Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[flourgirl]

Thank you cookingofjoy

[ChrisTaylor]

No, I didn't broil or torch it. The filling tastes as light as anything with 4 whole eggs, 4 yolks and 125g of butter can, I suppose.

[Kim Shook]

Elizabeth – thank you so much. I’ll try that next time. I know that I can use a thick chocolate bar to make small curls, but I really would like to be able to make large curls. Your cake is positively GORGEOUS, btw! Funny – I was searching for a recipe for Death by Chocolate zucchini cake after you mentioned it and came up with YOUR recipe on a gardening site (is that right?). When you posted the picture, it rang a bell and I looked at the site and sure enough!

cookingofjoy – I’m a big fan of pink and white, so your cookies and cupcake were close to my heart!

Chris – lemon tart is one of my favorite desserts and yours sounds wonderful! I like that you upped the lemon flavor.

flourgirl – your cake is beautiful (I love the shape) and sounds delicious. Any chance of getting the recipe?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Kim, that is indeed my recipe! Too funny.

[flourgirl]

flourgirl – your cake is beautiful (I love the shape) and sounds delicious. Any chance of getting the recipe?

Thank you Kim,

The recipe is from Roses' Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy. It is the "She Loves Me" cake baked in a 10 cup kugelhopf. I've made a lot of cakes but this cake has the best taste I ever tried. Other people do a lot with this cake but I left mine plain, except for a glaze made of confectioner's sugar, heavy cream and almond extract.

[Kouign Aman]

I did it!! The great candy experiment has been successfully concluded. I dont have a hosting site, so no pix this time, but they were beautiful purple oval lozenges, shiny and dimesized.

I bought dried hot peppers (like those for kung pao chicken), chopped 5-8 of them fine, and extracted them by soaking for several days in 1/4 vodka.

I made a basic boiled sweets recipe, and subbed in blackberry juice for some of the water. When the syrup reached softball stage, I started adding a bit of the vodka. Each time I used the cup of cold water to test doneness, I tasted and added more vodka til the spice level was right. It didnt take much. When the syrup was ready, I did low-tech shaping - dropped from the wooden spoon onto a piece of foil.

The result is a sweet berry flavored drop at first, with the warmth of the pepper coming in after a few seconds, in concert with the berry. I kept these to a reasonable level of hot and they were very well received at work today. I'll be tempted to make them again next time I have a sore throat.

[flourgirl]

This morning I baked low fat "donuts" from The Sweeter Side of Amy's Bread. I made half a recipe. Concerned about heart-healthy recipes, I substituted 16g of olive oil for the 1.5T of butter called for in the recipe. Although the recipe indicates a baking time of 10 minutes, it took a full 20 minutes, with 1 rotation before they were ready to be removed from the oven. I glazed them with confectioner's sugar, apple juice and vanilla extract.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

They're cute - how did they taste? I often find that subbing olive oil for butter introduces an extra flavour, which is why I've started to use (incidentally very heart-healthy) sunflower oil in these cases.

[flourgirl]

I didn't taste it yet. They are going to be served after dinner and I will let you know tomorrow.

I am following a low cholesterol program that dictates I incorporate olive oil into my diet. I don't have sunflower oil in the house but I will look into it. I usually bake with organic canola oil if it is for me. Baking for my husband and others get the yummy stuff, butter I am trying to get him to watch what he eats. It is hard but I am working on it.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I admire your dedication. I don't think I could ever give up butter! Then again, in all other respects I'm a very healthy eater, so I think I can get away with it now and again (and on my potatoes... )

[flourgirl]

I know! It was a hard adjustment for me. Not because I love it so much, but because i am now limited.

I was never a cake eater and only recently started to eat cake ever since I began baking. As a consolation prize, I get to experiment with recipe conversions. I prefer experimenting to using low-fat recipes.

I've learned a lot on this journey. But still, nothing really replaces butter

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'm also spoiled absolutely rotten; where I live I can (and do, in great volumes) buy butter freshly-churned by the farmer, and milk straight out of the cow or goat. Last time I was back in Canada, I bought a block of butter expressly for use on potatoes and corn (much as I would down here in Ecaudor) and I nearly gagged. It was awful! I shudder to think what it would have done to baked goods.

If you're interested, I've got some oil-adapted recipes I could share with you, for cakes/goodies that would be edible by both you and your DH. In particular, I've got a cinnamon roll recipe that's whole-grain, uses olive oil, and is low in sugar, and is actually much better tasting than it sounds.

[flourgirl]

That would be wonderful, thank you !!

There must be nothing like fresh-churned butter. My husband comes from a region where they also made their own butter when he was a little boy. He tells me they never kept it in the refrigerator but in the pantry! He tried to do that with our store bought butter but straight into the refrigerator it went.

Does the fat content differ from commercially available butter? I would think that would impact your baking.

Are you a professional baker?

[Mette]

Elderbushes in full bloom now, so elderflower cordial.

The easiest ting in the world: 30 elderflower heads, 1-2 lemons cut up, 1 kg sugar, 25 g citric acid. Mix with 1 l. boiling water, leave to steep 3-4 days. Strain. Bottle. Dilute w 3-4 parts water and ice cubes. Ahhhhhh.

Note: Must be either kept in the fridge and used within a couple of weeks, or add a bit of conervation stuff to the bottles

Note 2: always make double or triple batch. It dissapears really quickly

[Kerry Beal]

Elderbushes in full bloom now, so elderflower cordial.

The easiest ting in the world: 30 elderflower heads, 1-2 lemons cut up, 1 kg sugar, 25 g citric acid. Mix with 1 l. boiling water, leave to steep 3-4 days. Strain. Bottle. Dilute w 3-4 parts water and ice cubes. Ahhhhhh.

Note: Must be either kept in the fridge and used within a couple of weeks, or add a bit of conervation stuff to the bottles

Note 2: always make double or triple batch. It dissapears really quickly

Wonder if hubby would notice if I cut the heads off the elderberry bush out back? It's pretty small!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

That would be wonderful, thank you !!

There must be nothing like fresh-churned butter. My husband comes from a region where they also made their own butter when he was a little boy. He tells me they never kept it in the refrigerator but in the pantry! He tried to do that with our store bought butter but straight into the refrigerator it went.

Does the fat content differ from commercially available butter? I would think that would impact your baking.

Are you a professional baker?

I suspect that the fat content varies greatly simply because the farmer I buy from has a herd of Guernsey x Brown Swiss cows. They're notorious for producing higher-fat milk than the Holstein / Jersey herds that are standard in Canada. They're also grass-fed year-round, which makes a huge difference in the flavour of the milk and cream. Mmmm, grass-fed Guernsey cream.... I can, and often do, eat that by the spoonful. Coming back to the fat content issue, I did have to rejig many of my recipes for lower amounts of butter largely due to this exact issue (altitude also plays an important part, but not as much as the actual fat content.)

I am indeed a professional baker; my screen name is actually the name of my catering bakery. I'll RecipeGullet the olive-oil cinnamon buns for you in a moment; my recipe calls for quinua flour, but that might not be findable in your area: spelt is a reasonably good substitute, and if you can find amaranth flour, that's even better.

Speaking of the which - I made a batch of them the other day, and this is what they come out looking like (please ignore the corner of my exopat - my countertop is small and frequently quite crowded).

[flourgirl]

WOW! That is so beautiful! It looks amazing!!

I thought you must be a professional as your baking is exquisite.

I found the recipe you posted. Thank you VERY much!

I am actually following a low cholesterol plan which includes olive oil. And your recipe has no eggs, which makes it even better!

I've only used yeast once time but your recipe seems do-able for me.

We have a local health food store which carries uncommon flours. I think I have seen Spelt there before.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that you posted the recipe.

[janeer]

Panaderia Canadiense: those look lovely. Is there a sub for ishpingo? What is it similar to?

[Kim Shook]

Dessert tonight was PIE! I made a white peach and blueberry pie:

I was very happy with the results - except for the unexceptional store bought crust:

I was too busy to mess with making my own and, as always, I regretted that I didn’t take the time.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Panaderia Canadiense: those look lovely. Is there a sub for ishpingo? What is it similar to?

Ishpingo is the flower of the Pastaza Cinnamon tree (Ocotea quixos). Think of it as a darker, more earthy cinnamon flavour; I think you could get away with blending about 1/4 tsp of ground cloves or perhaps allspice into 3/4 tsp of cinnamon to get the bass note while retaining the cinnamon taste, but I've never actually found a true substitute. It's very difficult to even describe the flavour of the spice - cinnamon buns is one of the few applications ishpingo has in sweet cooking; I would normally consider it to belong squarely to salt cookery, since I use it quite a bit with beef and lamb, and goat when I can get it.

[janeer]

Panaderia Canadiense: those look lovely. Is there a sub for ishpingo? What is it similar to?

Ishpingo is the flower of the Pastaza Cinnamon tree (Ocotea quixos). Think of it as a darker, more earthy cinnamon flavour; I think you could get away with blending about 1/4 tsp of ground cloves or perhaps allspice into 3/4 tsp of cinnamon to get the bass note while retaining the cinnamon taste, but I've never actually found a true substitute. It's very difficult to even describe the flavour of the spice - cinnamon buns is one of the few applications ishpingo has in sweet cooking; I would normally consider it to belong squarely to salt cookery, since I use it quite a bit with beef and lamb, and goat when I can get it.

Thanks. It seems like you use it the way I often use cardamom.

[flourgirl]

Nothin' says lovin' like dog bones from the oven.

[Kouign Aman]

Not up to the spectacular results reported on this thread, but I was content with how they came out:

Chocolate dipped strawberries - gift for teacher. They got shinier after an hour or so, as the chocolate got happy again. I think it was right on the edge of dis-temper.

The afore-described spicy candies, blackberry flavored this time. Bottle cap for scale. They were a prettier purple than my photograph shows. Lots of airbubbles. There is work to be done if these were to be a repeat event, but I suspect I'll never make them again.

[flourgirl]

Gorgeous Kouign Aman! Absolutely gorgeous!

[Kouign Aman]

Thank you, flour girl!

I'm thinking the same of your dog biscuits - I've got a hound at home that wants to meet you!