Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[deensiebat]

Trying to come up with Passover desserts, and tried a parsley semifreddo with Manischewitz syrup. Shows promise (though the horseradish was a big mistake).

[Mjx]

After looking in vain for ostie, I went ahead and made panforte (really more of a pampepato) anyway:

This is clearly more rustic-looking than pretty, but it tasted amazingly good, although sweeter than the ones I've bought.

I surveyed about a dozen recipes, and decided to use David Lebovitz's recipe as a point of departure, but used rice flour instead of wheat flour.

The fruit included some quince that I'd candied, and candied citron, ginger, and orange peal; with the exception of the last, I cut everything in fairly large chunks. The spices included cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, black pepper, and a pinch of salt.

I heavily dusted the buttered parchment (and afterwards, when it was cooled, the top) with cacao powder, which offset the sweetness nicely.

[Kim Shook]

Darienne – what all is in that chocolate extravaganza? It looks so wonderful!

Lannie – that cheesecake is just beautiful and the combinations sound divine!

Made some Orange-Cranberry scones today. It was a mix that was in a gift basket that someone gave me for Christmas. The mix is from Bette’s Ocean View Diner in Berkeley, CA.

They were actually pretty good. Not as fluffy as the ones in England (partially my fault, I’m sure – I tend to have too-heavy a hand with pastries) and no clotted cream, of course. But not overly sweet and cakey like so many scone recipes – the texture was more like biscuits:

Could have used more cranberries, though. I don’t think I’d bother seeking this mix out, but it made a good snack.

[Darienne]

Darienne – what all is in that chocolate extravaganza? It looks so wonderful!

One Cake: One Hundred Desserts is the source of the recipe for the bombe. I do change it slightly each time of course (what else is new?) but it's our go-to special occasion dessert.

[Kim Shook]

Easter cupcakes for the nieces and nephews:

GF yellow cupcakes w/ fondant flowers:

Given in a little window box I found at Walmart:

Padded with marshmallow bunnies to prevent a lot of shifting:

I think the girls will LOVE them, I think the boys will be polite .

[Darienne]

Adorable, Kim. As usual.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Hot Cross Buns, for Good Friday. I completely spaced that these are a very Canadian/British thing, and gave them out to my neighbours, who are used to Pannetone as Easter bread. They were, to a person, thrilled; now I have to make several zillion more for Sunday dinners around the neighbourhood.... On these ones, the crosses are in chocolate manjar de leche (what I had on hand, not wanting to make royal icing if I didn't absolutely have to - what, me lazy?!?); Sunday's will be crossed with sweetened cream cheese.

[dystopiandreamgirl]

paskha & kulich:

happy easter!

[Darienne]

As always, dystopiandreamgirl, your desserts are exquisite.

[janeer]

As always, dystopiandreamgirl, your desserts are exquisite.

So true. Reminds me of an Easter dinner I had years and years ago with my Russian ballet teacher who had been a member of the Kirov, fled to Paris and danced with Diaghalev's Ballet Russe. First time I had ever had these two.

[teonzo]

This is my last experiment: sponge cake + coffee bavaroise + sherry cremeux + eucalyptus mousse + tobacco glaze. The decorations are macaron shells, white chocolate ganache and coffee beans (the first things I had at hand, cough cough). I did not focus that much on the look, I was interested to try the flavour matching and the balance, as this was a first try. I'm really satisfied flavourside, now I need to work on the apppearance.

Teo

[Mjx]

This is my last experiment: sponge cake + coffee bavaroise + sherry cremeux + eucalyptus mousse + tobacco glaze. The decorations are macaron shells, white chocolate ganache and coffee beans (the first things I had at hand, cough cough). I did not focus that much on the look, I was interested to try the flavour matching and the balance, as this was a first try. I'm really satisfied flavourside, now I need to work on the apppearance.

Teo

Would you mind elaborating a little on the eucalyptus mousse? The rest of the flavours I can definitely see together, and sound delicious, but I'm curious about the flavour dynamic between the eucalyptus and the coffee+sherry+tobacco grouping.

[teonzo]

Would you mind elaborating a little on the eucalyptus mousse? The rest of the flavours I can definitely see together, and sound delicious, but I'm curious about the flavour dynamic between the eucalyptus and the coffee+sherry+tobacco grouping.

The whole idea started because I wanted to try a cake with eucalyptus. My only experience with eucalyptus in pastry was when I tried to make a praline years ago (it was promising, but I used too much eucalyptus in the cream infusion), so I had to start from scratch. The first pairing that came to mind was tobacco, can't explain the mental reasoning behind it, it was an immediate association. Eucalyptus and tobacco have various things in common: strong aroma, a bit pungent and bitter. So I decided to try to structure this cake by similarities and not by contrasts, and thought about what could go well with tobacco and could also go well with eucalyptus. Something alcoholic was the first idea, I was undecided between rum, peaty whisky and sherry/port. The problem with using rum and whisky was that they have strong aromas too, so this would have made the final result a bit too strong for my tastes and I would have been forced to use another strong aroma as 4th (otherwise it would get submerged). I chose to go with 2 main aromas and 2 secondary aromas in the background to create armony, so I picked the sherry (a Pedro Ximénez). Then remained to find the 4th component, I thought that tobacco and alcohol were related to vices, so coffee came to mind and it sounded good (I made the bavaroise substituting all the milk with coffee made with moka, not espresso or lyophilized coffee).

About how using the eucalyptus, I thought that it would have been better to use it in something really airy to avoid the overpowering effect. I had to decide which kind of airy recipe use, trying to keep in basic stuff since it had no sense to experiment both on flavours and textures. I thought that yolks would not be a good match, so remained whipped cream and meringue. I thought some sugar was needed to balance the "balsamic" side of eucalyptus, so meringue was a given. Then I had to choose how to make the eucalyptus infusion, in water or in cream. I opted for the water, it gave me much more odds to balance the flavour at the first try.

So I tried this recipe:

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80 g egg whites

40 g water

160 g sugar

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150 g water

10 g eucalyptus (dried leaves)

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6 g gelatine sheets

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250 g cream (35% fat)

Make an Italian meringue with egg whites, water and sugar. Store in the refrigerator.

Make the eucalyptus infusion: bring water to boil, add the eucalyptus leaves, simmer for about 5 minutes, then filter and weigh 100 g.

Add the gelatine to the infusion and let cool down. When it reaches about 40°C pour the infusion on the meringue and amalgamate using a whisk or a spatula.

Whip the cream to soft peaks and add to the eucalyptus meringue using a spatula.

(I'm not good in writing recipes in English, sorry)

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I'm satisfied with the result, the eucalyptus really cut out the sweetness, I've been really lucky to find a good balance at first try. The texture is a bit firm, if you want it to be really soft and airy then I suggest to use 5g or 4g of gelatine. But it depends on where you want to use this mousse, in a cake like this it's better to keep it a bit firm otherwise it will be difficult to cut and serve it without making a mess.

Teo

[Mjx]

teonzo, thanks! My initial reaction to the eucalyptus+others combination was that it might play out a bit like licorice+chocolate (i.e. interesting, yes, but not altogether satisfactory), but it sounds like the flavours actually harmonized well.

[Kouign Aman]

Over school break, the munchkin and I baked

thumbprint cookies, and did some using up of leftovers at the same time.

Ginger marmelade topped with semi-sweet chocolate

The chocolate saved these from 'huh, odd', to 'Very good!'.

I made several dozen for work and they disappeared quickly

Caramel- sprinkled w flake salt before serving

Oh baby. I like.

Chocolate strawberry jam (from a local vendor)

Husband's favorite

Kiwi jam - the last remnant from a trip two years ago

The munchkin's favorite.

[Kouign Aman]

Bro-in-Law's Paul's 60th birthday cake ... Five kinds of chocolate.

Right o, that solves the problem of the Father's Day dessert! Thank you kindly.

[judiu]

Would you mind elaborating a little on the eucalyptus mousse? The rest of the flavours I can definitely see together, and sound delicious, but I'm curious about the flavour dynamic between the eucalyptus and the coffee+sherry+tobacco grouping.

The whole idea started because I wanted to try a cake with eucalyptus. The first pairing that came to mind was tobacco, can't explain the mental reasoning behind it, it was an immediate association.

Teo

Kool cigarettes, or maybe Salems? I see you're from Italy, so feel I must elaborate. I don't know anything about cigarette brands, other than those found in the US or Canada; but the two afore mentioned brands are mentholated, quite possibly with a eucalyptus oil in the flavor profile.

[minas6907]

Heres a panna cotta I did. It was sort of inspired from the tread about dessert, while I never attempted it before, I knew it wasnt too complicated. Its the vanilla panna cotta from The Professional Pastry Chef, with a little bit if Grande Marnier added, and with a simple sauce I made from some frozen strawberries and blueberries.

[ChrisTaylor]

Bitter chocolate, guajillo and pasilla icecream

Spiced icecream--cardamom is, at the moment, the dominant flavour, altho' I'm keen to see if that'll change as it 'matures'

Raspberry lambic sorbet

[teonzo]

teonzo, thanks! My initial reaction to the eucalyptus+others combination was that it might play out a bit like licorice+chocolate (i.e. interesting, yes, but not altogether satisfactory), but it sounds like the flavours actually harmonized well.

You're welcome!

Uhm, no, the effect is quite different from licorice+chocolate. If you have some eucalyptus and some tobacco at hand, then you can try to smell them together and get your idea.

Kool cigarettes, or maybe Salems? I see you're from Italy, so feel I must elaborate. I don't know anything about cigarette brands, other than those found in the US or Canada; but the two afore mentioned brands are mentholated, quite possibly with a eucalyptus oil in the flavor profile.

I'm sorry, but I'm totally ignorant about cigarettes. I'm asthmatic so I've never smoked anything in my life, I can't stand any kind of smoke in any form since I immediately have troubles about breathing. I don't know what smokers taste in their mouth while smoking, I'd like to know but the thought of how I could feel really scares me (I must admit i'm a bit envious, since I can't try something a lot of people love). I tried to eat something tobacco flavored years ago, since all my friends were praising how good some tuilles tasted. I liked it a lot, to my surprise, but I still can't stand smoke and am ignorant about tobacco types.

To decide what tobacco to use I went to a store specialized in pipe tobacco and asked for help. They suggested me some samples to smell, after trying some I decided to buy a can of Rattray's Highland Targe. This is what I used for this cake and this is all my non-knowledge about tobacco types, sorry to disappoint.

If there exist some cigarettes flavoured with eucalyptus then I need to ask for more infos to my smoking friends, guess I can find some inspirations.

Teo

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Last weekend I made a giant batch of Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday. As an above poster commented, I think these aren't so popular in the U.S? They should be, I absolutely love them... nothing better with a cup of tea. Well, maybe a few things, but they're pretty darn good.

I also tried a variation which was dried figs (soaked to soften slightly) with orange zest and some cardamom and fennel spices instead of the usual spice mix. To me, I'd probably rather a plain hot cross bun but they were still tasty - any other time of the year I'd happily eat one if offered.

This is the dough monster - can't remember how much it weighed but it was about 42 buns worth...

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Stuart, what do you cross your buns with? They look fantastic!

[Darienne]

Pot Luck dinner tonight. Made this Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Pie and a second demi-pie with the leftovers.

Didn't have the correct ingredients...what else is new? so made some changes. Subbed a graham cracker crust for the chocolate biscuit one, condensed milk for the whipped cream and sugar, and added a bit of homemade raspberry liqueur. Topped it with 54% dark chocolate ganache, but if I make it again, I'll use 70% dark. Too sweet for me, but Ed and the furnace guys loved it.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

Stuart, what do you cross your buns with? They look fantastic!

Aw thanks

I just use a flour paste - flour and water with a bit of oil so they don't get so hard, and usually a small amount of a sweetener (sugar, honey etc) and maybe a bit of mixed spice, so they don't taste quite so pastey

Sometimes they turn out better than others - getting the perfect consistency so they pipe easily but hold their shape is a bit of guesswork but i'm getting better. These ones were also glazed afterwards which always makes them look glossy and beautiful.

In fact, what am I saying?! Here's the recipe I used, which I pretty much followed exactly. Much easier to explain.

Although now that I look at it my crosses are much less defined than his, I guess I didn't follow that closely

Another nice option is to make a slash or even snip with scissors in a cross shape, so they open up slightly but have no paste. Looks kinda rustic/artisan.

[merstar]

I made two quarts of bittersweet chocolate ice cream. Mmmmmmm!