Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[CanadianBakin']

The recent pics have been beautiful! I haven't taken any pictures recently as I've only been baking brownies and peanut butter cookies, and you have all seen those before. I also had the CI chocolate class with the kids in my cooking/baking class and posted pictures in the chocolate cake thread. 

However, this week I'm making the Pierre Herme Black Forest cake and will be sure to get a picture.

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Did you get any pictures of the desserts you've been serving at Rare?

[deensiebat]

Here is a picture of the orange pecan pie.. We used candied orange peels and orange zest.. Tons of Karo Syrup and a little bit of bourbon.. I brought it for Thanksgiving and it was eaten for lunch before dinner.. It never made it to the table..

Very good

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not that i'm hungrily cruising old posts or anything..... but how was this pecan pie? i tried a nytimes recipe a few years back that used boiled-down cider for the syrup, and i was all excited for something tangy to cut the sweetness, but it ended up tasting unwelcomingly sour. if this combo worked, i would love the details.

[Ling]

^No, I haven't had a chance to go in this week yet, and I didn't take any pictures of the Tarte Grenobloise I was serving last week. But it's the same dessert that I posted in the PH thread.

[Ling]

Yesterday, I made:

-PH's cocoa cake

-a mocha butter cake

-a coffee chiffon cake

I ate the levelled top of the cocoa cake, and 2 slices of the mocha cake with Nutella (the cake itself was quite dense so spreading the Nutella was not really a problem.) The cocoa cake was good too--dark and dense. It's in the freezer right now. Can't wait to assemble the Black Forest cake tomorrow!

ETA: Oops, forgot about the three peanut butter cookies and the truffles (generic ones from that square box you get at Costco.)

Today, with my kiddie cooking class, we are making oatmeal raisin cookies for dessert.

Edited March 17, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Patrick S]

Tonight I'm having eclairs filled with coffee-infused pastry cream, and glazed with some of valrhona 61% glaze I had in the freezer.

[gfron1]

I was all prepared for a great pic of a great dessert...but then disaster!

Tonight I'm serving Chambord soaked genois topped with candied kumquat cremoix, topped with a second layer of soaked genois, and finally topped with Julia Child's lemon chiffon, adorned with a sliver of candied kumquat. It was all supposed to be wrapped in a white chocolate robe, but I must have used too much inverted sugar and it didn't work. Delicious, just not as pretty as I had hoped. On the side I had Hermes orange Tuille formed into a cup with a fresh kumquat.

Edited March 20, 2006 by gfron1 (log)

[Ling]

Are the eclairs from the PH book, Patrick? I was thinking about doing eclairs or cream puffs with my kiddie cooking class next week. I think they'll have fun making them.

Yesterday I had truffles and strawberry cheesecake (NY style).

Today I had truffles and Golden Oreos. The Golden Oreos weren't great.

ETA: half a box of these really good Chinese eggroll cookies called "The Original Eggroll". And some pineapple "cake" (an Asian cookie that's kind of soft, shortbread-like that encases a pineapple filling).

Edited March 20, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Patrick S]

Are the eclairs from the PH book, Patrick?

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Well, the glaze is from the book, the pastry cream is based on the one in the book too. The choux is Ong's recipe.

[NYC Mike]

Made the Sicilian Ricotta Cheesecake from Nick M's Great Italian Desserts. Was almost like my grandmother's minus the little peices of candied fruits she used to put in it. I think I may have taken it out a bit too soon, it was a little wet on the top but still tasted really good! Learning as I go....

-Mike

[Marmish]

Yesterday, I made the Chocolate Truffle Souffle cakes from Small Batch Baking. The recipe made 4 cakes in 3 in" ramekins. They looked very pretty and tasted good even though I didn't use very good chocolate. They were very moist.

Today, I'm making lemon cake for March birthdays at work.

Edited March 20, 2006 by Marmish (log)

[Pille]

I made a very simple barley mousse for dessert last night.

Doesn't compete with chocolate eclairs and fancy cakes , but sometimes some old nursery food just fits the bill.

[Ling]

^I think your mousse looks great!

PH's Black Forest cake

Valrhona cocoa cakes

sour cherries poached in port, cinnamon, orange juice, lemon zest, black pepper

chocolate mousse (I used Cacao Berry orange dark chocolate)

Edited March 21, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Ling]

a batch of peanut butter cookie dough

Well, almost a batch. I baked about 6 cookies with the remaining dough I didn't eat.

Also, a nice steaming bowl of green bean and tapioca "tong siu" (err..."sugar water" in Cantonese?) It is basically rock sugar, water, green bean, and tapioca cooked together until the green bean and tapioca are very, very soft. They serve as a thickener for the barely-sweet "soup" dessert.

[RuthWells]

Last night was trimmings from vanilla butter cake -- the recipe from the current Fine Cooking mag. Very yummy, bouncy crumb, and moist, but not too moist. Looking forward to seeing how it behaves under fondant this weekend.

[K8memphis]

Tonight I'm having eclairs filled with coffee-infused pastry cream, and glazed with some of valrhona 61% glaze I had in the freezer.

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Oh man! Now I remember why I never open up this topic!!!

Pictures are to die for!! drool drool

If I get granted three wishes, one of them will be for a metabolism like Ling's!!!

[skyflyer3]

Tonight I'm having eclairs filled with coffee-infused pastry cream, and glazed with some of valrhona 61% glaze I had in the freezer.

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Hi Patrick - That glaze looks gorgeous - and I had no idea you could do one so shiny that was previously frozen. Did you let it come to room-temp, defrost in fridge, heat, or a combo? Thanks, Lani

[Patrick S]

Tonight I'm having eclairs filled with coffee-infused pastry cream, and glazed with some of valrhona 61% glaze I had in the freezer.

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Hi Patrick - That glaze looks gorgeous - and I had no idea you could do one so shiny that was previously frozen. Did you let it come to room-temp, defrost in fridge, heat, or a combo? Thanks, Lani

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I took a few ounces of the glaze stright from the freezer, cut it into small cubes, and warmed it gently in a double-boiler. Except for a few tiny bubbles, the glaze looks as good as it did when I first made it.

[miladyinsanity]

Ling's brownies.

I think my changes to the recipe messed it up a bit too much. Still good though.

[Ling]

^Good batter too, eh May?

Today I'm baking sticky toffee pudding with my kiddie cooking class. I'm also making another Tarte Grenobloise and chocolate mousse-filled cream puffs for this awesome "Chocolate Soiree" I'm attending. The host sent me this:

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We'll have a bunch of rare and top-class chocolates for tasting (Amedei, Domori, El Ray, Guido Gobbino, Valrhona, etc.), truffles and filled chocolates from New York, Chicago, Montreal, and Vancouver (Marcolini, Christopher Norman, Vosges, Chocolats Genevieve Grandbois, Sweet Obsessions), petit fours from Ganache Patisserie, and a couple of chocolate fountains (milk and dark). Themis, from Chocoatl, will be on hand with his own chocolates to preside over a tasting and discuss the different cocoas, etc.

I just finished making my ice cream (one Valhrona dark with El Rey Ioca white chocolate chips, the other a Callebeau milk with Scharffen Berger dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs).

*******

I am soooooo excited!

Edited March 24, 2006 by Ling (log)

[Ling]

I made individual Tarte Grenobloise for the party...here's a picture.

I did a burnt brandy pecan caramel on top...so delicious!

[gfron1]

Great picture Ling - and I love the kumquat! Thanks for posting it.

[Megan Blocker]

Today my friends Hall and Miles came over to re-create the Lady M Mille Crepes cake. We had such a blast...

...slicing...

...and eating.

We didn't find Hesser's recipe to be terribly user-friendly; for instance, you should probably chill the cake again after bruleeing the top, as the first layer of cream became oozy and gooey, which you don't want. But overall, oh my goodness. SO GOOD. And really close to the real thing.

I'll post my adaptation of Hesser's recipe shortly!

Edited March 26, 2006 by Megan Blocker (log)

[ludja]

Awesome! It looks delicious! Your success definately encourages me to try this sometime soon.

I hope this spawns a dedicated Mille Crepes Thread. I think someone else tried a chocolate version somewhere else in the P&B forum.

Edited March 26, 2006 by ludja (log)

[CanadianBakin']

A Crooked Cake I helped a girlfriend make for her daughter's 5th birthday. It wasn't quite finished here. We also made "candles" out of white chocolate tinted pink with yellow white chocolate "flames" and they were mounted on each of the rosettes you can see. About 26 of them so each child got a candle. This is from a book Ruth often recommends called "The Whimsical Bakehouse". An awesome book of cake ideas for those of us who are amateurs at decorating.

[Shaya]

Patrick - stunning-looking eclairs, I think these were always my pick at patisseries growing up in Montreal - haven't seen any real eclairs since moving to Halifax though. I have had them on my "list" to make one day - would you say they are a high difficulty level pastry to make? Also how many days-long is the whole process?

Ling, what gorgeous desserts, wow.

Megan, bravo! Beautiful!

Edited March 26, 2006 by Shaya (log)