Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[alanamoana]

thanks patrick...please pm the recipe if you have time (no rush ). your panna cottas look great! those glasses are so cute also.

[LittleIsland]

Patrick, you always have such artful lighting effects in your photographs. They are gorgeous (well, of course your desserts are gorgeous to start with) - do you use any special lighting or do they just turn out that way?

[Patrick S]

Patrick, you always have such artful lighting effects in your photographs.  They are gorgeous (well, of course your desserts are gorgeous to start with) - do you use any special lighting or do they just turn out that way?

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I have several high power tungsten flood lights, and studio strobes as well. But 90% of the food photos I post, including the panna cottas, were taken under indirect "natural" light in the early evening. An example of a picture taken using the tungsten light would be the whole cake photo (not the slice or the bite) I posted in the exotic orange thread, the jaconda cake further back in this thread. The advantage of the tungsten light is that you can precisely control the direction and shape of the light source (using what are called barndoors). So for instance if you wanted to emphasize a texture, like the bavaroise on the exotic orange, you can set up the light so that it strikes the cake from above at a high angle. If you had the light in front of the cake, you'd have no shadows, and hence no texture would be visible. And then, say, you want to make the gelee glow, you can set up another light and close the barndoors so that you have a narrow beam of light that hits the gelee only, without overexposing/washing out the white elements. I'm rambling, but the point I'm making I guess is that lighting is everything, your subject can look many different ways depending on the lighting, and the more you pay attention to it, the better your photos will be.

[K8memphis]

The lemon sponge recipe was from Rosie's All-Butter Baking book (the title is something like that).

It's "Rosie's All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No Holds Barred Baking Book"

One of the best parts about the book is the title

The Dagwoods, her butterscotch brownies are real good too.

[Abra]

Hey, Patrick, I don't think of it as rambling at all! I learn a lot from your photographs. Based on what you said the other day, I posted this shot on the Dinner thread. Now that I look at your panna cotta shot, I see the difference between using a matte background, as I did there, and using a slightly reflective background like your black tray. Your advice is so helpful for making the food look as good as it tastes (or sometimes even better than it actually tastes!)

[Pontormo]

Ling: that evening of desserts looks like a dream you had when you just happened to have a camera in hand.

Patrick: I found this terrine, though I must say I prefer your individual portions. There have been so many posts lately of desserts with layers of gelee, that I have gotten curious. It looks pretty straight-forward or is there something I should know to look out for in making or layering it?

[Patrick S]

Patrick: I found this terrine, though I must say I prefer your individual portions.  There have been so many posts lately of desserts with layers of gelee, that I have gotten curious.  It looks pretty straight-forward or is there something I should know to look out for in making or layering it?

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I actually did use that recipe for the gelee, but the coconut panna cotta recipe is from Neil "Nightscotsman" Robertson, and is in RecipeGullet. I much prefer coconut milk to dried coconut for flavor. Anyway, there is nothing to it Pontormo. If you can make Jello, you can make gelee. The only trick, if you want to call it that, is using the right amount of gelatin, that is the minimum amount you need.

[mamster]

Hey. PatrickS, not to steal any glory from Nightscotsman, who is a hundred times the pastry cook I'll ever be, but I actually developed that recipe.

The story is, three years ago or so I asked Neil to develop a cocktail for me for an article I wrote about tamarind. He came up with the Pacific Rim: Malibu rum, tamarind juice, lime juice (the recipe is in the article). When I was working on a column about dessert, I thought, hey, I could make that cocktail in dessert form.

Of course, it looks even better the way Patrick did it.

[Patrick S]

Hey. PatrickS, not to steal any glory from Nightscotsman, who is a hundred times the pastry cook I'll ever be, but I actually developed that recipe.

The story is, three years ago or so I asked Neil to develop a cocktail for me for an article I wrote about tamarind. He came up with the Pacific Rim: Malibu rum, tamarind juice, lime juice (the recipe is in the article). When I was working on a column about dessert, I thought, hey, I could make that cocktail in dessert form.

Of course, it looks even better the way Patrick did it.

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My bad, mamster, I should have read more carefully!

Its a great recipe, by the way!

[mamster]

Thanks! No offense taken. Frankly, the thought that you could have mistaken my dessert for his is an honor.

[Lumas]

Semolina Pudding with Apricot Preserves

[Ling]

^That's beautiful, Lumas!

For the past two days, Henry's been making the best-tasting salted caramel ice-cream. It is soooooo rich. We top it with pink Hawaiian sea salt for an extra bit of crunch. I can't stop eating it...

[miladyinsanity]

^That's beautiful, Lumas!

For the past two days, Henry's been making the best-tasting salted caramel ice-cream. It is soooooo rich. We top it with pink Hawaiian sea salt for an extra bit of crunch.  I can't stop eating it...

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Can we get the recipe, Ling?

I do have a salted caramel ice cream recipe--untried so far--but what Ling says is good, must be Really Really good.

[Pille]

Semolina Pudding with Apricot Preserves

Great semolina pudding, Lumas - the jam looks super-delicious! More semolina action:

Whipped semolina mousse (I used fresh raspberrry jam as the base for the pudding this time), served simply with cold milk:

[Chufi]

I love semolina! Lumas your dessert looks delicious.

Pille, I had to read the recipe 3 times before I understood that the white stuff in the picture is actually the milk, and not the semolina mousse Guess I need more coffee ...What an intriguing idea to cook the semolina in fruit juice!

Edited August 5, 2006 by Chufi (log)

[Ling]

Can we get the recipe, Ling?

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Here you go...enjoy! You can lower the sugar a little bit. Henry added a few pinches of salt (to taste) to the recipe, but deliberately undersalts it a bit so it is perfect when you sprinkle on some extra crunchy salt on top.

caramel ice-cream

[Desiderio]

Cestini di cialda con Lemon Flammery and berryies.

For my son's second birthday party.

[miladyinsanity]

Can we get the recipe, Ling?

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Here you go...enjoy! You can lower the sugar a little bit. Henry added a few pinches of salt (to taste) to the recipe, but deliberately undersalts it a bit so it is perfect when you sprinkle on some extra crunchy salt on top.

caramel ice-cream

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Thanks!

[SweetSide]

Cestini di cialda con Lemon Flammery and berryies.

For my son's second birthday party.

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Isn't that just beautiful -- even the name is pretty (at least to me, who speaks only English)!

[Franci]

Brazilian Bolo Gelado

[Nishla]

I ate this for breakfast, but since it's a cake I'm posting here! I'm usually not much of a baker, but everyone's yummy-looking desserts have inspired me. Also, it's finally not painfully hot, so I could risk turning on the oven.

I have a HUGE bag of somewhat stale almonds, so this is an almond-nectarine cake (based on an almond-cherry cake from the Williams-Sonoma Taste cookbook).

It turned out pretty well, but I could have used more nectarines, and I overbaked it by a few minutes.

[gfron1]

PH's Warm Chocolate Croquettes in Cold Coconut-Milk Tapioca Soup...

Sorry about the bad picture.

[Ling]

The last few desserts look beautiful. Nishla, for someone who claims she's "not a baker" , your cake looks great!

I made Payard's Gateau Basque from the Simply Sensational Desserts book, with a few adjustments. I used ground hazelnuts instead of ground almonds because that's what I had, but didn't use the full amount as I find hazelnuts have a stronger taste. So I made up the difference with a bit of cornstarch, so the amount of gluten in the recipe stays approximately the same.

I flavoured it with orange blossom water and rum.

[Pille]

I agree with Ling, Nishla's nectarine & almond cake looks delicious! As does Ling's own cake obviously.

I baked a raspberry focaccia last weekend (at least that what the recipe called it. I don't know if a focaccia can be sweet rather than savoury. Anyone? ). I got the recipe from a Finnish Pirkka-magazine, available in English here on my blog. I really loved it, and will make it again soon, though probably a slightly flatter version, so it'd be more focaccia-like

I served it with some Cornish Organic Brie cheese.

Edited August 7, 2006 by Pille (log)

[APPS411]

My all time favorite dessert is fresh mango w/ coconut ice cream and warm sticky rice. It's so simple but a perfect combination of flavors and textures in my mind. Might have to stop at the vietnamese market on the way home and see if they have any fresh marathon mangos.