Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Ling]

This is what I had for dessert yesterday:

From Dahlia Bakery (in Seattle):

-a chocolate eclair, pastry cream flecked with vanilla

-a slice of their famous coconut cream pie (what an amazing crust! Buttery and sooo flaky!)

-their cheesecake (didn't enjoy this so much...I think they use some cinnamon and a lot of nutmeg)

-the most perfect lemon tart with Italian meringue !!!!!

-a croissant (much better than anything we can get in Vancouver, unfortunately)

-a fruit tart with pastry cream, sponge cake and strawberry jam in a tart crust

From Rose's...

-an 8 piece selection of chocolates (my favourite was the Mexican one with cinnamon, and the beet flavoured one...my least favourite was TAMARIND), a milk chocolate, and chocolate-covered candied ginger

From Macrina Bakery:

-a very big apricot, espresso, and chocolate cookie

From the Cheesecake Factory (b/c my friend wanted to go)

-an extremely sweet slice of Toberlone cheesecake with a rosette of chocolate frosting *shudder* This was disgusting.....

I had an amazing food-filled day in Seattle! (Lunch at Salumi, and drinks and food at Zig Zag's rounded out our 1 day eating extravaganza )

For a more long-winded account of the desserts I had, click here:

Mmm...pastries

Edited September 24, 2005 by Ling (log)

[ellencho]

So this wasn't necessarily baked, but it was dessert all the same.

It's called broken glass jello. I got it off of this site. It wasn't bad. It tasted how I would have expected it to, but the only thing I would change is the amount of gelatin mixed with the evaporated milk. She calls for 4 packets of gelatin, I think I might use 2.5 packets.

[Shelley G.]

Well, this summer I bought many buckets of sour pie cherries to make fresh almond-cherry crumble for the restaurant. The cherries are frozen with a little sugar to prevent discolouration, and when thawed, exude a lot of juice. So yesterday we made fresh cherry juice floats, with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, over which was poured half each cherry juice and soda water. Yum!

I realize that it is not baked, but still...

Edited September 26, 2005 by Shelley G. (log)

[Patrick S]

We're having caramel apple pie. Yum!

[Moopheus]

Yesterday I made a chocolate-almond biscuit w/chocolate glaze. So that's basically two chocolate cakes in a row; next, I guess I'll have to do something nonchocolate, if I can stand it.

[Moopheus]

This is what I had for dessert yesterday:

Followed, I supposed, by a wafer-thin mint?

[Megan Blocker]

Leftover brownie (ok, brownies) from the freezer. I'm taking the rest into work tomorrow - too dangerous to have that stuff haning around!

[Megan Blocker]

This is what I had for dessert yesterday:

From Dahlia Bakery (in Seattle):

-a chocolate eclair, pastry cream flecked with vanilla

-a slice of their famous coconut cream pie (what an amazing crust! Buttery and sooo flaky!)

-their cheesecake (didn't enjoy this so much...I think they use some cinnamon and a lot of nutmeg)

-the most perfect lemon tart with Italian meringue  !!!!!

-a croissant (much better than anything we can get in Vancouver, unfortunately)

-a fruit tart with pastry cream, sponge cake and strawberry jam in a tart crust

From Rose's...

-an 8 piece selection of chocolates (my favourite was the Mexican one with cinnamon, and the beet flavoured one...my least favourite was TAMARIND), a milk chocolate, and chocolate-covered candied ginger

From Macrina Bakery:

-a very big apricot, espresso, and chocolate cookie

From the Cheesecake Factory (b/c my friend wanted to go)

-an extremely sweet slice of Toberlone cheesecake with a rosette of chocolate frosting *shudder* This was disgusting.....

I had an amazing food-filled day in Seattle! (Lunch at Salumi, and drinks and food at Zig Zag's rounded out our 1 day eating extravaganza  )

For a more long-winded account of the desserts I had, click here:

Mmm...pastries

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Ling, I think you may be the only person I've ever met who can match my best friend in sweets consumption. I am duly impressed, as is she! She said to tell you that she recognizes a true master when she sees one.

[Ling]

^Tell her thanks for the compliment. I do try my best.

Today...

the remainder of this beautiful lemon curd, that I made yesterday

(I ate it straight from the fridge. No shortbread or scone needed.)

And a brownie.

Edited September 27, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Ling]

*sigh* I've long finished my Fine Cooking lemon curd (every delicious bite of it! I must make more tonight) so I practiced doing quenelles out of the frozen Pierre Herme lemon cream, and then I ate those ugly quenelles. I also had a bar of dark chocolate with almonds, and a slice of the coffee cake I made (extra crumb topping, always! )

[Megan Blocker]

Pumpkin bread, fresh from the oven. Hello, fall!

[Ling]

-chocolate cake

-frozen Pierre Herme lemon cream (tastes better frozen, imo. Reminds me of a really dense lemony ice-cream)

My desserts are pretty repetitive. Tomorrow, I'm hitting up 2 bakeries and getting lemon tarts at both places (came recommended by local Egulleters!)

[Gary]

Last night's dessert for us was a "chip-eroon". That's a chocolate chip cookie sandwich with Nutella filling. Not quite as fancy as the macaroon but the kids (and I) thoroughly enjoyed them.

[greenwich st]

Last night: defrosted Italian Plum Torte (Marrion Burros) w/ Haagen Daaz vanilla. I'm kind of getting an Italian plum-dessert addiction, but they'll be gone soon, right?

[RuthWells]

A Bittersweet Deception cookie from Alice Medrich's "Bittersweet". Gawd, they're rich -- one was plenty!

[Ling]

^Oohhh...sounds good! Would you mind posting the recipe?

Ate the last of the PH lemon cream with some shortbread I baked. I did my usual shortbread recipe, but rolled the dough out extra thin and sandwiched the lemon cream inside. The cookies were so soft and I overstuffed them (greedy greedy pig!) They were DELICIOUS! I saved 3 of them and stuck them in the freezer. Tomorrow's breakfast will be frozen lemon shortbread treats. Oh and I also had some chocolate that this guy gave me.

Edited September 30, 2005 by Ling (log)

[Steven Blaski]

Well, I went white trash today. My SO asked for a "gooey cookie" and I went

So I'm figuring he wants some kind of bar thingy, but not a brownie and not a blondie (we had the former recently and he dislikes the latter). I remembered that in the back of my cupboard was a bag of Heath "Bits 'O Brickle" toffee bits ... so I turned my back on all my tasteful baking books and logged on to Hersheys website and looked for some way to use them. I found just the thing among the Top Ten Brownies & Bars: Rich Chocolate Chip Toffee Bars *

Très gooey! It's my favorite new guilty pleasure.

* I followed the recipe to the letter, except I added 1/4 tsp salt. Oh, and for the nuts I used some very tasty and expensive black walnuts, which added a nice bitter counterpoint. But for full-on white trash mode you could substitute peanuts.

[RuthWells]

^Oohhh...sounds good! Would you mind posting the recipe?

←

No sweat -- let's see if I can do it from memory:

1) 8 oz bittersweet choc + 2 Tbs unsalted butter, melt & stir over bain marie until smooth, set aside to cool (leave bain marie set up)

2) 1/4 cup A/P flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp salt -- sift and/or whisk togther in separate bowl

3) 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract in bowl over bain marie -- mix together until warmed

4) mix warm egg mixture with warm (NOT hot) chocolate mixture

5) add flour mixture and mix until smooth (mixture will be very gooey)

6) fold in 2 cups lightly chopped pecans or walnuts and 6 oz chocolate chunks or chips

7) scoop by tablespoonfulls (I use my little ice cream scooper) and bake on parchment-lined sheets for 12-14 min on 350* until exterior is dry and set, but insides are still gooey

Notes: Alice, in her wonderful way, gives adjustments if you want to use higher % chocolates. The adjustments are, generally speaking, if you increase the % chocolate, reduce the amount of chocolate, increase the butter, and increase the sugar. Example -- if using 70% chocolate, only use 5.5 oz of choc, increase butter to 3 Tbs, and increase sugar to 3/4 cup. Well, I grabbed the Lindt 70% without thinking last night, and melted all 8 oz before I realized what I was doing. The tip-off was that the melted chocolate was drier than I expected. So I added 2 Tbs of butter to compensate, and increased the sugar, but only to 2/3 cup. The cookies are sinfully good and the flavor of the chocolate really shines. Conclusion -- as long as you increase the butter enough to offset the added cocoa solids and adjust the sugar to your own taste, this recipe is pretty forgiving.

[Patrick S]

Chocolate cake, what else? This one is frosted with a bittersweet espresso ganache. Actually the cake got eaten at work today, but I had the scraps and leftover ganache last night.

[Megan Blocker]

Chocolate cake, what else? This one is frosted with a bittersweet espresso ganache. Actually the cake got eaten at work today, but I had the scraps and leftover ganache last night.

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Wow...I'm drooling here!

Edited September 30, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Ling]

^Oohhh...sounds good! Would you mind posting the recipe?

←

No sweat -- let's see if I can do it from memory:

1) 8 oz bittersweet choc + 2 Tbs unsalted butter, melt & stir over bain marie until smooth, set aside to cool (leave bain marie set up)

2) 1/4 cup A/P flour, 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp salt -- sift and/or whisk togther in separate bowl

3) 2 eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract in bowl over bain marie -- mix together until warmed

4) mix warm egg mixture with warm (NOT hot) chocolate mixture

5) add flour mixture and mix until smooth (mixture will be very gooey)

6) fold in 2 cups lightly chopped pecans or walnuts and 6 oz chocolate chunks or chips

7) scoop by tablespoonfulls (I use my little ice cream scooper) and bake on parchment-lined sheets for 12-14 min on 350* until exterior is dry and set, but insides are still gooey

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I can just tell from reading the recipe that I'm going to LOVE these cookies. I have some bittersweet in the cupboard. I'm going to make these cookies this afternoon and have a few. Dessert tonight (well, 2nd dessert) will be at this new restaurant in Vancouver called Nu. I'm going to have the lemon tart, or walk across to the restaurant next door (owned by the same person) and get this:

Valrhona Guanaja Chocolate Paté

caramel glaze, white chocolate fleur de sel gelato, apple berry cider

Or maybe I'll have all 3 desserts tonight...hahaha!

[Ling]

^That's a beautiful cake, Patrick!

[RuthWells]

I can just tell from reading the recipe that I'm going to LOVE these cookies. I have some bittersweet in the cupboard. I'm going to make these cookies this afternoon and have a few. Dessert tonight (well, 2nd dessert) will be at this new restaurant in Vancouver called Nu. I'm going to have the lemon tart, or walk across to the restaurant next door (owned by the same person) and get this:

Valrhona Guanaja Chocolate Paté

caramel glaze, white chocolate fleur de sel gelato, apple berry cider

Or maybe I'll have all 3 desserts tonight...hahaha! 

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Let me know how you like the cookies, Ling. And, my goodness -- you do set a high standard of dessert consumption for the rest of us. You're an inspiration!

[Megan Blocker]

A cappuccino and a slice of Mille Crepes at Lady M on 78th Street. Yum!

Edited October 2, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Ling]

I made some homemade caramel for another dessert, so I spooned some caramel over some chocolate cake I have in the freezer. Mmm...that was a tasty lunch. (Well, I had a Nutella and peanut butter sandwich too, just so I could fit in some more chocolate in there.)

Ruth--those cookies are sooo good! Yes, very nice and rich, but I could not stop at just one cookie, like you did!

ETA: I only had about 1 cup of walnuts, and I scaled the sugar down to 1/3 cup. I think I could scale it down some more next time. But they are good!

Edited October 2, 2005 by Ling (log)