Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Scout_21]

Vanilla Tart - the recipe can be found here

And with some Octavia French Breakfast tea

Quite delicious and well worth the time. I think I might even like it better than Alain Ducasse's Louis XV dessert. A similar recipe for a coffee tart is in PH10.

Cheers

[RichardJones]

Scout_21,

What did you think of the finished tart? I had one from Herme (Rue Bonaparte) just before Christmas and found it unpleasantly sweet. I also thought the whole thing was just too rich. I was quite disappointed to be disappointed as I have always loved the look of them. Give me a Plaisir Sucre any day!

R

[Scout_21]

Scout_21,

What did you think of the finished tart? I had one from Herme (Rue Bonaparte) just before Christmas and found it unpleasantly sweet. I also thought the whole thing was just too rich. I was quite disappointed to be disappointed as I have always loved the look of them. Give me a Plaisir Sucre any day!

R

I thought is was "Quite delicious and well worth the time. I think I might even like it better than Alain Ducasse's Louis XV dessert." I honestly did not think it was too sweet, but could easily see how it could cross the line. I do think that the dessert is quite rich and my tarts are only 3 inches in diameter. A larger piece than that and I probably wouldn't finish it in one go. I did squeeze out some of the vanilla syrup from the biscuit cuillere before adding it to the tart and the syrup is very sweet so that my have contributed as well. Perhaps they do not do this at his shops. Otherwise I generally cut back on the sugar of tart shells and used different white chocolates (lindt, callebaut as well as valrhona) in the recipe which may have affected the sweetness. I did have it with slightly sweetened and milked tea so that may have also affected the perceived sweetness.

I am looking forward to making the coffee tart and may cut back on the sugar a bit too.

Cheers

[rosejoy]

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls w Buttermilk Frosting

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

Hiya, Aloha Steve,

I'm thinking about trying these and wanted to ask you a question about the liquid quantity in the recipe. I got the recipe from the Saveur website since the link in the thread didn't work for me. The ingredients list includes only 1/2 milk, but the instructions say to proof the yeast in 1/4 c water (which isn't included in the ingredients list). Is that what you used when you made yours? Was that 6 oz of liquid sufficient for your dough (seems skimpy to me, I'd expect something more along the lines of 7 - 7.5 oz liquid for the amount of flour in the recipe). Can you share whether the recipe worked out fine for you as written, or whether you needed to make adjustments to either the liquid or flour?

Thanks... yours look outstanding and I can't wait to give them a try.

[Aloha Steve]

Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls w Buttermilk Frosting

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

Hiya, Aloha Steve,

I'm thinking about trying these and wanted to ask you a question about the liquid quantity in the recipe. I got the recipe from the Saveur website since the link in the thread didn't work for me.

The ingredients list includes only 1/2 milk, but the instructions say to proof the yeast in 1/4 c water (which isn't included in the ingredients list). Is that what you used when you made yours? Was that 6 oz of liquid sufficient for your dough (seems skimpy to me, I'd expect something more along the lines of 7 - 7.5 oz liquid for the amount of flour in the recipe). Can you share whether the recipe worked out fine for you as written, or whether you needed to make adjustments to either the liquid or flour?

Thanks... yours look outstanding and I can't wait to give them a try.

The recipe was taken off the recipe gullet by the powers that be.

After reading P.R.'s Artisan Breads Every Day, I only use Instant Yeast and according to him, even though unlike ADY, IY does not need to be proofed, it should for 5 minutes or so as a wake up call. I do it his way every time, in every recipe that calls for yeast. I make the conversion from ADY to IY which is about 20% less using IY.

Thank you for pointing out your opinion about not enough liquid. I thought I had baked them a wee bit too long and that was why they came out dry, although delicious. Go with extra liquid, how much I can't say but please report back what you decided to do and how they came out.

[Aloha Steve]

I'm thinking about trying these and wanted to ask you a question about the liquid quantity in the recipe. I got the recipe from the Saveur website since the link in the thread didn't work for me. The ingredients list includes only 1/2 milk, but the instructions say to proof the yeast in 1/4 c water (which isn't included in the ingredients list). Is that what you used when you made yours? Was that 6 oz of liquid sufficient for your dough (seems skimpy to me, I'd expect something more along the lines of 7 - 7.5 oz liquid for the amount of flour in the recipe). Can you share whether the recipe worked out fine for you as written, or whether you needed to make adjustments to either the liquid or flour?

Thanks... yours look outstanding and I can't wait to give them a try.

Rose, I found this site where the recipe is tweaked a bit more. Maybe this will help make it even a better recipe.

I'm going to study before making next time and incorporate at lest one of her suggestions with the cream cheese.

[rosejoy]

Thanks for the heads-up, A. Steve. I bought cream cheese last night and am planning on baking the rolls this weeekend, and I'll incorporate some of her techniques as well. We'll see how they turn out and I'll try to post a picture (if they look at all decent )

Happy baking weekend to you

R.J.

[tonylombaardi]

Crispy Tangerine Sticks

One of the stranger things I've made, but very tasty too. This is tangerine juice, sugar, citric acid, methylcellulose, and xanthum gum, all blended together until it increases in volume 8 times. Then it's baked in a 150 degree oven for 9-10 hours. Recipe from Johnny Iuzzini's book Dessert Fourplay.

It reminds me of cotton candy in the way it melts in the mouth. I wonder what else one could do with this sort of thing. I guess whatever you'd do with crisp meringue might work.

I was thinking I might get a weird aftertaste with those additives, but it's not there.

[Beth Wilson]

Do you think they could be dipped in dark chocolate? I love orange and dark chocolate, are they dense enough to handle coating?

[tonylombaardi]

That's not a bad idea. They're extremely light though. I'm afraid the chocolate may be overpowering unless it's quite a thin coat. I guess it would need to be thinned with cocoa butter or something. They'd definitely handle the coating though.

Another way it might work with chocolate is to add it to a chocolate coating for some kind of citrus truffle, after chopping it up pretty fine.

I thought of making french style macarons with it too. Just to test I was going to put some ganache between two of these bars and see how the texture changes with time as it absorbs some of the moisture from the ganache.

[NVNVGirl]

I tried an experiment. It turned out a dismal failure, boohoo!

I have a recipe that always works for Lime Sponge Pudding; I thought I'd try something a little different and since I had coffee and chocolate, decided to make a "Mocha Sponge Pudding".

I followed all other ingredients but instead of 1/3 cup lime juice, I substituted 1/3 cup strong coffee. And instead of 1 Tb lime zest, I used 1 Tb shaved chocolate. The coffee had been in the fridge prior to adding it to the scalded milk/egg yolk/sugar/flour/melted butter.

The tops of it turned out just right; raised and cake-y; the bottom wasn't even CLOSE to custard; it was like soup.

Is it the acid in the citrus that makes the difference, or was it because maybe the coffee was too cold?

Such a disappointment. Would appreciate any ideas/advice.

[tonylombaardi]

My guess would be cold coffee. How long was it in your fridge? It's a little hard to guess without the big picture of how the whole recipe was done though.

[Kim Shook]

For my SIL’s graduation party, I made cake and fruit tarts. The cake was three layers – two of the CI German chocolate and one of plain white cake w/ vanilla bean:

Not the flattest cake ever.

The frosting was my Fudgy Chocolate Buttercream – a combination of a fudge frosting and a buttercream. I think that it’s the perfect mixture of deep chocolate flavor and a good consistency for piping:

The decorations:

I made little mortar boards with mini white Reeses cups, white chocolate squares, Twizzler pull-off tassels and M&Ms all stuck together with melted candy coating. They were really cute, but I’d like to find something better for the tassels and I wish I’d had time to get colored candy coating.

The decorated cake and a close up:

Inside:

I was really pleased with the cake. The flavor was good, everyone really seemed to love it. My decorating skills are amateur and the evenness of the layers of cake and frosting isn’t great, but it was cute and it was GOOD and I’m happy with that.

The fruit tarts were so easy. I was very lucky to find this recipe, because when she requested fruit tarts, I was envisioning those little pastry tarts, brushed with chocolate, filled with custard, topped with sliced fruit and glazed with jelly. I only got the request on Tuesday, so I had no time and was freaking out a little about being able to do them properly and on time. So when the recipe I used turned up on a search, I was so happy!

They start with a shortbread crust:

You fill them with a mixture of cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice and lemon zest:

And top with whatever fruit you like:

I chose blackberries and blueberries. Crispy, creamy, tart, sweet. These were wonderful!

[kasw]

Kim, that cake is beautiful and oh so clever. Perhaps you can try licorice laces for the tassels

http://www.oldtimecandy.com/licorice-laces.htm

-Karen

[Spring]

Yesterday I used my new magnetic mould to make milk chocolate coffee ganache and mc orange. I also made little cups (in the metal foils) of white chocolate raspberry ganache with a marzipan inclusion coated with dark chocolate.

Question: I had problems getting the filled chocolates out of the mould (I tried tapping, few moments in freezer etc) and am wondering why. In the end I got fed up and pushed the stubborn ones out the back lol. For the first time I thought Id be clever and painted the moulds with cocoa butter a) it looked rubbish (used too much?) and b)it didnt help

[Darienne]

For my SIL’s graduation party, I made cake and fruit tarts. The cake was three layers – two of the CI German chocolate and one of plain white cake w/ vanilla bean:

Wonderful work. I loved the mortar boards. Good going!

I have been busy dipping...dark chocolate, of course...dried papaya (I didn't like it), two kinds of candied ginger, and homemade candied orange peels. Owed a number of kind and helping folks a number of little gifts. Nothing exciting, but still filled the bill.

Edited January 26, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[tonylombaardi]

Spring,

Was the cocoa-butter you painted the molds with tempered? I don't have experience tempering pure cocoa-butter, but I imagine if it's not tempered it's not going to release. On the other hand, when people put colored cocoa-butter in molds for designs, is that just melted cocoa-butter with coloring? Does it need to be tempered? I don't have much experience with this.

[Spring]

ah. that must be it then. No it wasnt it should have been. I only made a tiny amount so didnt bother. thanks

[Lior]

The graduation cake is fabulous!!! I am so pleased it turned out so nicely!! Did you make the white chocolate squares? And the tart with that big fat blackberry-beautiful!!!

Spring-if you use a lot of colored cb it should be tempered. You can just heat it up to around 33-4 and by the time you shmear it on it gets tempered-a swipe with a finger etc. Was the shell very thin? If it is too thin it doesn't release well. Or perhaps the molds were too cold when you made the shells... I sometimes warm them up a bit when it is cold in the room-not toomuch though or it will also bring the chocolate out of temper.

[LizD518]

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.

Except for the flour, this looks almost exactly like the date nut balls my mom and I make almost every year for Christmas. We use puffed rice cereal (rice krispies) in the batter instead of nuts as well, roll it into balls or logs and roll those in chopped nuts or shredded coconut. One of my favorite holiday treats!

[Aloha Steve]

For my SIL’s graduation party, I made cake and fruit tarts. The cake was three layers – two of the CI German chocolate and one of plain white cake w/ vanilla bean:

Great tastes put together and very inventive both decorating and mixing.

[Lior]

The date nut bars sound great with puffed rice!! I make the bars with gluten free flour and everyone devours them. It is the kind of food you either don't touch to avoid gobbling or gobble. I always say-ok one bite... yeah uh huh...

[Darienne]

Nothing much of note, but I did manage today to make a few dozen heart-shaped butterscotch lollipops for our local library to sell. They have made this lovely silver paper covered foam slab to display the lollies standing up and with their bright ribbons, who can resist. It earns the library some extra cash every year and I'm pleased to do something for the wonderful folks who have been so kind to me with the chocolate and candy books ordered for the library and also inter-library loans made by the score.

Edited January 28, 2010 by Darienne (log)

[ejw50]

Made 3 trays of these.

After reading about oriol balaguer's pop rocks truffles, I decided to try it out.

These are Hazelnut Praline, Dark Chocolate, Buddha's hand zest, and unflavored pop rocks. The recipe is a modification of one of PH's.

The pop rocks give it a crunch when you bite into it(unexpected).

First you taste the praline/chocolate, then you taste the buddha's hand citrus, then it starts popping from the pop rocks!

Maybe not my favorite to eat 10 of them, but they are tasty and different from what you usually get.

Is anybody who has had the real thing able to comment on how they taste?

Or else I think Elbow has a pop rocks with peanut butter?

Edited January 28, 2010 by ejw50 (log)

[Dakki]

Cream cheese brownies, recipe found on the web.

I've never made these before and baking is my weakest point. We'll see how they come out.