Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Lior]

It seems that chefs RULE!!!

[Spring]

I am a bit nervous posting this but am trying to be brave.

I was asked to bake a chocolate cake, with 2 days notice. I am not a baker (am hoping one day to go from a 'Chocolate Maker" to a Chocolatier) Im happy with the look though

[Darienne]

Looks wonderful to me. Always forge ahead and post. Don't forget those hundreds of lurkers who depend upon someone to be brave so that some day they may work up the courage to post.

[Genkinaonna]

Spring-Love the colors on the cake! Transfer sheets are a wonderful thing! I made a cake for a three year old's birthday over the course of the last 4 days. The original request was "24 cupcakes...no big deal..." which rapidly morphed into,"well, there are going to be about 30 people there...and she wants a cake with a mermaid..." From now on I think I need to start charging more or learn to say no to baking after work!

But it turned out okay, I don't know if the mermaid ended up getting eaten, you never know when there are three year olds involved...

[Spring]

Okay? Turned out 'okay'? Are you mad? Its gorgeous!

Thanks for the compliments

I have set myself the challenge/torture of only working with chocolate as I specialize in sugar free products. I too need to charge more, especially as chocolate and transfer sheets are not cheap

Thanks Darienne. I think I should get the award for the longest lurker

Edited November 15, 2010 by Spring (log)

[Sheryl D]

Busy baking week:

Brown butter apple pie with gluten free crusts (I was playing with different techniques for gluten free crusts). I am not quite sold on browning the butter first. I love browned butter, but I think it gets lost in the pie and just may not be worth it here. The coconut cake I made however with brown butter was worth it. I need to make another one and write up the recipe!

Cranberry cream tart with chocolate crust (also gluten free). Mmmm. I really liked this one.

And a pear blue cheese souffle. Kids snarfed down two for dinner - yes it is really a dessert, but healthy enough I fed it to them for dinner : ).

Edited November 16, 2010 by Sheryl D (log)

[Spring]

Sheryl D: they look really good What flour did you use in the gluten free crust?

[Sheryl D]

I use different combinations of flours depending on what I am baking, fine white rice flour, brown rice flour, corn starch, tapioca starch, millet, almond, coconut, sorghum, and sweet rice are the most common.

The exact recipe is on my blog, have to run the kid who missed the bus to school, but i can post it here later today.

[prospectbake]

Dark Chocolate bonbons, trying out a silicone mold instead of the usual polycarbonate variety. Results-released like a dream with great shine, but sealing and getting an ultra thin shell proved difficult since so flexible...

[E.T.]

Dark Chocolate bonbons, trying out a silicone mold instead of the usual polycarbonate variety. Results-released like a dream with great shine, but sealing and getting an ultra thin shell proved difficult since so flexible...

Beautiful! I also have a couple of the floppy silicone molds but have succeeded only in using them for solid molding. My one attempt at getting any kind of a shell with them failed miserably I found it very difficult to scrape the top of the mold.

[CanadianBakin']

I use different combinations of flours depending on what I am baking, fine white rice flour, brown rice flour, corn starch, tapioca starch, millet, almond, coconut, sorghum, and sweet rice are the most common.

The exact recipe is on my blog, have to run the kid who missed the bus to school, but i can post it here later today.

Sheryl, your pies look great! I only see the chocolate crust on your blog. Could you please post the plain crust recipe?

[annachan]

I had a bad sweet tooth last night but didn't want to spend much time in the kitchen. So, I melted a bar of chocolate, tossed in some almonds and made some almond clusters. They hit the spot.

[Sheryl D]

I tried several blends, and even tried some experiments using vodka (which doesn't activate xanthan or starches, leaving the fat to make it more crispy), but the classic worked the best in an actual pie.

Gluten free pie crust

1/2 cup brown rice, sorghum or millet flour or almond meal

1/2 cup finely ground white rice flour

1/2 cup corn starch

1/4 cup potato starch

1/4 cup sweet rice flour

2 tablespoon sugar

1/4 t kosher salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks or grated

1 large egg

2 T ice cold water + more as needed

Blend all the flours, sugar and salt together in a food processor.

Pulse in the butter until the mixture resembles a course meal.

Turn out to a bowl and add egg and 2 T water. Mix, add water as needed. This can be wetter than gluten filled dough because the only thing that will turn chewy here is the sweet rice flour.

[Rico]

So I'd never made cookies before and was all impressed with myself, until I showed up here ... well I guess that's why you always want to play a level up - One improves a lot faster when his company is a whole lot better!

But I'm still posting it.

Ganache-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies from a Sept. '09 Food and Wine.

So, can one make things like peanut butter ganache and butterscotch ganache and all those sorts of things? Or is it only ganache if its chocolate? I think maybe I just like to say ganache.

[E.T.]

So I'd never made cookies before and was all impressed with myself, until I showed up here ... well I guess that's why you always want to play a level up - One improves a lot faster when his company is a whole lot better!

But I'm still posting it.

Ganache-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies from a Sept. '09 Food and Wine.

So, can one make things like peanut butter ganache and butterscotch ganache and all those sorts of things? Or is it only ganache if its chocolate? I think maybe I just like to say ganache.

Rico, those look yummy! Ganache always contains chocolate and cream (or butter), but you can flavor it with just about anything, including peanut butter.

[Genkinaonna]

Don't feel bad Rico, I like to say Ganache too! And those cookies look pretty damn tasty. As E.T. says, it's gotta have chocolate to be ganache, but there's nothing wrong with adding other things to it, so if you made a butterscotch sauce and mixed it in, you'd have butterscotch ganache, and I myself have made peanut butter ganache (with white chocolate and natural crunchy peanut butter) and it was delish.

On another topic, I made this:

as a swap for two haircuts for my kiddos. It's alternating layers of chocolate buttermilk cake and vanilla butter cake with cream cheese filling and chocolate sour cream frosting. It was a birthday cake for a man who really likes bacon but whose wife is a vegetarian, so no real bacon allowed. Those strips are painted fondant. It did get me thinking though and I think maple cupcakes with maple bacon buttercream might be in my Kitchenaid's near future...

[dystopiandreamgirl]

winter squash and pumpkin pies

mincemeat tart

apple pies

maple caramel walnut/pecan tart w chocolate maple leaf & whirlybirds

another mince tart

and chocolate walnut rum tortes w homemade marzipan & chocolate oak leaves

hoping everyone is having a long lovely holiday weekend!

[Darienne]

As usual, Dystopiandreamgirl, you have blown me away. What a reputation to keep up with!!! Keep 'em coming always.

[Kim Shook]

Gorgeous stuff, everyone!

Rico – your cookies looks fantastic and I love the composition of your picture, too! As everyone says ‘ganache’ means chocolate, but I make something that is a ganache of sorts with Reeses peanut butter chips and cream. It is heaven.

Genkinaonna – love your fake bacon!

dystopiandreamgirl – as always, your work is awesome!

I made this cake for an auction to benefit the Food Pantry:

It’s a gingerbread layer cake with cranberry-orange filling and cream cheese-orange icing decorated with sugared cranberries and gingerbread men. It was the 2nd highest bid - $63! That was very gratifying.

[Darienne]

Way to go, Ms Kim!!!!

[Borgstrom]

Country Apple Tart from Chez Panisse Desserts

[suzilightning]

early in november went to a demo at our local shoprite that featured cranberries. took away two recipes out of 5 (and the thought that though i am not a graduate of cia i could have done a better demo)and have learned that the store really needs to test the recipes better before they distribute them.

just have made a "harvest cranberry bar" that i actually had to add more liquid to in order to be able to actually "spread" it and added some oatmeal and replaced the butter with light olive oil since the husband doesn't eat butter. this is the third time i have made it - once by the recipe and now twice by a bit of a tweek in order to actually eat it. funny how if you follow the recipe it says that the batter should flow - in your freaking dreams.....

[deensiebat]

Covered all of the guests' allergen bases with gluten-free vegan rugelach for Hanukkah:

[dystopiandreamgirl]

an early buche, in a chocolate cage:

[Darienne]

I saw the name 'Dystopiandreamgirl' in the subject heading, and I knew, and I was right. Incredibly beautiful as always!

Edited December 8, 2010 by Darienne (log)