Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[AnneN]

This is an Apricot, Almond, and Chocolate Spiraled Coffee Cake that I made this morning (I made the dough yesterday). We tailgate at my son's baseball games so I need to not eat this until tomorrow (don't know if that's possible!). The recipe comes from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. This is the second time I have made it. Presentation is great and it tastes divine!

[Darienne]

OOOOOOOHH.(sharp intake of breath with drool) :wub:

[janeer]

janeer – what kind of icing is that on your angel food cake? It is so beautiful and glossy!

ET – oh, you should definitely try angel food cake – it’s very easy to make and the perfect spring/summer dessert with all the good berries coming in soon.

Here’s a slice of that angel food cake:

Nice looking crumb, I thought. Good flavor and texture. Served with warm caramel sauce.

It is a bitter chocolate glaze, the way my grandmother always served it, so so do I. I garnish the sliced cake with a little raspberry coulis. I also LOVE it with caramel, as you serve it.

[janeer]

This is an Apricot, Almond, and Chocolate Spiraled Coffee Cake that I made this morning (I made the dough yesterday). We tailgate at my son's baseball games so I need to not eat this until tomorrow (don't know if that's possible!). The recipe comes from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. This is the second time I have made it. Presentation is great and it tastes divine!

Gorgeous. My favorite kind of thing to eat.

[E.T.]

A few sweet bites I made for a dinner party: green tea meltaways, macarons with strawberry-mascarpone cream, and truffle tartlets.

I've made some versions of these things before, except for the tart shells. They came out looking nice--except for the bottom, which puffed up during baking leaving a deep indentation in the finished shell that is visible when the shell is turned upside down. No one noticed, but I'd like to know what I can do to prevent this in the future. I followed the procedure described here exactly: chilling the dough for 1 hour, and pricking the bottom with a fork.

[Shelby]

My first entries into the "Sweets" thread. Figured it was about time...

First up, a very home-y (and possibly homeLY) apple/pear crisp I made a while back. Nice and warm and cinnamon-y, it was good comfort sweets. A little heavy cream on top, of course, to totally gild the lilly:

And something a little more refined. My first attempt at canneles ! THEY were wonderful. I have a new favorite sweet, I think.

Oh wow, I also had never heard of canneles, so I used my trusty google and researched.

I just got the mold that you use from Fed Ex on Friday. I'm so exited to try!

[janeer]

A few sweet bites I made for a dinner party: green tea meltaways, macarons with strawberry-mascarpone cream, and truffle tartlets.

I've made some versions of these things before, except for the tart shells. They came out looking nice--except for the bottom, which puffed up during baking leaving a deep indentation in the finished shell that is visible when the shell is turned upside down. No one noticed, but I'd like to know what I can do to prevent this in the future. I followed the procedure described here exactly: chilling the dough for 1 hour, and pricking the bottom with a fork.

those are awfully fine looking macarons. Is there color in the meltaways?

I assume you used rings, not pans, for the shells? Little to do except weight them, I think.

[E.T.]

those are awfully fine looking macarons. Is there color in the meltaways?

I assume you used rings, not pans, for the shells? Little to do except weight them, I think.

The green in the meltaways is from the matcha tea powder. It's very pretty in person. The lighting in the photo doesn't do it justice.

Ah, I didn't use tart rings (don't have any yet), just an ordinary muffin pan. I'm curious to know what it is about the rings vs pans that prevents the puffing.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

E.T, your tart shells are so thin! How do you possibly do that without them cracking or getting holes?!

[E.T.]

E.T, your tart shells are so thin! How do you possibly do that without them cracking or getting holes?!

I was a bit afraid they wouldn't come out of the pan. Miraculously, there was no cracking. The only issue was the bottoms puffing up. But you have to turn the tart upside down to see that defect--not something anyone is going to do, I found, and risk losing the ganache filling I'll have to try these again with tart rings and see if that helps reduce the puffiness.

[oli]

Gorgeous photo, good enough to want to lick the screen.

[Genkinaonna]

I made green tea shortbread a couple of weeks ago...the family didn't love it but I thought it was good. Maybe more sugar next time. These were for my daughter's 5th birthday. We have a book with these characters (Moshi Moshi Kawaii) in it, and she fell in love with them...the cupcakes are chocolate with vanilla italian meringue buttercream, and red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The Moshis are gumpaste, decorated with food coloring markers. They were a big hit.

[oli]

This is an Apricot, Almond, and Chocolate Spiraled Coffee Cake that I made this morning (I made the dough yesterday). We tailgate at my son's baseball games so I need to not eat this until tomorrow (don't know if that's possible!). The recipe comes from The Art & Soul of Baking by Cindy Mushet. This is the second time I have made it. Presentation is great and it tastes divine!

I liked the photo so much that I downloaded the recipe and plan to make it first thing, when I get some spare time. While I searching for the recipe I ran across this comment and I am hoping you can tell me what you think this person did wrong, just so I that I pay special attention and it comes out just as good as yours did.

"This coffee cake looked gorgeous, all tan and shiny with apricot glaze. Then I cut it in half and the insides oozed out, but not in a good “I want to eat that” sort of way. I don’t know what went wrong, exactly, but I was so mad that I threw it in the trash without even taking a photo.

I made the dough the day before and it came together pretty easily. After the first rise, the dough is rolled out and spread first with an almond paste mixture, then dried apricots soaked in amaretto and sprinkled with chocolate chips. Next you roll the dough up like cinnamon rolls before cutting the roll into decorative shapes. I noticed, as I was rolling up the filled dough, that it seemed very soft and slack. It didn’t hold together in a cylindrical shape, but puddled out on the baking sheet. As I read Mushet’s instructions on cutting the dough, I became very confused. I think it is supposed to appear “woven,” but I’m not sure as there is no picture of the overall finished product. I finally gave up and just left it as one long roll which I let sit overnight in the refrigerator before baking off in the morning.

The dough inside pretty much disappeared into the filling. I ended up with a cooked outside “shell” and a raw inside. I was also disappointed in the taste. I found it much too sweet and the almond paste overpowered everything else. I don’t think I’ll attempt this recipe again as it was quite a bit of work (not to mention expensive) and I didn’t even like the flavor."

Edited April 12, 2011 by oli (log)

[dystopiandreamgirl]

i love making buches more than just about anything, and have had a spring design in mind for a while which i finally made for my mother's birthday -

cocoa souffle roll from the Cake Bible

filled with orange zest buttercream

covered in ganache &

white chocolate peeling birch bark

matcha marzipan birch leaves & frog

marzipan mushrooms

bittersweet chocolate nest

white chocolate eggs with espresso powder marbling

milk chocolate squirrel

candied violas, witch hazel, and lilac

pistachio moss

[Darienne]

As always I am enchanted by your creations, dystopiadreamgirl. :wub:

[Genkinaonna]

dystopian-That's so beautiful! The perfect springy dessert. You should come make one at my house immediately .

I made these for a little peanut's birthday party yesterday. They have strawberry filling and buttercream frosting, used a buttermilk cake recipe from Martha Stewart Cupcakes. I guess the birthday boy only ate the frosting (damn 5 year olds ) but all the children's handlers liked them. The plaques are gumpaste.

[janeer]

i love making buches more than just about anything, and have had a spring design in mind for a while which i finally made for my mother's birthday -

cocoa souffle roll from the Cake Bible

filled with orange zest buttercream

covered in ganache &

white chocolate peeling birch bark

matcha marzipan birch leaves & frog

marzipan mushrooms

bittersweet chocolate nest

white chocolate eggs with espresso powder marbling

milk chocolate squirrel

candied violas, witch hazel, and lilac

pistachio moss

It never occurred to me make a log other than for yule...nice idea with the birch bark.

[E.T.]

A few more desserts I worked on this weekend: raspberry-rose sorbet (from The Perfect Scoop); gianduja stracciatella gelato in meringue nests (also from the Perfect Scoop); and macaroon tarts with chocolate/coconut milk filing and candied citrus peel.

The raspberry-rose sorbet is fantastic. The gianduja gelato is nice, but I would have preferred a more pronounced hazelnut flavor. The method involves using heavy cream infused with flavor from chopped toasted hazelnuts. The cream was very fragrant after the recommended hour of soaking the hazelnuts, but the scent somehow got lost in the final product. If someone has a way of getting around this, I'd love to hear it! I had better luck with using tart shells for the tarts, but the recipe was also different so it's not a fair comparison The most time consuming thing was the candied citrus peel, which took forever (or at least it seemed that way).

[Genkinaonna]

Beautiful, ET...is there Frangelico in the gelato as well? That's always a nice support for anything flavored with hazelnuts...

[RWood]

A few more desserts I worked on this weekend: raspberry-rose sorbet (from The Perfect Scoop); gianduja stracciatella gelato in meringue nests (also from the Perfect Scoop); and macaroon tarts with chocolate/coconut milk filing and candied citrus peel.

The raspberry-rose sorbet is fantastic. The gianduja gelato is nice, but I would have preferred a more pronounced hazelnut flavor. The method involves using heavy cream infused with flavor from chopped toasted hazelnuts. The cream was very fragrant after the recommended hour of soaking the hazelnuts, but the scent somehow got lost in the final product. If someone has a way of getting around this, I'd love to hear it! I had better luck with using tart shells for the tarts, but the recipe was also different so it's not a fair comparison The most time consuming thing was the candied citrus peel, which took forever (or at least it seemed that way).

Nice stuff!

I sometimes use hazelnut or pistachio paste in my ice cream bases. Especially the pistachio because I've found it gets a muddy color from steeping toasted pistachios. But, that would up the flavor for you.

[E.T.]

Thank you Genkinaonna and RWood! Do you know approximately how much liqueur or paste can be added to about 1 QT ice cream without adversely affecting freezing etc? I briefly considered adding some hazelnut paste to the mixture, but backed out since I wasn't sure how it would behave.

[RWood]

Thank you Genkinaonna and RWood! Do you know approximately how much liqueur or paste can be added to about 1 QT ice cream without adversely affecting freezing etc? I briefly considered adding some hazelnut paste to the mixture, but backed out since I wasn't sure how it would behave.

I think the alcohol would be the only thing that would effect it, so maybe start with 1-2 Tbs. I'm not that good at measuring sometimes , but I would start with 1-2 oz of paste and taste it. More if you only want to use that instead of steeping the nuts. I usually add it after the base is cooked and before I strain it.

[ZachSaunders]

Wow! These all look so good! In regard to the earlier canele post, I actually just made some myself. I used muffin tins which worked way better than I expected. They were a bit more custardy than usual, but surprisingly the outside was rather crisp. I think I'm going to buy 1 silicone pan, and 1 copper mold from amazon, and see how they compare. Those look great though!

[RWood]

Getting a package ready for my aunt(s). One has a birthday and retirement coming up.

This is a box of assorted macarons, plus they are getting assorted chocolates and bars.

[E.T.]

Getting a package ready for my aunt(s). One has a birthday and retirement coming up.

This is a box of assorted macarons, plus they are getting assorted chocolates and bars.

Beautiful macarons! What are the flavors?

And thanks for the ice cream advice I think I'll try all hazelnut paste + a bit of Frangelico next time.