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

[Merry Berry]

1 hour ago, ElsieD said:

Ahhhhhh... strawberries.  As I look out all I see is snow covered ground.  We are a long ways away.  I too eat them daily once they arrive, until the local ones are done.  I don't bother with the imported ones as it seems to me they are grown for size, not flavour.

 

I bought a flat from the boy next door as he was selling them for his school or something other.  Anyway, I love strawberries, but I hate (border on the obsessive) waste so I looked up what to do with the tops.  The most common suggestion was to put them in smoothies.  I was intrigued since I was not sure if the blender would puree the leaves fine enough without feeling like I was chewing it haha.  So now I put them in with my breakfast smoothie and you cannot even tell there are strawberry tops in it, both texture and taste.

 

Any other suggestions for strawberry tops that y'all utilize?  I am curious.

[ElsieD]

Now, I realize a plate of oatmeal cookies is nothing to get excited about UNLESS you finally find the recipe that takes you back to when you were maybe 12 years old.  On Saturday's, I had the job of making cookies.  One I used to make was a very crisp, buttery, oatmeal cookie with coconut and sometimes finely chopped nuts.  The recipe was in one of those little recipe booklets that came with, I think bags of flour.  At any rate, I left home without the recipe and years passed.  For the last couple of years I have tried various recipes in an attempt to duplicate this cookie but none came close.  Then one day, I was at a thrift store and bought More Food That Really Schmecks by Edna Staebler.  In it was a recipe for Super Simple Oatmeal Cookies which looked a lot like the one I used to make.  And that's what we have here.  The cookie that I remember from my childhood.  The only commercial brand of oatmeal cookie that even comes close to this is a brand called Aunt Lizzies.  They sell them around here but I don't know if they are sold anywhere else in Canada. Colour me happy.🙃

[Pete Fred]

Another kouign with a couple of changes: swapped 20% of the flour for buckwheat flour; retarded the dough (détrempe) overnight in the fridge; a bit more sugar; and flipped the kouign during baking for a more even distribution of butter (and caramelization).

 

 

 

Not sure the changes to the dough made much difference, but the flipping worked well, producing a flatter, more evenly textured and better tasting cake.

[Anna N]

On 4/7/2019 at 11:05 AM, patris said:

 

Resistance is futile!

 So to make damn sure that resistance is futile, two of my friends, @Kerry Beal and @patris conspired to make sure I received this:

 

 

I don’t trust myself to open it.

[rotuts]

 

and

 

[teonzo]

22 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I don’t trust myself to open it.

 

We know you already did, and that it was the correct choice.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[ElsieD]

26 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 So to make damn sure that resistance is futile, two of my friends, @Kerry Beal and @patris conspired to make sure I received this:

 

 

I don’t trust myself to open it.

 

Want some help?

[patris]

4 hours ago, Anna N said:

 So to make damn sure that resistance is futile, two of my friends, @Kerry Beal and @patris conspired to make sure I received this:

 

 

I don’t trust myself to open it.

 

Bet you can't eat just one!

 

Every month I run a meeting of my organization's leadership team where we talk about strategic issues - often fairly dry content, but this afternoon we had a rather contentious agenda item that spurred a lot of... discussion. Fortunately I had the foresight to grab the bin of these off my desk when I left my office for the meeting room; I can report that they do an excellent job of smoothing the edges of prickly conversations!

 

Edited April 11, 2019 by patris
just changed a word (log)

[shain]

Pecan, maple and brown butter financiers.

 

 

[kayb]

Baking day all day for me. A batch of granola. Five dozen old fashioned oatmeal cookies. Two cream cheese pound cakes, because I scored semi-local strawberries and have cut them up and macerated them, and they need to be served over pound cake.

 

 

[Shelby]

Smitten Kitchen's oatmeal raisin cookies

 

[rotuts]

@Shelby

 

add some toasted chopped pecans to those and ill be right over.

 

on second though , Ill be right over anyway.

[blue_dolphin]

Nigel Slater's cake for midsummer with mango instead of the called-for peaches and lime zest instead of orange.

The peach version of this cake was a hit last summer with the folks where I get my hair cut.  With peaches out of season, I figured mango would play nicely with the blueberries.  

 

[jmacnaughtan]

First fraisier of the season!  And an attempt to get a child interested in pastry.  In this respect, something of a failure - possibly my Dickensian attitude to children, possibly the undying attraction of the smartphone.  Who knows?  Anyway, it was tasty.

 

 

Same as usual - lady's finger, white chocolate chantilly, gariguette strawberries, a little booze.

[Kim Shook]

Coconut cupcakes with lemon filling for Mr. Kim’s co-worker’s BD:

 

These are a cake mix fix up that I've made before.  You use a white cake mix.  I decided after making these this time that the cake mix was just too tender and soft and that it would work better with pound cake.  They tasted very good, though.

[akonsu]

Chocolate covered spiced cookies with marzipan on top. This is inspired by Aachener Printen, but, of course, I cannot call it that. I used baking soda instead of pottasche. One of my first attempts, the cookie part turned out a bit overdone... Marzipan is handmade too.

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by akonsu (log)

[akonsu]

More spiced cookies (looks more like cakes), this time using wooden moulds:

 

 

EDIT: forgot to mention that they are filled with paste I made from dry fruit, candied lemon peels, and spiced rum.

Edited April 17, 2019 by akonsu (log)

[jmacnaughtan]

On 4/17/2019 at 9:20 PM, akonsu said:

More spiced cookies (looks more like cakes), this time using wooden moulds:

 

 

EDIT: forgot to mention that they are filled with paste I made from dry fruit, candied lemon peels, and spiced rum.

 

 

They look great

 

Is that pryanik?

[akonsu]

2 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

Is that pryanik?

Thanks. Yes, it is called pryanik.

[pjm333]

Easter Bread !

[jmacnaughtan]

16 hours ago, akonsu said:

Thanks. Yes, it is called pryanik.

 

Excellent, I love pryanik - but I've only ever had the commercial stuff.  Could you send me your recipe?  I'd love to try it

[jmacnaughtan]

It's gariguette season, so the fraisiers are going to keep on coming.  No kids involved this time, though.

 

It was too hot to bake anything, so the base is a failed combination of diced madeleine, white chocolate, butter and lemon zest.  Way too dense, and I should have known better.  The rest is as normal, and as good

 

Fraisier (with some lemon)

 

 

Gariguette strawberries

White chocolate chantilly

Madeleine concoction

Candied citron

 

I'll keep trying with a no-bake base, but I think I'll need a completely different approach.  It'll be difficult to get the softness, and I don't want to add any crunch at all.

[teonzo]

4 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

I'll keep trying with a no-bake base, but I think I'll need a completely different approach.  It'll be difficult to get the softness, and I don't want to add any crunch at all.

 

You can go the tiramisu way: use ladyfingers (or whatever) and soak them with strawberry puree.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[Pete Fred]

You probably can't get much more classic than Riz à l'impératrice (Empress rice pudding). It's a mid-19th Century moulded rice pudding with candied fruits - here, raisins, glacé cherries and stem ginger - that's lightened with bavarois (Bavarian cream) and whipped cream. I had no idea how to decorate it so went full retro and plonked a few tinned peaches on top.

 

 

The old 'uns are still good 'uns. 😀

[jmacnaughtan]

1 hour ago, Pete Fred said:

I had no idea how to decorate it so went full retro and plonked a few tinned peaches on top.

 

What you need, sir, is an elaborate mould.  Preferably in the shape of a game animal or architectural masterpiece.  Then you can start to add your candied fruit, flowers, sugar paste, whittled candy, blown sugar, live birds, dancing ladies, etc.  Then some kind of trolley to wheel it in on, plus various pyrotechnics to amuse and terrify your guests.

 

I think that's very much the way to go with the old-fashioned moulded desserts.

 

2 hours ago, teonzo said:

You can go the tiramisu way: use ladyfingers (or whatever) and soak them with strawberry puree.

 

Thanks - I did think about that, but I wanted some kind of structural integrity and a relatively thin layer.  When I use a sponge layer, it's down to well under a centimetre, and I think it would be a little complicated to do that with ladyfingers (which, incidentally, I make as the sponge layer itself).  I think I may buy a brioche next time, slice it down and possibly toast it slightly.