What are we having for dessert?

[Ladybug]

I tried a new recipe today - a chewy pecan bar with orange and lemon zest, cut into rectangles and dipped (one end) in chocolate. I must say it was really great. My favorite part was either the citrus-y-ness of the caramel or the chewiness of it. Hard to pick.

I also made lemon bars, an old Gourmet recipe. It's nice.

What I want to try is that coconut curd nightscotsman mentioned!

I'm bringing some desserts to our pastor's family tomorrow. Normally I don't make two desserts a night. I'm thinking of making one more type of bar cookie but haven't figured out what yet.

[cherrypi]

Cherrypi whats a coffee crisp?

Sinclair, Coffee Crisp is my very very favourite chocolate bar (Canadian-ese for candy bar). There's even a thread dedicated to the Cult of Coffee Crisp in the Toronto forum:

Coffee Crisp thread

[Moopheus]

Cook's Illustrated Double Chocolate Pudding

I made that once; I forget which chocolate I used but it came out pretty well. Really nice and smooth, creamy, and chocolatey.

[hjshorter]

I finally opened the can of dulce de leche that I bought on a while a few weeks ago, and had some warmed and poured over vanilla ice cream with chopped almonds. It was much less sweet than expected.

[bloviatrix]

I'm having fun with the Alice Medrich book Bittersweet. I made the classic brownies using ScharffenBerger semi-sweet chocolate and pecans. They're very rich.

[gsquared]

It is summer down here (South Africa) and the time when we almost exclusively use the abundance of soft fruit to make fruit ices for dessert. Difficult to go wrong with fruit ice desserts, irrespective of the nature of the rest of the meal. It is to me just the perfect end to a meal in summer. Last night we had a strawberry ice with vanilla flavoured creme fraiche. Today mango and stilton with granadilla and guava waiting in the wings.

[merstar]

I'm having fun with the Alice Medrich book Bittersweet.  I made the classic brownies using ScharffenBerger semi-sweet chocolate and pecans.  They're very rich.

That's such a great book! Dessert tonight was Bon Appétit's Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cake, one of my favorites.

[EllenC]

Last night we kinda went on a whim. We wanted something good but not too sweet so we made crepes and for the filling we mixed cream cheese and raspberry puree and then folded in some stiffly whipped cream. Very good. We just stood over the stove and ate while we cooked.

[laurenmilan]

Finally tried my hand at making Cheesecake the other day. The night I made it, it was a cottage-cheese disaster. I let it chill 24 hours, and it was still a little "cheesy" but very good (I put Bananas Foster on top). I took a taste this AM before leaving, and man! It tasted rich and wonderful!

I had good luck my first time out... well after giving it a few days...

[Marlene]

I had a lovely dessert yesterday for lunch at NoMI here in Chicago. It was a warm chocolate soup infused with cinnamon and vanilla topped with a bit of melting coconut "curd" (basically coconut milk cooked with sugar, egg yolks and butter like a lemon curd). It was served with a deconstructed linzer "tart" which consisted of halved fresh raspberries, a sprinkling of crunchy, spicy struesel powder and a quenelle of chocolate cream. The soup was rich, but not very sweet, with a very complex and subtle flavor which brought out some floral notes from the coconut. The "tart" was refreshing and a nice complement to the soup, though the chocolate cream was a bit on the too rich side.

This was very good. You could taste the "layers" in the "soup. First to hit the tongue was a semi sweet taste, followed quickly by a bittersweet cocoa taste, and finished by a very rich milk chocolate taste.

[Moopheus]

I'm having fun with the Alice Medrich book Bittersweet.

I came home from Xmas with a copy of this book and a 10-lb slab of chocolate to play with, so yes, definitely some fun.

[bloviatrix]

I'm having fun with the Alice Medrich book Bittersweet.

I came home from Xmas with a copy of this book and a 10-lb slab of chocolate to play with, so yes, definitely some fun.

Try the mousse on p. 166. I made twice in the span of a week -- that's how good it was.

[alanamoana]

a little bit off topic, but the alice medrich book cocolat is also great to work from. before i studied pastry, i made most of the desserts from it. i didn't have a tool to my name and did everything by hand, guestimating on weights, etc. and they still turned out wonderfully. probably one reason i became a pastry chef. her cookie book is great also, unless you double the recipe and quadruple the brown sugar...let's just say we had chocolate chip tuiles! math skills aren't my strong suit!

[Moopheus]

Try the mousse on p. 166. I made twice in the span of a week -- that's how good it was.

Yeah, did that--six to eight servings, yeah right!

Cocolat is a cool book, great food porn, but sadly out of print and expensive in the secondary market.

Tonight's desert will be the last piece of peanut butter mousse pie from the pie potluck.

[tan319]

I had a lovely dessert yesterday for lunch at NoMI here in Chicago. It was a warm chocolate soup infused with cinnamon and vanilla topped with a bit of melting coconut "curd" (basically coconut milk cooked with sugar, egg yolks and butter like a lemon curd). It was served with a deconstructed linzer "tart" which consisted of halved fresh raspberries, a sprinkling of crunchy, spicy struesel powder and a quenelle of chocolate cream. The soup was rich, but not very sweet, with a very complex and subtle flavor which brought out some floral notes from the coconut. The "tart" was refreshing and a nice complement to the soup, though the chocolate cream was a bit on the too rich side.

This was very good. You could taste the "layers" in the "soup. First to hit the tongue was a semi sweet taste, followed quickly by a bittersweet cocoa taste, and finished by a very rich milk chocolate taste.

Who is the chef and pastry chef at Nomi?

Thanks1

[alanamoana]

as is to be expected, no mention of pastry chef. NoMi is located in the park hyatt, chicago.

click here

chef is sandro gamba

mystery pastry chef

[nightscotsman]

I believe the pastry chef at NoMI is Kriss Harvey, who used to be at 727 Pine in the Seattle Hyatt. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to meet him, but he always seems to do interesting work.

[Rhea_S]

Inspired by nightscotsman, I've been eating mini canneles the last two nights. Williams-Sonoma had a sale on their gastroflex canneles molds and I also used the recipe from the W-S website. The middles didn't get cooked quite all the way through and each deflated a bit, but not bad for a first attempt.

[alanamoana]

why does the term "gastroflex" NOT make me think of delicious canneles? Rhea_S, that sounds delicious.

[Rhea_S]

why does the term "gastroflex" NOT make me think of delicious canneles? Rhea_S, that sounds delicious.

The gastroflex comment gave me a bit of a giggle. These silicone pans are also a disconcerting red.

The canneles aren't bad. Not anywhere as good as the ones made my nightscotsman, but good enough to eat several at a time.

[Busboy]

I had to serve a Grande Marnier souffle with orange/cinnamon creme anglaise and fresh blood orange sections Saturday, so I made a practice version for home consumption that came out pretty well. And on Sunday my 11-year-old daughter and I made our favorite, chocolate mousse, from Particial Wells "Bistro Cuisine." It wasn't rich enough so I made a caramel/cream sauce to go with it.

[tsquare]

I believe the pastry chef at NoMI is Kriss Harvey, who used to be at 727 Pine in the Seattle Hyatt. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to meet him, but he always seems to do interesting work.

Affirmative.

I had a nice set of correspondence with him this month.

[FWED]

This weekend I had 6 for dinner and for dessert decided to do a take off on a dessert that I have done for a local egullet gathering at Christmas time. It was a Black Bottom Torte consisting of a moist, chocolate, buttermilk cake made with Mexican Chocolate and topped with a coconut and rum laced Bavarian cream. This time I decided to do individual desserts. I baked the cake layer in small 2 ½ by 2 inch cake rings and when cool wrapped the rings with 4 inch acetate. I then filled the acetate with the coconut cream layer. This was then finished with toasted flaked coconut and squiggles of Mexican chocolate ganache. The desserts were then chilled to set the cream. The 4 inch desserts were unmolded and served on small white plates in a pool of creme anglaise with three small chocolate ganache dots linked. The taste was great and the look surprised everyone including me.

[hillvalley]

Vanilla lace cookies. My favorite. yum

[ambra]

Plain old fashioned s'mores.....mmm, toasted marshmellows.........