Your Daily Sweets (2005-2012)

[Chufi]

Thanks everybody for the kind words about my photo. I was trying something different.. guess it worked!

Chufi, that beautiful plum sauce makes me laugh, because today I was doing plums for you too.  I picked blueberries, blackberries, and rhubarb in the garden, and combined them with some truly wonderful plums I salvaged from an abandoned orchard, put them all under a crisp topping, and put it in the freezer for you to have for breakfast when you're here.  The island fruit season will be over by then, and I wanted you to have some of everything.

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Now that is something wonderful to look forward to!

and that galette is so gorgeous.

and Deborah, my apologies, but this is a belated Happy Birthday!! Your cake looked great!

[Ling]

Abra: BEAUTIFUL galette!

Tweety69Bird: I don't care for jello, but that mold looks so pretty! Great job!

Today I'm still finishing off the lemon sabayon tart from last night.

[miladyinsanity]

That's the birthday dacquoise, from just over a week ago. I don't really think you can call it a cake. I used RuthWells recipe with a mixture of almond and hazelnut, and I think I used PH's caramel ganache recipe because I'm going through a caramel phase.

Today, I'm having the Tribute Cake in Alice Medrich's Bittersweet. No pics because I did an awful job frosting and torting. Tastes good though.

[Patrick S]

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Just wanted to see what the full-sized image looks like! You linked to the thumbnail. Dacquoise with caramel ganache sounds delicious to me.

[Chufi]

happy belated birthday May! cake looks and sounds delicious.

I made rijstevlaai today, a traditional Dutch cake - a yeast pastry with a creamy rice filling.

details here

[miladyinsanity]

Thanks Klary and Patrick.

I'm eating caramel ice cream with chocolate swirl--I swirled in the last of the ganache.

Curiously enough, this ice cream doesn't freeze very hard.

[oli]

Chufi, that beautiful plum sauce makes me laugh, because today I was doing plums for you too.  I picked blueberries, blackberries, and rhubarb in the garden, and combined them with some truly wonderful plums I salvaged from an abandoned orchard, put them all under a crisp topping, and put it in the freezer for you to have for breakfast when you're here.  The island fruit season will be over by then, and I wanted you to have some of everything.

I also made a deep dish blackberry pie for the freezer, and then, because I'd made extra pie crust dough, I made some treats for my husband, using some new ingredients from my pantry.

Then with this interesting, tart and tangy cider reduction

I made this

a galette filled with apples that I caramelized in butter with a little sugar, nutmeg, and the boiled cider.  After piling the apples on the dough, I gave it a light microplaned dusting of farmhouse cheddar, drizzled the apple pan glaze over the cheese, and baked.  Actually, I underbaked it a bit, alas, because the glaze was in danger of burning before the crust was perfectly brown.  Inside, it looked like this

I seriously need someone to come over right now and get the galette out of the house.  Possibly because it has no cinnamon, my husband, the ostensible eater of this creation, doesn't love it.  Whereas I, unfortunately, think it's one of the best apple desserts I've ever made.  If I weren't typing at this minute I'd probably be eating it.  Dangerously good.

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Wow, what a wonderful photo, good enough to eat the picture. Its amazing how people can make such beautiful pictures. I can't post mine because I am still practicing to get to the appropriate level of quality.

Bainbridge is so much like Port Hardy, where I still remember my mom cooking for the men that would bring the whales ashore to process. I must come up to explore and see if its a good place to retire.

[Irishgirl]

Thanks Klary and Patrick.

I'm eating caramel ice cream with chocolate swirl--I swirled in the last of the ganache.

Curiously enough, this ice cream doesn't freeze very hard.

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Typically, caramel ice cream will be softer than most other ice creams. When I make caramel ice cream, I will not add additional sugar to caramelize. I take a portion of the sugar already in the base recipe that i have for vanilla ice cream and caramelize that.

The reasoning is that additional sugar will push down the freezing point at which the ice cream will freeze. This is very apparent with sorbets, where if you get the Baume too high (sugar saturation) the sorbet will be too soft or not freeze. If the Baume is too low, then your sorbet will will be grainy (icy) rather than smooth - because the freezing temperature of water is higher than that of syrup. This is why a lot of sorbets taste VERY sweet....because the saturation of sugar is right for the amount of liquid. The way to balance the taste out is to add some acidity like lemon juice or some ascorbic acid.

Whoops......sorry to sound so technical..

I had gingerbread, some butterscotch pudding (baked & cakey), some carrot cake and a Cinnamon Sugar Homemade Donut! Today.

I am now ready to burst.

[miladyinsanity]

Thanks Klary and Patrick.

I'm eating caramel ice cream with chocolate swirl--I swirled in the last of the ganache.

Curiously enough, this ice cream doesn't freeze very hard.

←

Typically, caramel ice cream will be softer than most other ice creams. When I make caramel ice cream, I will not add additional sugar to caramelize. I take a portion of the sugar already in the base recipe that i have for vanilla ice cream and caramelize that.

The reasoning is that additional sugar will push down the freezing point at which the ice cream will freeze. This is very apparent with sorbets, where if you get the Baume too high (sugar saturation) the sorbet will be too soft or not freeze. If the Baume is too low, then your sorbet will will be grainy (icy) rather than smooth - because the freezing temperature of water is higher than that of syrup. This is why a lot of sorbets taste VERY sweet....because the saturation of sugar is right for the amount of liquid. The way to balance the taste out is to add some acidity like lemon juice or some ascorbic acid.

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I know.

What's odd is that I substituted milk, by volume, for all the cream, and it was still so soft. The lower fat content should have made it harder.

Ling, was the caramel ice cream Henry made very very soft?

I'm eating cake today whilst plotting what to make tonight.

[lexy]

Chocolate-chip cookies from Regan Daley's In The Sweet Kitchen

Edited August 26, 2006 by lexy (log)

[apronstrings]

One of my favorite cookbooks! Daley's tome has too many outstanding recipes to mention here. Have you ever tried her Butter Toffee Crunch Shortbread? If not, run, do not walk, to your cookbook shelf and get ready for an orgy on your tongue!

[lexy]

One of my favorite cookbooks!  Daley's tome has too many outstanding recipes to mention here.

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Too right - I love that book. Haven't tried the butter toffee crunch shortbread, but her regular shortbread recipe is fabulous, especially if it's allowed to age for a few days.

[Ling]

Ling, was the caramel ice cream Henry made very very soft?

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No, he's made it several times now and it's always been the right consistency.

[Jmahl]

For dessert I tried out the cover recipe from the September 06 Bon Appetit. Its a Bete Noire (Black Beast) attributed to Chef Jason Aronen, at the Wilde Roast Cafe, Minn.

I used Guirardelli 60% Cocao Bittersweet Chocolete, and instead of using a saucepan for melting as called for in the recipe I used the microwave. I find it gives better control. Also I use a pinch of salt in many of my desserts even if not called for.

For the whipped cream I used my miniwhip igi© and flavored the cream with two tablespoons of Creme de Cassis.

What do you think?

Regards,

Jmahl

[gfron1]

Very nice Jhmal! I visited a friend on Friday who served it as well. Their modification was to whip up the eggs a bit before mixing them in. We found it to be a super dessert.

[Tweety69bird]

Yesterday I made macaroons from Martha Stewart's Living Cookbook and they were fantastic! And so simple to make.

I then tried a batch replacing the sugar with Splenda and they came out a little dry and brittle. I'll try them again, but will increase the egg whites and see what happens.

[lexy]

More pie - mixed berry, with 'snails' made from the leftover dough and cinnamon sugar

[RuthWells]

I'm drooling reading everyone's posts! I made orange-basil sorbet this weekend from a recipe in an old issue of Fine Cooking. Next time I'm going to reduce the Grand Marnier -- the booze overpowered the basil flavor. Does anyone have a good rule of thumb regarding alcohol proportions in sorbets?

[alanamoana]

i always just do it to taste. granted, when it is frozen it often won't be as strong, but i find you won't add too much this way. also, you don't want to add too much because of the affect it has on the freezing temperature of the sorbet. too little and your sorbet could be icy...too much and it won't ever freeze.

hmmmm...some rule of thumb, eh?

[Kim Shook]

For dessert I tried out the cover recipe from the September 06 Bon Appetit. Its a Bete Noire (Black Beast) attributed to Chef Jason Aronen, at the Wilde Roast Cafe, Minn.

I used Guirardelli 60% Cocao Bittersweet Chocolete, and instead of using a saucepan for melting as called for in the recipe I used the microwave.  I find it gives better control.  Also I use a pinch of salt in many of my desserts even if not called for. 

For the whipped cream I used my miniwhip igi© and flavored the cream with two tablespoons of Creme de Cassis. 

What do you think?

Regards,

Jmahl

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I went to the library this morning and copied that recipe (the milky way tart, too!). I cannot wait to make this.

[Ling]

Red Velvet cake

[Caroline923]

LLIng - I am relatively new to this site - but I have noticed you frequently do not frost the sides of your cakes - is there a reaon??

[Lumas]

The Red Velvet looks good Ling

I have always been interested in vegan baking and healthier baking so I picked up a copy of More great good dairy-free desserts Naturally by Fran Costigan. I will try some of the tofu based desserts soon, but for now I made Sweet Apple Streusel Pie.

It actually turned out really really good. The crust consisted of whole wheat pastry flour, all-pupose flour, chilled canola oil, ice water and vinegar. The crust was flaky and tasted great.

[RuthWells]

i always just do it to taste.  granted, when it is frozen it often won't be as strong, but i find you won't add too much this way.  also, you don't want to add too much because of the affect it has on the freezing temperature of the sorbet.  too little and your sorbet could be icy...too much and it won't ever freeze.

hmmmm...some rule of thumb, eh? 

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ROLF! So basically, the rule is to play it by ear.

The texture of the sorbet is perfect as-is; I'm assuming that reducing the alcohol will make it icier. C'est la vie.

[Parmhero]

Peach and Blueberry Pie

Good fruit, and pastry came out well.