Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Patrick S]

You are sooooooooo teasing us patrick!!

Do you mind posting the recipe??

I don't have pierre's chocolate book yet.

←

'Tis the season for giving. So here you go.

100 grams (about 1/2C or 3 1/3 large) whites, room temp or a little warmer.

140 grams (1 1/3C) almond meal or blanched almonds

250 grams (2 1/8C) powdered sugar

25 grams (4T) dutch process cocoa

Grind the almonds, sugar and cocoa powder together in a food processor until powder consistency, about 3-4 minutes. This mixture needs to be finely ground if you want a glossy, smooth surface. If you don't have a food processoor, sieve the almond meal so the larger particles are removed, and combine thoroughly with the sugar and cocoa using a wisk.

Whip the whites to semi-firm peaks (the book says the peaks should droop just a little).

Fold the whites into the almond/sugar/cocoa mixture until completely combined. No streaks should remain.

Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment. Load a pastry bag with a big round tip. Put the batter in the bag. Pipe out 1-2" rounds onto the baking sheets. Sprinkle with cocoa powder, if desired.

Preheat the oven to 425F. After the macaroons have set for at least 25 minutes, put one sheet in the oven. Reduce temp to 350F, and prop the oven door barely open with a wooden spoon. Bake for about 12 minutes. Once cool, use a thin spatula and carefully scrape the macaroons off the parchment. If you underbake, they can be a pain to remove.

Good luck!

[Patrick S]

^Patrick: Beautiful, as always.  I read that you used the Hershey Black Cocoa for this batch--do you find a difference in the taste? I like the extra dark colour of the macaroons...what about you?

←

Yes, the Hershey's dark cocoa has a distinctive taste in the macaroons. You can tell the difference. I think it tastes like Droste cocoa, but more Droste-acious than Droste. To be brutally honest, I'll probably use up the container of Special Dark Cocoa I bought, but I wont buy any more of it.

[tejon]

This is my first off the cuff, make it up myself dessert. Layers of sponge filled with chocolate mousse, ganache, a layer of pralines, and a chocolate glaze over all. Didn't come out as pretty as I'd like, but everything worked really well together. Mr. tejon was quite appreciative - it was for his birthday dinner .

[miladyinsanity]

Chocolate sorbet last night.

I think I'll go for a fruit salad today--if I'm good.

[racheld]

Tonight Chris sampled all the goodies we made today:

His plate had a slice from a mini-loaf of banana bread (made by my late Mother's recipe---we made five regular loaves and eight mini's)---I always take out the yellowing bit of paper, typed and printed by me years ago as she sat at my elbow in our first apartment here. It was the last trip she ever made up here to visit, and I got her to sit with me and tell me verbatim all the recipes I could think of from my childhood.

She was famous for going through metal detectors with two loaves of foil-wrapped banana bread in her big old purse, and once arrived at my Sister's house with a huge round pone of cornbread for the Thanksgiving dressing tucked in amongst all her lingerie and clothes in her suitcase...the x-ray people must have thought she was smuggling an alien craft.

Every visit, she brought the lovely bread, rich with soft banana and pineapple, studded with those meaty Mississippi pecans and plump raisins, and every time I read the recipe, I remember how she threw back her head and laughed as she read the last line I had printed---"Makes two loaves. And send me one."

She carried this copy of the recipe home with her, used it to make scores of loaves which she distributed right and left to friends and family, the celebrating and the bereaved, all across several counties for years. And when Daddy finally sold our family home, and everyone else was wrestling buffets and bedroom suites onto U-Hauls, I scooped the entire contents of her big recipe drawer in the kitchen into a box, taped it shut, and ferried it out to our truck myself. The paper is a bit brittle, with a golden frame of dried stickum from the back of the Scotch tape she had used to stick it on the page in her huge three-ring binder. I keep it safely between the pages of my big favorite cookbook, along with a longago friend's lemon-poppyseed cake recipe, and assorted pressed treasures from the past.

Also on today's cooking list (and Chris' plate) were Kahlua fudge, coconut bars, a double recipe of lemon bars, and a thrown-together-by-accident pan of fudge which I was cooking, awaiting his arrival with another bag of chocolate chunks. The pan was simmering away when he called to say he'd be another fifteen minutes. I hurriedly chopped a couple of bitter chocolate squares, threw them in with the marshmallow fluff at the end, stirred til they were melted, then poured the stuff into the buttered pan.

As I tasted the warm gooey concoction off the pot-scraping spatula, I realized that with the big glug of Espresso syrup I had added, and the pale chocolate color, it was exactly like a solidified latte. So Latte Fudge it became, and it's DELICIOUS! I poked rows of chocolate-covered coffee beans into the soft fudge about an inch apart, and when it's cut, it will be lovely. Chris loved it, and he won't even touch coffee.

I just realized I spent the whole day channeling Ling.

[ablosh]

YUUUM! Latte fudge made my mouth water a little bit more!

I had two chocolate cupcakes with stripes of chocolate buttercream and chocolate ganache!!! CHOCOLAAATE!

[Ling]

So Latte Fudge it became, and it's DELICIOUS!  I poked rows of chocolate-covered coffee beans into the soft fudge about  an inch apart, and when it's cut, it will be lovely.  Chris loved it, and he won't even touch coffee.

I just realized I spent the whole day channeling Ling.

←

I'm sure it will be lovely...almost as lovely as your writing, Racheld.

I had the same Costco cookies today..the tiramisu flavour (new) and the chocolate cigarette ones are my favourites. But I did have room for all the espresso flavoured ones, and all the chocolate wafers too!

[Ling]

It's 1:48 a.m. over here. Just polished off over a dozen pecan sandies, warm from the oven. Bedtime!

[Patrick S]

This is my first off the cuff, make it up myself dessert. Layers of sponge filled with chocolate mousse, ganache, a layer of pralines, and a chocolate glaze over all. Didn't come out as pretty as I'd like, but everything worked really well together. Mr. tejon was quite appreciative - it was for his birthday dinner  .

←

Looks delicious!

[miladyinsanity]

It's the Winter Solstice, so I've had bowls and bowls of glutinous rice balls in pandan syrup. So good!

I love anything made from glutinous rice. Just wonderful wondeful stuff! My Nonya heritage at work, me thinks.

[kaneel]

Thank you so much Patrick for posting the recipe!!!

[Ling]

I made a pecan tart today, and more Mexican wedding cookies.

I had a few cookies, a slice of the tart, and also an assortment of the cookies my sister's mom brought over (chocolate crinkles, chocolate coconut square, and a piece of her pecan pie bar.)

[Ling]

Yesterday I ate a bunch of desserts all morning and afternoon. I had a variety of cookies, cheesecake, shortbread, caramel, Valrhona ganache, candied pecans...the list goes on.

After dinner at Villa del Lupo in Vancouver, I had the Valrhona mousse bomb with candied hazelnuts, and most of my date's tiramisu. (And no, I did not wrestle it away from him--he gave it to me willingly after two bites! The tiramisu was the better of the two, but both desserts were good.)

tiramisu:

bomb:

When I got home after the movie, I had a few more Belgian chocolate cookies before bed.

Edited December 24, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Ling]

I'm so stuffed from the prime rib tonight, but I still had room for two slices of a ganache tart and two slices of caramel cheesecake.

Bedtime.

[Daniel]

Ling,

Merry Christmas! About the tiramisu... Looks too involved.. Would it be better off called something else, without it being in competition with prior memories.. Whats in it?

[Ling]

Merry Christmas, Daniel! The tiramisu was good--it was the restaurant's interpretation of the dessert. No ladyfingers--there was espresso-soaked chocolate cake, marscapone, chocolate curls, and a vanilla tuile.

Here's a shot of the ganache tart I made for tonight. I didn't take a picture of the cheesecake b/c it's pretty boring--just a cheesecake with a shortbread base, and caramel on top.

Edited December 25, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

I've avoided posting on this thread, so I wouldn't embarase myself (....more then I normally do being a goof). Truth is I eat......hum.....well I eat sweets....if you can call them dessert (cause sometimes they take place before 9:00 am) all day everyday, sort of. Mostly I eat sweets at work. But like last Monday (my day off) I had to check out the newest bakery in my area, and well we've finally got a Trader Joes....so I needed to check out their chocolates, cookies, candies too. But I could probably label that a work related tasting.

Finally I have something very worthy of sharing:

I've been savoring each and every bite of my Norman Love chocolates. So far the 18 piece box has lasted me 3 days.............that's alot of restraint!

[Ling]

^Thanks for the picture! I've read about the Norman Love chocolates but we don't have a TJ's up here. Which chocolate (flavour combination) stood out for you?

[DiH]

Wendy, do y'mean to say that you've had those chocolates for three whole days and none of the centers are pressed in yet??? hehehe

Gorgeous chocolates.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Di

[tan319]

Nice stuff, Wendy, pix are great.

Flavors are outstanding?

I've avoided posting on this thread, so I wouldn't embarase myself (....more then I normally do being a goof). Truth is I eat......hum.....well I eat sweets....if you can call them dessert (cause sometimes they take place before 9:00 am) all day everyday, sort of. Mostly I eat sweets at work. But like last Monday (my day off) I had to check out the newest bakery in my area, and well we've finally got a Trader Joes....so I needed to check out their chocolates, cookies, candies too. But I could probably label that a work related tasting.

Finally I have something very worthy of sharing:

I've been savoring each and every bite of my Norman Love chocolates. So far the 18 piece box has lasted me 3 days.............that's alot of restraint!

←

[kthull]

Wendy, I'm so thrilled about that TJ's. I was there on opening day. Maybe we'll bump into each other there sometime. Question: did you get those chocolates there or somewhere else?

Edited to add:

Dessert Christmas Eve was white chocolate cheesecake with raspberry sauce, plus cookies: Speculaas

Snickerdoodle Pinwheel

Blueberry Lemon Crumbles

Caramel Pecan Cookies

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies

Cherry Swirls

Korova

Tonight's dessert was to be an espresso hazelnut cheesecake, but my daughter slipped last night pouring eggnog for Santa and sliced her arm terribly on the shattered Oberweis bottle (extremely thick glass). The cheesecake was only 15 minutes in the oven when the ambulance came. I had enough wits about me to shut off the oven...if only I thought to either stick it in the fridge or set it at a lower oven temp, it might have survived. But after two hours, I figured I'd just be getting everyone sick. So instead we just ate more of the above cookies.

Edited December 26, 2005 by kthull (log)

[Wendy DeBord]

Oh my gosh Kevin, I hope your daughter is alright?! What a horrible x-mas eve!

Oh sorry, I guess I wrote that wrong in my last post. I bought the chocolates thru Norman's company in Florida....not at TJ's. I bought chocolates for my out of town relatives as x-mas gifts......and well I just had to get a fix for myself too. It was crazy.... I wanted to order 4 boxes each going to different states but I couldn't figure out how to do that thru his website. So I called dirrectly and who answers the phone, Norman himself... he sounded really jazzed by how busy he is (which is cool). Forwarned me that he couldn't guarentee delivery before x-mas and told me it would be faster if I ordered thru his website. Sure enough two days after I placed my orders all the boxes were delivered.

and........they are auesome!!! I've never tasted better chocolates, it's hard to believe anyone could make better. Out of an 18 piece box there were only 2 that could be considered average tasting......the rest were incredible. The colors and shine in my photo is way off. I'm no Patrick S!!!

He didn't have any "unusual" flavor combinations. Like Thomas Hass has layers of gelee mixed with ganches in his chocolates, etc... Loves' were all straight ganches no buttercreams or meringues, etc.... Usually only highlighting one flavor plus the chocolate although some had two flavors plus the chocolate. The texture of his ganches are incredible.....the flavors are very clear, cleanly stated flavors..........not subtle, but not too strong either.

P.S. My favorite find at TJ's is their bread (baguette and pugelse (which I can't spell)). Finally I can buy a decent loaf of bread to have with dinner. Have you come across anything you like alot from them Kevin?

[Ling]

I'm so stuffed. Tonight I had another slice of the ganache tart, a slice of cheesecake, six butter tarts (my aunt made them...they were good), a piece of shortbread with Cacao Berry orange dark chocolate, a chocolate sable cookie with ganache and nuts (I made both types of cookies), and five or six various other cookies from my aunt's cookie tray.

I'll have to put in some extra time at the gym this week.

Edited December 26, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Swisskaese]

I'm so stuffed. Tonight I had another slice of the ganache tart, a slice of cheesecake, six butter tarts (my aunt made them...they were good), a piece of shortbread with Cacao Berry orange dark chocolate, a chocolate sable cookie with ganache and nuts (I made both types of cookies), and five or six various other cookies from my aunt's cookie tray.  

I'll have to put in some extra time at the gym this week.

←

Lorna, I know this has been said before, but I wish I had your metabolism. I was born without one.

Would you be willing to share yours?

Edited December 26, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Here's what I made for dessert on Christmas...a pomegranate tart! It was quite yummy, though the photo didn't come out well. I was using someone else's camera, and guess that I didn't set it correctly...