, well, what's the point of having a torch if you're not gonna use it? 😉 It didn't add much to the party, other than a pleasingly delicate snap when digging in.

 

 

And I always look forward to freezing the leftovers, which magically transform into a kind of biscuity, ice cream fudge. Yum.

 

[kayb]

That's absolutely pornographic. I want it.

[oli]

I second that, looks incredibly rich.

[Pete Fred]

Here's a good, old fashioned English steamed pudding made with beef suet.

 

 

It's the ginger pudding that Simon Hopkinson served at Bibendum in the 90s. Alain Ducasse thought it "one of the best things he'd ever eaten". The pressure of that evening's service caused Mr Hopkinson to suffer what he described as a "mini-breakdown" and shortly afterwards he left the world of professional kitchens, never to return. So it's a pudding with quite a tale.

 

I had mine with thick cream, but props to the fearless amongst us who went all-in and had custard too. Mentalists!

 

[Kerry Beal]

And where would one find the recipe for this gem - I’m in a steamed pudding phase right now.

 

 

[Pete Fred]

22 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

And where would one find the recipe for this gem

 

The one above is the original recipe that Ducasse liked. Hopkinson did tweak it later on, though. I've made both but can't remember if the revision was a game changer or not. Surely a good excuse to make two?!?

[andiesenji]

January 8 at 2:55 PM · 
Today I made a pumpkin pie. I did not use a recipe. I've made so many pumpkin pies in my lifetime that I don't require a recipe. Besides this was going to be an experiment.
I only had one small can of pumpkin, not enough for a pie. However, I had a jar of Mexican candied pumpkin in syrup that was a couple of months past its "use by" date. This is very firm chunks of pumpkin that is usually sliced because it is a bit too firm for easy snacking.
I put that, along with its syrup in the food processor and pulsed it till it was in small bits.
I then added the can of solid pack pumpkin.  Pulsed to all pureed.
Also added 4 eggs and about 2/3 cup of heavy cream, that I had left in a carton from last week.
I did not add any additional sugar. I figured the syrup from the candied pumpkin would be enough.
Instead of the usual nutmeg, I decided to use MACE for the major flavor profile, since I had a large jar from Penzeys and I like mace. I used 2 teaspoons and lesser amounts of cinnamon - 1/2  teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (Wynad).
Mixed it all in the food processor, poured into a crumb crust. Baked for 50 minutes at 350°F.
Turned out pretty good.

[RobertM]

Tonight’s dessert - Carrot Cake with a piped cream cheese frosting.  I put the toasted pecans in the Thermomix for about 15 seconds and mixed the resulting paste in with the frosting.  Same great flavor, just a slight smoother non-crunchy texture

[kayb]

Oh, those are PRETTY! I love a carrot cake, and have made them by the Silver Palate recipe, which is a good one. But I don't make them often because they make a HUGE dang cake.

 

[jmacnaughtan]

It was the Old Russian New Year this week, so we celebrated with Russian party food and fortune-telling.

 

As I'm forbidden from making the classic dishes, I was relegated to dessert, booze and chiromancie.

 

I dug out the old standby, the Medovik I put together a few years ago with help from the many fine minds here at eGullet, but played around with the presentation a little to make it more wintery.

 

 

I used pine honey this time, though, so the honey flavour was a lot more pronounced.