Small-batch baking: pies, cakes, cookies, bread and bread rolls, etc.

[ElsieD]

We are a two-person household and often tire of what I've baked before we can finish it.  As there has been a lot of recent chatter on the airwaves about small batch baking, and since there are other small households on this forum, I thought it might be interesting to see what small batches people are making and from what sources.  Since my interest was piqued, I purchased Small Batch Bakes by Edd Kimber.  I have made several recipes from this book, one of which was a Sweet and Salty Chocolate Cake.  The icing had a dulce de leche base.  This was a hit and rather than being bored by having to eat it seemingly forever, we enjoyed it as a dessert over 2 days.  I'm keen to make it again.  Last night I made a Mostly Apples Cake from the book Snacking Cakes by Yoosy Arefi.  This recipe I scaled down and topped it with Fudgy Caramil Icing from the same book.  I did make the mistake of forgetting to decrease the baking time so it was a bit try but it was tasty nonetheless.   I should note that there was a previous topic in 2005 called "Small Batch Baking (the cookbook by that name)" but that topic was specific to that book.  What do you bake in small batches?

[FauxPas]

Christina Lane has a website called Dessert for Two and 4 cookbooks that are all dedicated to small-batch baking and cooking. I've made a couple of things from her recipes (brownies or blondies, I think) though I keep meaning to try others, like some of the cookie or 6" cake recipes. She also has savory recipes, despite the name of her website. 

 

She also has some recipes to use up leftover egg yolks or whites. 

 

I think her books may be a bit overpriced  but there are lots of recipes on the website. 

 

[rotuts]

@ElsieD 

 

thank you for starting this topic.

 

for me , how do you bake the items ?

 

would they  fit in a CSO for baking ?  

 

 

[ElsieD]

@rotuts. I have a few small  pans, and they all fit in the CSO.  I have a couple of square pans, one 5" and one slightly larger, maybe 7".

I also have a couple of round ones, I believe a 6" and a slightly bigger one. I also have a 6" pie plate and a couple of 1/8 sheet pans.  I'd be happy to give you accurate measurements, if you are interested.

[rotuts]

@ElsieD 

 

thank you.

 

i get the idea.

 

Ill look into those books

 

thanks again

[ElsieD]

5 hours ago, FauxPas said:

Christina Lane has a website called Dessert for Two and 4 cookbooks that are all dedicated to small-batch baking and cooking. I've made a couple of things from her recipes (brownies or blondies, I think) though I keep meaning to try others, like some of the cookie or 6" cake recipes. She also has savory recipes, despite the name of her website. 

 

She also has some recipes to use up leftover egg yolks or whites. 

 

I think her books may be a bit overpriced  but there are lots of recipes on the website. 

 

 

I actually have her two dessert books and I'm embarrassed to say I have only ever made one recipe out of one her books and that was for One Bowl Chocolate Cake from Dessert for Two.  I can't remember when I made it but I did write on the page that it needed 35 minutes to bake.  I used to like her blog a lot but I don't find it as interesting as I used to.  How about you?

[FauxPas]

30 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

I actually have her two dessert books and I'm embarrassed to say I have only ever made one recipe out of one her books and that was for One Bowl Chocolate Cake from Dessert for Two.  I can't remember when I made it but I did write on the page that it needed 35 minutes to bake.  I used to like her blog a lot but I don't find it as interesting as I used to.  How about you?

 

I do think some of her recipes look decent. I have two of her books, Dessert for Two and Comfort & Joy: Cooking for Two  but I never seem to get around to actually cooking from either. Not sure why, really. We don't eat a lot of desserts maybe? 😄

[Maison Rustique]

Thank you for this topic! We're only two as well and it can take forever to finish a full size dessert. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

7 hours ago, rotuts said:

@ElsieD 

 

thank you for starting this topic.

 

for me , how do you bake the items ?

 

would they  fit in a CSO for baking ?  

 

 

 

Some of us have an APO...

 

[Tropicalsenior]

What a great idea @ElsieD. Thank you. With just two in the house for years, I've had to come up with a lot of small desserts. I've amassed quite a collection of small baking items. I have a six and a seven inch springform pan that I use to make cheesecake in my instant pot.

And I bake my cakes in 8 inch square glass pans that have snap on plastic lids. For muffins, I love these cute little silicone molds that are only two and a half inches in diameter. If I cut most muffin recipes in half, I get 12 to 18 nice little muffins.

I have a Hamilton Beach countertop convection oven that I use for all my baking. I use my big oven to store cast iron skillets and some cookie sheets. I used it Monday for the first time in 3 years to bake some baguettes because it goes to 500°. My little one only goes to 425° but it is perfect for small baking. I would never bake as much as I do if I had to use the big oven all the time.

When I read recipes now, I just automatically calculate if I can cut it in half and if the quantity will fit in my small cake pan or even a loaf pan. Sometimes if I wind up with extra batter I bake it in a little 3x5 loaf pan and that is Cooks treat.

There are still times that I wind up with leftover cake and when that happens I developed a recipe for a bread pudding type dessert that I make in my instant pot. It's a great way to use up cake, cinnamon rolls, or a quick bread. It's easy to make and you don't get tired of it because it is always something different. This pudding was last week's cinnamon rolls made with an eggnog type custard.

Served with a homemade butterscotch sauce, it was delicious.

[Maison Rustique]

5 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

What a great idea @ElsieD. Thank you. With just two in the house for years, I've had to come up with a lot of small desserts. I've amassed quite a collection of small baking items. I have a six and a seven inch springform pan that I use to make cheesecake in my instant pot.

And I bake my cakes in 8 inch square glass pans that have snap on plastic lids. For muffins, I love these cute little silicone molds that are only two and a half inches in diameter. If I cut most muffin recipes in half, I get 12 to 18 nice little muffins.

I have a Hamilton Beach countertop convection oven that I use for all my baking. I use my big oven to store cast iron skillets and some cookie sheets. I used it Monday for the first time in 3 years to bake some baguettes because it goes to 500°. My little one only goes to 425° but it is perfect for small baking. I would never bake as much as I do if I had to use the big oven all the time.

When I read recipes now, I just automatically calculate if I can cut it in half and if the quantity will fit in my small cake pan or even a loaf pan. Sometimes if I wind up with extra batter I bake it in a little 3x5 loaf pan and that is Cooks treat.

There are still times that I wind up with leftover cake and when that happens I developed a recipe for a bread pudding type dessert that I make in my instant pot. It's a great way to use up cake, cinnamon rolls, or a quick bread. It's easy to make and you don't get tired of it because it is always something different. This pudding was last week's cinnamon rolls made with an eggnog type custard.

Served with a homemade butterscotch sauce, it was delicious.

Oh, I do hope you'll share some of these recipes. I do have the IP cheesecake recipe, but would love to see all the others you make.

[Tropicalsenior]

25 minutes ago, Maison Rustique said:

I do hope you'll share some of these recipes. I do have the IP cheesecake recipe

I will be more than happy to share recipes as soon as I get them in a form that I can put on the Recipe Gullet. Just out of curiosity, do you have my recipe for cheesecake that I posted on the instant pot topic? I thought I had posted it in recipes but I can't find it. If you don't have it, I will post it there, too. It is probably one of the easiest cheesecake that I have ever made because it uses just Pantry items and it has never failed.

[TdeV]

I would like your cheescake recipe too, @Tropicalsenior. Please and thanks.

[JAZ]

When I ran About.com's Cooking for Two site, I came up with quite a few small batch desserts, but unfortunately, most of them got lost when Dot Dash bought About and changed it to the Spruce Eats. I have a few in my files that I can rewrite for Recipe Gullet (Dot Dash owns everything I posted there), but here are a couple links to what's left:

Peach crisp for two (ignore the photo -- they switched mine for a stock photo, which looks nothing like the actual dish)

Small batch lemon curd 

Small batch pie crust (this makes either a single or double crust for a 6-inch pie pan)

 

I had recipes that used the lemon curd and pie crust, but they've been deleted -- oh well!

 

I also had a handful of dessert recipes in my Instant Pot for Two cookbook, a couple of which are posted on the Instant Pot site. Here are links to those:

Mini chocolate marble cheesecakes

Lemon mousse

 

The lemon mousse uses curd made in the Instant Pot, but if you don't have one, you can follow the directions for the lemon curd above and use it to make the mousse; both recipes make the same volume of curd.

[ElsieD]

Today I made Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie from Dessert for Two by Christina Lane.  I used a Graham Wafer crust from one of her other recipes rather pie crust as that is what I prefer for cheesecake.  It is a 6" pie.  We liked this, but didn't love it.

 

Link:https://www.dessertfortwo.com/apple-cheesecake-crumb-pie/

 

Same recipe, different title.

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by ElsieD (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Today I made Caramel Apple Cheesecake Pie from Dessert for Two by Christina Lane.  I used a Graham Wafer crust from one of her other recipes rather pie crust as that is what I prefer for cheesecake.  It is a 6" pie.  We liked this, but didn't love it.

 

Link:https://www.dessertfortwo.com/apple-cheesecake-crumb-pie/

 

Same recipe, different title.

 

 

I would sleep with it.

 

[Mjx]

Not a sweet, but something I often bake in small batches: empanadas. I make large batches of filling and dough, and they keep in the refrigerator (or freezer) for making a couple at a time, as I want them. Sometimes I do make a large batch and freeze them, but they're nicest when they're freshly made, and I can add some fresh herbs and such to the filling before baking.

[Maison Rustique]

23 hours ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I will be more than happy to share recipes as soon as I get them in a form that I can put on the Recipe Gullet. Just out of curiosity, do you have my recipe for cheesecake that I posted on the instant pot topic? I thought I had posted it in recipes but I can't find it. If you don't have it, I will post it there, too. It is probably one of the easiest cheesecake that I have ever made because it uses just Pantry items and it has never failed.

I do not and would love it. Thank you!!

[JAZ]

6 hours ago, Mjx said:

Not a sweet, but something I often bake in small batches: empanadas. I make large batches of filling and dough, and they keep in the refrigerator (or freezer) for making a couple at a time, as I want them. Sometimes I do make a large batch and freeze them, but they're nicest when they're freshly made, and I can add some fresh herbs and such to the filling before baking.

 

It seems like this would work with dessert empanadas as well, depending on the filling.

[Mjx]

3 hours ago, JAZ said:

 

It seems like this would work with dessert empanadas as well, depending on the filling.

 

It does, though I've done this only a few times. I tried to reproduce some delicious cinnamon rice-pudding empanadas that I had at a place in Park slope (now gone), and this filling froze really well. I just portioned out amounts equal to the amount in one, froze them on baking paper, and stored them in a silicone bag. Fruit fillings have tended to get a bit watery, though.

[Tropicalsenior]

@TdeV and @Maison Rustique I have posted my recipe for Instant Pot New York Style Cheesecak.

I'm now working on the recipe for bread pudding made with leftover cake. But I'm having trouble coming up with a name. It's not bread pudding and it's not exactly cake pudding and leftover pudding just doesn't sound right. Maybe you could give me some suggestions.

[Maison Rustique]

13 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

@TdeV and @Maison Rustique I have posted my recipe for Instant Pot New York Style Cheesecak.

I'm now working on the recipe for bread pudding made with leftover cake. But I'm having trouble coming up with a name. It's not bread pudding and it's not exactly cake pudding and leftover pudding just doesn't sound right. Maybe you could give me some suggestions.

Baked Pudding Melange

Baked Pudding du Jour

 

Thank you!!

 

[AlaMoi]

I've experienced two issue with "small batch-for-two"

#1 - you need a gram scale and weigh the ingredients - liquid and solid.

#2 - the recipe should be written in grams, for the size.

 

the exception is 'the qty' recipes with tablespoon/teaspoon of liquids - those are still workable.

 

the failing exception is "cutting down" a larger recipe - where the "cups" measures simple do not "reduce" to a measurable c/T/t amount.

 

here's a proven one:

[[[folks who do grams will adapt as needed to 1/2c=65g flour - as they have experience with what a cup of their flour is...]]]]

============================================================

Peach Cobble

4 large or 5-6 smaller peaches, soft
peel, slice, macerate with 1/4 cup sugar in fridge 2 hrs to overnight

pre-heat oven to 400'F

melt 1/2 stick : 56g butter

in a bowl mix
1/2 cup - 65 g - AP flour
1 tsp baking powder - 5 g
1/8 cup (25 g) white sugar + 0.5 cup (105 g) brown sugar
pinch of salt
almond extract or nutmeg (optional)

when oven is ready, add 1/2 cup (115 ml / 116 g) milk to dry ingredients, mix

pour melted butter in pan
pour batter into pan
add sliced peaches - arrange to cover entire pan

bake 25-35 minutes - batter should rise to top and brown

==============================================================

looks like

 

 

[TdeV]

@AlaMoi, FWIW, King Arthur Flour measures one cup of all purpose at 120.49 grams (4.25 oz). 🤣

Although I should add that when making @Ann_T's summer cake, I now use 130 grams (because I always use too much fruit). 🤣 🤣

 

 

Edited to add: that I'm only nitpicking. I found your peach cobble outline/details excellent!

 

Edited January 13, 2023 by TdeV (log)

[AlaMoi]

there is no nitpicking about it - different flours hydrate differently and xxx grams per cup is not a number set in stone.

 

for decades I used Ceresota Unbleached.  then our local market stopped carrying it.  I had to rework, painfully . . . one by one all my recipes to work with KA . . . pancakes to cakes to breads . . not nice . . . .

Edited January 13, 2023 by AlaMoi (log)