Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Emily_R]

Mmmm. Some great looking desserts here folks -- that almond joy panna cotta looks amazing, as with the strawberry tart... And those rolls look amazing, Domestic Goddess -- Confessions of a Pioneer Woman is one of my all time favorite blogs!

Dessert tonight was a new brownie recipe, from the Nick Malgieri's book Perfect Light Desserts. Actually the texture of the brownies was excellent, considering that they only have 3 Tbs of butter in them for an 8 inch square pan. Only problem is that they are made with all cocoa, and so I thought they were a little too sweet and a little not chocolately enough. Nonetheless, quite good with vanilla ice cream and strawberries straight from the garden. I think I will play with the recipe a little, decreasing the sugar and adding just a little bit of melted chocolate for richness to see if I can still get something without the usual stick or two of butter!

I also made a cantaloupe granita, which is yummy, but not necessarily that much better to me than eating a nice cold slice of melon with a squeeze of lime...

Emily

[GTO]

For Dessert tonight, I made a Peach Frangipane Tart. The first time I've ever made Frangipane. I keep calling it a Peach Bakewell, but traditionalists would lynch me for that.

[Emily_R]

GTO -- that looks phenomenal! The peach and almond combination sounds amazing to me. Where did the recipe come from?

[GTO]

Thanks Emily. I'd been wanting to redeem myself with a classic, after possibly the World's worst chocolate cake ever yesterday. Everyone in my house loves Frangipane, and we had some peaches left over from last week...You get the idea

Recipe-wise, I knew I'd just be wanting a basic Frangipane, so Epicurious.com it was.

Did anyone else think that the scant amount of ground almonds in the filling the first time they made it seemed odd? It looked a bit wet to me and actually, it was.

[prasantrin]

Last night I made Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes. I used a recipe Ann_T linked to in the dinner thread. She had made two small loaves out of it, but mentioned making cupcakes instead, so I went with that option (they still took about 25 minutes to bake, though).

I broke into one last night, and it was soooo good! It was still warm. I'm on weight watchers, so at 8 points/cupcake, I won't be eating many of them. I had 1/4 of a cupcake last night, then brought the rest to work today and gave them way. I still have 3/4 of one left!

[demiglace]

Last night I made Chocolate Cream Cheese Cupcakes.  I used a recipe Ann_T linked to in the dinner thread.  She had made two small loaves out of it, but mentioned making cupcakes instead, so I went with that option (they still took about 25 minutes to bake, though).

I broke into one last night, and it was soooo good!  It was still warm.  I'm on weight watchers, so at 8 points/cupcake, I won't be eating many of them.  I had 1/4 of a cupcake last night, then brought the rest to work today and gave them way.  I still have 3/4 of one left!

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Is your company hiring?

[kbjesq]

Rona, those cupcakes look absolutely delectable . . . if I can eat those on WW, maybe there is hope for me, yet!

I was inspired by David Ross' blog, and I happened to have all the ingredients, plus someone just gave me a bunch of fruit-flavored brandies that they were going to throw away, so I took that as a sign that I was supposed to make Cherry Clafouti. I did not make the pastry base, though, I just buttered and sugared the dish before adding the cherries.

[jumanggy]

GTO, that tart looks great. Your crimping looks so uniform, one would think you've been doing this for years! I've never made frangipane before, but only because the price of almonds is so discouraging-- £1.35 for 100 grams and not much cheaper unground (which I would have to grind in a mortar and pestle anyway-- sniff, sniff). I wanna see pics of your chocolate cake! Could it really have been that bad? What was bad about it (appearance, taste, texture)? Maybe you'd like to post it in the commiseration central thread (well, if anyone can make an awful cake look good... heh heh.)

Rona, your cupcakes look so enticing, I can't believe you only ate a quarter of one. That's some willpower!

kbjesq, I WISH people would just give me food-related stuff Cherries are one of my favorite fruits (and, lucky for me, don't grow here), so I'm really jealous of your clafouti!

What do grow here are pineapples, though, and i made this Pineapple Galette for my family. It would be completely sugar-free if I hadn't used canned pineapple (curse you, Del Monte!! or curse me for not just buying a fresh one). Anyway, it was fresh-tasting and delicious

Edited: to correct subject-verb agreement. D'oh!

Edited June 21, 2007 by jumanggy (log)

[prasantrin]

GTO, that tart looks great. Your crimping looks so uniform, one would think you've been doing this for years! I've never made frangipane before, but only because the price of almonds is so discouraging-- £1.35 for 100 grams and not much cheaper unground (which I would have to grind in a mortar and pestle anyway-- sniff, sniff).

That's what maids are for! My mother just returned to Canada, and she already misses them.

Rona, your cupcakes look so enticing, I can't believe you only ate a quarter of one. That's some willpower!

It was good, but I ate it when it was still hot so I didn't get the full flavours. I just ate another quarter, and I'm glad the rest are already gone! If I had known just how good they were, I wouldn't have brought them to work!

Rona, those cupcakes look absolutely delectable . . . if I can eat those on WW, maybe there is hope for me, yet!

It's all about portion control! I have to admit, if it had been a bag of chips, I wouldn't have been able to eat just 1/4 bag!

Is your company hiring?

I wish! I'd love to get rid of some of the dead weight around here!

The cupcakes were a huge hit at work. I got rid of the remaining 11 cupcakes. They're not too sweet (which I found surprising, since when I licked the bowls I thought it was very sweet!), so they suited Japanese tastes very well.

[GTO]

I have to admit Mark, the first time I saw a Gallette I thought "What the Hell is that? I've never seen such a mess in all my life!" But I started to appreciate it's ruggedness after a while. I'm still not quite there, but yours does look great, a real classic.

I didn't photograph the cake, nor did we even eat it. I must have used too much baking powder, as it smelled incredibly off, almost fishy.

[DesertCulinary]

Tonight we had a piece of the Strawberry-Chocolate Tart I made yesterday - the crust is a dead easy oatmeal crust made in the food processor.

Edited June 24, 2007 by DesertCulinary (log)

[Domestic Goddess]

DessertCulinary - that looks absolutely scrumptious!

I froze a bunch of old bananas and today defrosted half of the bunch.... which later became Banananana Bread*

Billy insists in being in the picture....

Close-up of the beautiful brown crust....

and the soft, moist insides...

The best way to eat banana bread is warm, straight from the oven...

[miladyinsanity]

Doddie, there's an asterisk on the Bananananana Bread. Was there something you wanted to add?

Looks yum!

[emilyr]

I was planning on making my dad a pie last weekend for Father's Day, but life and work intervened and said "uh uh." I dropped my little sister off at the grocery store where she works last night and went in to look for something quick for my lunch today (working a bone-achingly early shift) and saw that stone fruits were on sale as were strawberries. The Missouri peaches aren't ready yet, but I got a nice selection of other peaches, nectarines, plums and strawberries and made my dad a pie. Very simple: pre-made pie crust (I can't always get them to work, and since I decided to do it last minute, I decided not make one) tossed into a tart pan, the fruits tossed with a bit of brown sugar, cornstarch, a couple of splashes of lime juice and nutmeg, lattice top and sprinkled with sugar. I wish I could post a picture, the color was just brilliant, pink-y/reddish/orangey/peach. My mom and I both commented that a dress would be pretty in that color. I made a topping with sour cream, brown sugar and lime juice (and used it to dip the extra peaches in in the middle of the night ).

It just tasted like summer! (And Dad liked it too!)

Edited June 24, 2007 by emilyr (log)

[GTO]

Doddie - I love the texture inside your bread, looks great.

Joe - Absolutely top notch, as always!

emily - Stone fruits are so good now here too. I've been using them a lot.

I wanted to make sure dessert would work tonight, so I made that most old-fashioned of cakes; Madeira.

[gfron1]

Caramel Nut Cake from The Art of the Dessert

You can see other creations from the book here.

[Chufi]

My aunt & uncle gave me half a kilo redcurrants from their garden, and I made the anise & cinnamon scented redcurrant jelly again that I accidentally made last year and which was so good! The half kilo made 3 little jars of jelly. I layered some jelly with greek joghurt for a quick dessert.. topped with raspeberries, also a gift.

For the jelly: boil up equal weights of redcurrants and sugar. Add a star anise and a piece of cinnamon (for 500 grams of currants and 500 grams of sugar I used just one staranise and one cinnamonstick).

Boil for about 15 minutes, press through a sieve (or a jelly cloth if you want a clearer jelly).

Edited June 25, 2007 by Chufi (log)

[Becca Porter]

Caramel Eclairs

Black and Blue Pie from latest Cuisine at Home

Individual Pavlova from Baking Illustrated

And lastly... Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp from Baking From My Home To Yours

[jumanggy]

Becca, I hope you've just been saving up pictures, because if I made all those desserts in a row I think I would lapse into a coma! I love the idea of the caramel eclairs. I made some puffs and I thought I'd do the same but I was too chicken (especially after Ann Amernick described her experience of losing her fingerprints).

When I ended up with so much extra glaze from the Chocolate Éclairs, I thought of this old article about frozen fruit bonbons. I bought a bunch of bananas, layered it with Good Shepherd Peanut Butter, froze them, dropped them in the room-temperature glaze, then froze them again. The result isn't too pretty till you look inside at the layers, but the taste is rich and delicious.

[Pan]

Becca, your desserts look great. Since I love rhubarb, I'm particularly loving your strawberry-rhubarb crisp! One question: What's in the filling of the black and blue pie?

[Domestic Goddess]

Doddie, there's an asterisk on the Bananananana Bread. Was there something you wanted to add?

Looks yum!

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The asterisk was for this:

*Created by Terry Pratchett, funny British author/writer

[Becca Porter]

Becca, your desserts look great. Since I love rhubarb, I'm particularly loving your strawberry-rhubarb crisp! One question: What's in the filling of the black and blue pie?

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It was half blackberries and half blueberries flavored with orange zest and juice.

I am a little embarrassed to admit that it was a week's worth of desserts for my family of four. I think I even left 1-2 out...

[GTO]

Mark - That's something a bit different, very cool.

[jumanggy]

Thanks, GTO! 'twas unbelievably easy to make, too, if a bit messy. My take on a classic, frozen banana. Do they have those in Britain? It's (I think) a banana dipped in chocolate and coated with nuts. Nobody sells frozen bananas here in Manila, which is weird considering a banana costs less than 5p (in your currency , <$0.10 to the others) here.

There's been a lot of Clafouti going around, so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I would have made pie but I've never had a clafouti before.

I pitted the cherries. Not a good move. So when I cut it, it was so water-logged. I had to pour out about 2 tablespoons. After a few hours, however, it sucked up all the juices and I no longer had that problem.

[prasantrin]

I made the Lemon Cheesecake Squares from Fine Cooking last Thursday. I finally got around to eating one today (most of them were brought to work and to a lunch I went to), and it was fabulous!! I had cut them into 32 small rectangles rather than 16 squares, and they still had 3.2 ww points each, so I'm thankful most of them are gone.

Just 3 rectangles left...I hope I have enough will-power not to eat them all tomorrow!