Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Kim Shook]

Dakki – can’t wait to see the cheesecake. Cheesecakes are probably my favorite dessert, both to eat and to cook. They are so rewarding and the possibilities are endless.

In between blizzards, we finally managed to celebrate Jessica’s 26th birthday Wednesday night. She requested cupcakes – PBJ and Pink Lemonade.

The PBJ’s (yellow cake) all filled with grape jelly and ready for the PB frosting:

Finished and close up:

Inside view:

The Pink Lemonade cupcakes:

Close up:

That’s a little bit of candied lemon peel on top. I used the leftover pink lemonade concentrate to candy it, so it turned out pink instead of yellow.

Inside view:

The PBJ’s were, in one way a disappointment. The frosting is delicious and the concept is great. They are from a Tyler Florence recipe and the first time that I made them, the cupcakes were pretty good. But the last couple of times, they were horrible – very dense and heavy. Luckily, I realized it in time to run to the store and get a box of yellow cake mix. I really need to do another yellow cake recipe tests. I wasn’t happy with any of the recipes that I tried last time I did an experiment. My ideal cupcake would the exact texture of a cake mix cake, but with the flavor of a homemade cake. Oh, well – that’s for another time! Everyone liked these and they sure made a nice show:

[Darienne]

Lovely cupcakes with swirly and generous icing and they look so nicely presented on your cupcake stands.

[jenc]

Made two cheesecakes and both turned out well. However, the best topping was the salted caramel that I drizzled on it (from a failed attempt at making caramels). That'll be a keeper.

This week coming up is making some traditional tapioca cookies for Chinese New Year. I've been warned about the difficulty, though the read-through seems straight-forward enough... we'll see!

[Lior]

Those cupcakes look nothing but GLORIOUS!!!

[deensiebat]

I finally got a good recipe for fudgey vegan brownies:

[Dakki]

FISSION MAILURE

Cheesecake was lumpy. I think I probably overbeat the cream cheese. Would this be the result?

I will master this. Next time, cheesecake, next time!

[Jmahl]

FISSION MAILURE

Cheesecake was lumpy. I think I probably overbeat the cream cheese. Would this be the result?

I will master this. Next time, cheesecake, next time!

Lumpy? What do you mean? Give us a rundown on your procedure maybe we can help.

Veteran of a 1000+ cheese cakes.

Jmahl

[Dakki]

It was the "creamy water-bath cheesecake" from JoC.

I took the ingredients out of the fridge an hour before starting (the recipe says to hold at room temperature, about 70 F), preheated the oven, and beat the cream cheese smooth. I think this is where I messed up, the recipe says it will take 30 to 60 seconds but it took me quite a bit longer, maybe 3 minutes, before all the lumps were gone. Gradually added sugar while beating, added the eggs one at a time, beating each one until the mixture was homogeneous, added the cream and vanilla and beat them in as well.

The recipe suggests you have to scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top, but in this case the batter was so liquid I just poured it in. Would this be a sign of overbeating?

Wrapped the bottom of the pan in aluminum foil, then set it in a cast iron skillet (it's the only thing I own large enough to easily hold a 28 cm springform) with 1" of boiling water in it, and placed in an oven preheated to 325 F. Temperature control in this oven is kind of tricky (no thermostat, just a dial to adjust the flame) but I have a thermometer in there and managed to hold it within ~15 degrees of the suggested temperature for an hour. Turned off the heat, propped the door open with a wood spoon handle, let it cool in there for 3 hours or so while I did errands. The cake looked quite set and solid by the time I came back, so I covered it in plastic film and let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days before unmolding it.

I used store-brand cream cheese, fresh eggs (as fresh as you get in the supermarket, anyway), heavy cream and sour cream from fresh, sealed containers.

[jenc]

Dakki > I use a modified (minimally) recipe from cooking for engineers, but I've made it twice so far and had good results. But that's all in relation to cracking and taste.

As for lumps, I mix my cheese cakes by hand, so this was a big concern. So, do what I did: pull a Thomas Keller manoeuvre. Grab your strainer and pass your batter through to your pan!

This was the strawberry one, but I preferred the salted caramel topping I had done for the first one instead.

Obligatory link to flickr

[Jmahl]

Dakki - still can't figure out why your results were lumpy. We mix the sugar and cream cheese in a KA stand mixer until smooth - no particular order. Also very often right from the frig. You may be adding too much cream or eggs. In other words too liquard. Try looking at several different recipes to compare ratios or just cut back on your own until you find your sweet spot. Keep notes. Good luck and good eating.

Jmahl

[pjm333]

passion fruit choc napolian

[jenc]

Okay, Kueh Bangkit was a success! These are traditional Malaysian tapioca flour cookies.

http://www.foodpr0n.com/2010/02/12/kueh-bangkit-recipe/

So I think the success was mainly due to finding pandan that didn't suck. My mother managed to find fresh pandan, but I found it very "green" smelling and not at all as fragrant as the frozen-in-water product I obtained. You can really smell the aromatic difference when you dry-fry the flour with it.

Anyway, despite my mother claiming that this was a hard recipe to get right, I didn't find it too bad at all (and there was some winging it when adding the coconut milk)!

next: Kayang! (gotta do something with all the leftover pandan...)

[Kim Shook]

Dakki – sorry your cheesecake wasn’t perfect, but I LIKE your attitude ! I don’t think that overmixing is your problem, either. I can’t figure what would cause lumpiness, though. Did it TASTE good? If so, you have a little problem, not a big one, after all !

jenc – your cookies are adorable! What is the texture and flavor like? I am totally ignorant of Asian sweets.

I made a chocolate/chocolate cake for a work birthday:

Sometimes just a plain old chocolate cake with chocolate frosting is really, really good!

[CanadianBakin']

FISSION MAILURE

Cheesecake was lumpy. I think I probably overbeat the cream cheese. Would this be the result?

I will master this. Next time, cheesecake, next time!

The only time I've ended up with lumps is when some of the cream cheese from around the edges of the bowl that didn't get mixed in with the batter, makes it's way into the cake when it is poured into the pan. This will not melt into the cake but remain as a lump. Is this a possibility?

[Kim Shook]

FISSION MAILURE

Cheesecake was lumpy. I think I probably overbeat the cream cheese. Would this be the result?

I will master this. Next time, cheesecake, next time!

The only time I've ended up with lumps is when some of the cream cheese from around the edges of the bowl that didn't get mixed in with the batter, makes it's way into the cake when it is poured into the pan. This will not melt into the cake but remain as a lump. Is this a possibility?

Ding, Ding, Ding!!! I never thought about it, but that's happened to me, too! That really could be the culprit!

[jenc]

kim shook > well, the cookie itself, you would call "dry" and crumbly. However, because it's with Tapioca flour, the flour dissolves with liquid. Think uh... corn starch. It's flavoured with coconut and pandan (sorta the vanilla of Malay cuisine), which are really very aromatic and they tend to intensify when you leave the cookie to "melt" on your tongue.

It's odd if you're unprepared for it. But I love the texture and the flavour of it!

Edited February 13, 2010 by jenc (log)

[Kim Shook]

kim shook > well, the cookie itself, you would call "dry" and crumbly. However, because it's with Tapioca flour, the flour dissolves with liquid. Think uh... corn starch. It's flavoured with coconut and pandan (sorta the vanilla of Malay cuisine), which are really very aromatic and they tend to intensify when you leave the cookie to "melt" on your tongue.

It's odd if you're unprepared for it. But I love the texture and the flavour of it!

Sounds great. We do have an Asian bakery here, so maybe I'll go by and see if they might possibly have them.

[dystopiandreamgirl]

cocoa ladyfingers filled with milk chocolate mousse, topped with marbled bittersweet glaze and a belgian white chocolate arrow...

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

[tonylombaardi]

Looks awesome! I bet it tasted that way too.

[Gail CDM]

Last night I made a wonderful blueberry, lemon tart with Amaretto whip cream...yum.

[jenc]

Update on cookies: Success! The family liked it and found it quite authentic. Something else I realized - the cookies are gluten-free!

Since I didn't want to use the full height of the mould, what was painful was having to weigh each ball of dough to be 8g to shove into the mould for any kind of consistency.

kueh bangkit recipe

[Darienne]

How lovely those cookies look.

[Lior]

those cookies look gorgeous! I think I will try to make them. What kind of a mold is required? Can I make them without a mold?

[Dakki]

Made the cheesecake again, same recipe. It worked this time, and it looks like the previous failure was due to incompletely beaten cream cheese as suggested by CanadianBakin.

Thanks to everyone for your advice and encouragement (and inspiration).

[jenc]

Thanks Darienne!

Lior you could certainly make them w/o a mold. I tried using a small melon baller (remember: bite sized!) at first, but went to the more complicated weigh-and-mold when I thought they weren't pretty enough. You may wish to try a small cookie scoop perhaps? The ones I had seemed a little too large, but at the right size, it'd be still good, taste-wise.

If you're going to seek out a mold, mine looked like this:

However, unless you have some very Asian markets around you, they're difficult to find. Keep in mind that this mold was too deep for these cookies, and thus why I had to weigh dough. Traditionally, they're in the shapes of animals (so I'm told!). I'm hoping that one of my aunties can bring one back for me, as I was unable to locate one locally. It is pretty specific, I'd think, so unsurprising that there were none to be found.