Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Aloha Steve]

This was the centerpiece of my holiday dessert buffet this year -- the chocolate mousse cake from Healy/Bugat's "The Art of the Cake". My decor ended up a bit different from theirs, but it was delicious -- layers of chocolate mousse with layers of almond japonaise. I wish I'd take a pic of the interior!

Your centerpiece = ART.....gorgeous and I bet tasted every bit as good as it looks! YUM

[Darienne]

This was the centerpiece of my holiday dessert buffet this year -- I wish I'd take a pic of the interior!

Picture be darned! How about a slice!!!!

[Aloha Steve]

This was the centerpiece of my holiday dessert buffet this year -- I wish I'd take a pic of the interior!

Picture be darned! How about a slice!!!!

Me Toooooooooooo

[David A. Goldfarb]

That's a beautiful chocolate mousse cake.

Two days ago my wife and I went to see It's Complicated, in which Meryl Streep's character owns a bakery (a little overlap from her previous film, there), and in one scene she takes her date, played by Steve Martin, to the bakery and offers to make him anything on the menu, or anything off the menu that she can make, and he asks for chocolate croissants, and it being a bakery where they probably have dough already folded in the fridge, and a sheeter to roll it out quickly, and a temperature controlled proofing cabinet, so the final rise doesn't have to take too long, and through the magic of editing, they're eating croissants before morning. Of course we're both in the mood for chocolate croissants after this, so I said I'd make some, since I had all the ingredients on hand, but I warned her that it was going to take longer than it did in the movie. It's been a few years since I last made croissants, and it's a little cool in the kitchen this time of year, so between all the long risings and foldings and chillings and rollings and chillings and risings, I started yesterday morning, and this morning she could wake up to the aroma of butter and chocolate wafting from the kitchen.

I divided the dough in half after folding, so maybe next time I can do it a little more on the time scale of the movie, even without a mechanical sheeter.

I'd forgotten what a good croissant is supposed to taste like. I really need to make them more often.

[CanadianBakin']

That's a beautiful chocolate mousse cake.

Two days ago my wife and I went to see It's Complicated, in which Meryl Streep's character owns a bakery (a little overlap from her previous film, there), and in one scene she takes her date, played by Steve Martin, to the bakery and offers to make him anything on the menu, or anything off the menu that she can make, and he asks for chocolate croissants, and it being a bakery where they probably have dough already folded in the fridge, and a sheeter to roll it out quickly, and a temperature controlled proofing cabinet, so the final rise doesn't have to take too long, and through the magic of editing, they're eating croissants before morning. Of course we're both in the mood for chocolate croissants after this, so I said I'd make some, since I had all the ingredients on hand, but I warned her that it was going to take longer than it did in the movie. It's been a few years since I last made croissants, and it's a little cool in the kitchen this time of year, so between all the long risings and foldings and chillings and rollings and chillings and risings, I started yesterday morning, and this morning she could wake up to the aroma of butter and chocolate wafting from the kitchen.

I divided the dough in half after folding, so maybe next time I can do it a little more on the time scale of the movie, even without a mechanical sheeter.

I'd forgotten what a good croissant is supposed to taste like. I really need to make them more often.

Lovely story. Thanks for sharing.

[Kim Shook]

I haven't had anything worth posting about lately, but y'all are doing such amazing work that I had to comment!

dystopiandreamgirl - your buches de noel are just awesome. I think that my favorite is the white chocolate holly leaves - I showed it to Mr. Kim and he was truly impressed! I don't think that I've ever told you that whenever I see your name, my head sees "Dipsomaniadreamgirl"? I always imagine you as the toast of AA.

DeliciouslyLekker - your choc chip cookies are beautiful. Are you an obsessive like me and top each cookie with individual chips so they will look prettier?

Darienne - I'm sorry that your holiday wasn't what you had hoped for. Your galette is lovely and I hope the new year brings you better times.

Richard - your dessert/cake/mousse thing is beyond my vocabulary! What an absolutely perfect, beautiful and deliciously looking thing that is! I would love to have seen a picture of a slice! And your little pastry trio is gorgeous! That mirror shine on the left one is making me all kinds of jealous - I've never been able to temper chocolate successfully and, for some odd reason, Mr. Kim hasn't ever picked up on my hints (amazon wish list and a direct - "I want one" ) to buy a temperer for me! Just lovely! I'm just starting reading your blog and am fascinated - it's beyond anything that I could ever imagine accomplishing, but I'm enjoying the vicariously 'learning'!

Robyn - your raspberry tart is lovely. How perfectly your little berries are sunk!

Steve - and now I want some cinnamon rolls. Wow!

Ruth - that cake is beautiful. I am especially enamored of the chocolate ruffle since I never end up with anything but shards when I try to make ruffles or curls!

David - what a lovely story! Now I want to make croissants for Mr. Kim, or him to make them for me, or just to eat some good ones!

Carry on, folks - keep reminding me of why I come here, even when the closest I've come to baking is making cinnamon toast at midnight!

[Kouign Aman]

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls w Buttermilk Frosting

The family said they were really, really good and keep the recipe.

That dough looks fabulous! What kind did you use?

I found the recipe onSaveur including 24 pix showing the making from beginning to end. It was also recently on Joythebaker's blog.

Next time I will spread the dough longer so that when I roll, there'll be another swirl of the cinnamon mixture.

It was the first time I made it and it will kept it as THE cinnamon roll recipe forsaking all others

Any chance you can personalize it slightly and enter it into recipegullet?

[RichardJones]

Thanks for the comment, Kim! I am sure the people at eGullet can help get you up to speed with your tempering.

I've been busy cooking quite a lot lately since I am about to return to university (I have a final year to polish off before I can move into doing this full-time). Today was my last day in a decent kitchen and I made this:

It's a bomb. There is a deep disk of mango and lychee sorbet in the very centre, the body is vanilla ice cream with a little cinnamon and the décor is sliced mango, a chocolate glaze and macaron shells (of a sort -- I had a dire problem with some new colourings, the batter collapsed and the result was less than perfect with no time to redo). I decorated the plate with piped chocolate and a mango/sanguinello gelée. I think it looks small in the photo but it served five with seconds.

The glaze was an untested recipe I picked up (cocoa, cream, water, sugar and gelatin) but it worked pretty well even though it's not designed for frozen things. Happy to pass on the recipe to anyone who cares. I've no bomb mould but made this using half the aluminium mould for a spherical Christmas pudding. I demoulded with a blow-torch. Highly recommended -- this was easy to do but I think it looks quite fun.

R

Edited January 6, 2010 by RichardJones (log)

[Aloha Steve]

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls w Buttermilk Frosting

The family said they were really, really good and keep the recipe.

That dough looks fabulous! What kind did you use?

I found the recipe onSaveur including 24 pix showing the making from beginning to end. It was also recently on Joythebaker's blog.

Next time I will spread the dough longer so that when I roll, there'll be another swirl of the cinnamon mixture.

It was the first time I made it and it will kept it as THE cinnamon roll recipe forsaking all others

Any chance you can personalize it slightly and enter it into recipegullet?

OK, done....here's the LINK

[hac]

cakes looks sooooo good everyone!

now that my shop is open for a few months, i now have a daily routine of baking the best sellers which are the decadent chocolate cake, our custard cake, lemon torte and my take on the apple crumble. the decadent chocolate cake is at most the best seller, i bake 4 of it in day and sometimes goes as high as 8-10.

Decadent ( served with a small tub of extra caramel)

Custard cake

Lemon torte

note: i use a squeeze bottle now for my caramel decadent topping =P not that messy anymore haha!

[hac]

forgot the apple crumble =P

served cold topped with caramel whipped cream and a bit of apple syrup on the side

[oli]

Lemon torte

Looks wonderful. I love anything lemon. Would I be able to find the recipe on line?

Thanks

[hac]

ill type it up and post it on the recipes here =P

[chocoera]

This was the centerpiece of my holiday dessert buffet this year -- the chocolate mousse cake from Healy/Bugat's "The Art of the Cake". My decor ended up a bit different from theirs, but it was delicious -- layers of chocolate mousse with layers of almond japonaise. I wish I'd take a pic of the interior!

any tips on how to make those GORGEOUS ruffles?! wowzers. wow-zers.

[Simonne]

Hi everyone, haven't been posting for so long kekeke...

Durian Cheesecake

Pineapple Tart (is actually a cookies for chinese new year celebration)

Kuih Bangkit (melt in your mouth cookies)

[hac]

@Simonne

that looks great! are you by any chance filipino? ive only seen one durian cake baker here in manila =P would love to taste it!

[Simonne]

hac,

I'm from Malaysia. Durian is a common Asian fruits, in season right now

[RuthWells]

Thanks for the nice comments -- I was actually attempting Alice Medrich-style chocolate ruffles and failed miserably, ending up with cones and shards and who-knows-what-all. (Thank goodness it all looks good when massed together!)

The basic premise is, warm the back of a sheet pan, spread with choc, chill in the fridge, and then let come back to malleable temps before trying to shape. Alice doesn't temper her choc, and she lets the sheets set up hard and then warm up in the kitchen slowly. Rose L. B. tempers her choc, lets it set for 5 minutes in the fridge, and then takes it out to come to malleable temp, which I found to be more user-friendly. I even tried Healy/Bugat's technique from "The Art of the Cake", which is to warm the pan significantly and then rub a block of tempered chocolate over it, melting the choc yet keeping the mass in temper by constantly seeding it with the original block. I found this last technique quite irritating and hard to manage.

For forming the ruffles, I used an offset spatula, more or less following Alice's instructions in "Bittersweet" to shape the ruffles. I also played around with using a round cutter a la Healy/Bugat and a plastic taping knife from the hardware store. I more or less let the chocolate do what it wanted while shaping, but now that I've got a little confidence, I'm going to try to perfect the Medrich ruffles...

[oli]

Thanks for the nice comments -- I was actually attempting Alice Medrich-style chocolate ruffles and failed miserably, ending up with cones and shards and who-knows-what-all. (Thank goodness it all looks good when massed together!)

The basic premise is, warm the back of a sheet pan, spread with choc, chill in the fridge, and then let come back to malleable temps before trying to shape. Alice doesn't temper her choc, and she lets the sheets set up hard and then warm up in the kitchen slowly. Rose L. B. tempers her choc, lets it set for 5 minutes in the fridge, and then takes it out to come to malleable temp, which I found to be more user-friendly. I even tried Healy/Bugat's technique from "The Art of the Cake", which is to warm the pan significantly and then rub a block of tempered chocolate over it, melting the choc yet keeping the mass in temper by constantly seeding it with the original block. I found this last technique quite irritating and hard to manage.

For forming the ruffles, I used an offset spatula, more or less following Alice's instructions in "Bittersweet" to shape the ruffles. I also played around with using a round cutter a la Healy/Bugat and a plastic taping knife from the hardware store. I more or less let the chocolate do what it wanted while shaping, but now that I've got a little confidence, I'm going to try to perfect the Medrich ruffles...

I made Alice's Chocolate Ruffle cake a number of years ago,after seeing it on PBS with Julia Child, and the ruffles came out perfectly. I've been pretty lucky with making ruffles, with her instructions, it has not failed yet.

[RuthWells]

Yeah, I think my chocolate wasn't quite at the right point when I started trying the ruffles. Also, I received the Baking with Julia DVD for Christmas, and seeing Alice actually make the ruffles makes the whole process more accessible. In the video she describes using the offset spatula to sort of slide under the chocolate, rather than scraping from the top surface of the chocolate, which is what I was trying to do.

[oli]

Yeah, I think my chocolate wasn't quite at the right point when I started trying the ruffles. Also, I received the Baking with Julia DVD for Christmas, and seeing Alice actually make the ruffles makes the whole process more accessible. In the video she describes using the offset spatula to sort of slide under the chocolate, rather than scraping from the top surface of the chocolate, which is what I was trying to do.

That's the secret, it has to be at just the right temp. After you've done it awhile you will get a feel for it as far as it being too cold or too warm.

[Lior]

Delicious and can be done gluten free-I love them!! Can't stop munching on them!

Date Nut Bars

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar (I use less)

1/4 lb melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup of chopped dates rolled in sugar so they are not sticky

1/2 cup nuts-I use pecans

1 cup of flour or gluten free flour (I used a corn starch type of gluten free flour from the health food store)

1/4 tsp salt

Mix egg,sugar,butter and vanilla. Add dates and nuts. Sift flour,baking powder and salt and add to egg mixture. Stir well. Bake in flat tin or pyrex dish for 35 mins at 325F. Cut into squares while still warm. I double the recipe and use a rectangular pyrex.

[merstar]

Chocolate Chunk Coffee Cookies

Used espresso instead of coffee (half the amount), a little extra sugar, a little salt, omitted the nuts, dropped by rounded Tbsp, and baked at 350 F about 10 minutes.

http://sweetmary.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/12/chocolate-chunk-coffee-cookies.html

[Aloha Steve]

Apple Cheesecake with Crunchy Nut Topping

It may not have crisp lines and angles but boy oh boy, it is yummy good

[Lior]

looks yummy good!!