Holiday Baked Goods

[Randi]

I decided to live dangerously this holiday season and tried 4 new recipes for desserts I was bringing to a friend's family's holiday dinner.

It had been years since I did any baking so I didn't really have any tried and true recipes. I went out and bought a Kitchen Aid mixer, and perused lots of recipes online. I wanted to keep it simple, as my friend is not adventurous, and I decided to assume her family would follow suit.

I made "gingersnap mini cupcakes" (which turned out to just be gingerbread muffins), "eggnog cheesecake bars", "mint mallow cups" and "rudolph treats" (chocolate rice crispy marshmallow treats shaped like rudolph). They were all from the Land O'Lakes website.

The gingersnap muffins were tasty, nice and spicy. But not exciting. The eggnog cheesecake bars were boring. And I couldn't figure out why the filling wouldn't smooth out when I was mixing it - it looked like watery cottage cheese. Any ideas what I did wrong?

The Mint Mallow Cups were delicious, but making the chocolate cups was too much work. Same with the Rudolph Treats. That stuff is hard to work with! And making antlers from broken pretzels - well, let's just say that pretzels do not like being told how to break.

Overall I was disappointed with how this stuff came out. I guess my expectations were too high. My roommate said she thought everything was very good and that it was because I did the baking, that I couldn't appreciate the results.

I want to keep making new recipes (I saved lots of them from that IMBB/SHF cookie swap) until I come up with a few that are to die for!

Did anyone else try new things (or even old standbys) and had them turn out disappointing this year? Or maybe even some total disasters?

[middydd]

Did anyone else try new things (or even old standbys) and had them turn out disappointing this year?  Or maybe even some total disasters?

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I made a Tiramisu I've made many times before, the mousse is thickened with gelatin.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_14508,00.html

The mousse got all little gelatin lumps in it. Nobody complained, my husband said he didn't notice them, but I knew they were there.

After asking for advice I think my gelatin wasn't dissolved completely or my egg whites were just too cold. I don't think I've ever made this recipe in the winter before, maybe all the ingredients were too cold when I mixed in the gelatin.

[Syrah]

Did anyone else try new things (or even old standbys) and had them turn out disappointing this year?  Or maybe even some total disasters?

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I made a Tiramisu I've made many times before, the mousse is thickened with gelatin.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_14508,00.html

The mousse got all little gelatin lumps in it. Nobody complained, my husband said he didn't notice them, but I knew they were there.

After asking for advice I think my gelatin wasn't dissolved completely or my egg whites were just too cold. I don't think I've ever made this recipe in the winter before, maybe all the ingredients were too cold when I mixed in the gelatin.

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That's weird, I had never heard of Tiramisu calling for that.

[rooftop1000]

I put baking soda instead of baking powder in my Snickerdoodles so they werent puffy and cakey. They tasted the same, but were crispy. And I made a double batch of dough....sigh

tracey

[ruthcooks]

I found a good-sounding recipe for Last-Minute Holiday Eggnog Pie in the King Arthur Flour Catalog: sweet crust with almond flour and brown sugar, eggnog flavored pastry cream filling and glazed almond topping. The recipe, however, called for a couple of KA's "fake" ingredients, pastry cream mix and eggnog flavoring, so I set out to find a similar recipe for a rich, eggy pastry cream filling which I would flavor with brandy and nutmeg.

Finally I found one which called for 9 egg yolks, and both flour and cornstarch as thickeners. I'm pretty sure I messed up on the translation from grams to cups, as I ended up with eggnog flavored wallpaper paste. It was so thick I don't think it got sufficiently cooked, even though I cooked it a bit longer than directed.

Luckily, I had also planned on making a Chocolate Souffle Roll. It's my family's most favorite dessert, so no one minded, or even missed, the second dessert.

[Bernaise]

We make a buttercrunch with a layer of lightly crushed mixed nuts (salted and NO peanuts) and for a minute we thought we had a disaster on our hands as we melted the butter and then doubled the sugar, requiring another pound of butter after the fact...OMG...would it all work!!! Candy can be a bit fussy.

But no fears fantastic friable candy!

Now to guild the lily we thought we would add a layer of chocolate with the addition of crushed dark roast coffee beans and a little expresso powder...sadly it was all eaten before we had a chance to taste it..with people muttering "Jeez, what is this, CRACK?"

Using the Bon Appetit magazine we decided to make the fruit jellies - french style.

WHAT A DISASTER!

I have had some professional training and can usually tease out what will not work in a given recipe-I realy want to contact those recipe testers at BA!!

They suggested that the fruit mixture would need to cook and reduce for about 50 minutes - try 3 hours!! They thought 3 oz. of pectine would do the trick no actually way more than that.

What they didn't mention was that the jelly would seep a sugary juicy mess and some of the soft squares would turn into what I called the "bruised tongues"

They're tasty but hardly worth the effort and expense....my niece commented: hey this is tasty frozen jam! The final insult!

In second place was the frosted sugar cookies: cookies were delicious, royal icing was cooperative, however our snowflake motif just look like scars on the cookies. We ended up making flooded surfaces completely drenched in sugar crystals and tiny silver balls.

It took three adult women several bottles of wine, inordinate patience and hours of our lives we will never get back to produce 87 -6" cookies.

Devoured in multiples of two and three in seconds!!

[FistFullaRoux]

Using my wife's newfound marshmallow making powers, I suggested a smores kind of thing, with a graham cracker crust, then covered in chocolate.

It sounded good in theory, and the end result tasted good, but they were damn near impossible to cut cleanly, and the crust fell apart when placed under that stress.

Cest la vie. Next time we try this, I'm thinking just mixing chocolate chips into the marshmallow, then topping with graham cracker something kind of topping thing. The point of the crust was to make it a easier to get the tenacious little buggers out of the pan. They do not want to let go otherwise...

[Wendy DeBord]

I had a couple failures at work (I don't bake or cook at home). I screwed up making marshmellows (from Neils recipe which I've made several times before). I used two thermometers in my pot of syrup and still missed my temp. (under) so my batch never firmed up...........Eek! Dummy me.

Oh and I screwed up a batch of fudge too.......again with tjhe same bum thermometers!

I've come to really hate thermometers!! Good ones break as well as cheap ones. I calibrate them then 10 minutes later they don't work right..........Why can't someone invent the prefect thermometer?????????

[K8memphis]

I put baking soda instead of baking powder in my Snickerdoodles so they werent puffy and cakey. They tasted the same, but were crispy. And I made a double batch of dough....sigh

tracey

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Wait, aren't they supposed to have baking soda??? Did you put cream of tartar???

[cakewalk]

I had an absolute disaster trying to make lemon bars for the concierge in my building. I liked the dough part of one recipe and the lemon part of another recipe and tried to coordinate the two. And then I didn't have the right size pan ... for either recipe. Good God, what a mess. Even I wouldn't eat it (and that's saying something.) It went in the garbage. I made the pistachio cardamom cake for the concierge (that cake is foolproof, not to mention delicious.)

[Darcie B]

I made the Golden Grand Marnier cake from RLB's The Cake Bible, which I have made before with good results. I used the cathedral bundt pan, which I have also used before with little problem. However, the first time half the cake stuck in the pan (after I had poured the Grand Marnier syrup over it.) The cake was really crumbly, too. I tried it again, because I really like the flavor in this cake. This time I tried to get the cake out before drenching it with syrup, and two of the peaks remained in the pan. The cake would not slice evenly, either, just crumbled. I still don't know what went wrong and am loathe to try it again. I may try it with a less detailed pan, but I can't figure out why it was so crumbly both times. I weigh my flour and carefully measured the other ingredients. Might be because it is so dry here right now. (Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.) I went ahead and served the second cake to some friends, who loved the taste, even if it was a little crumbly.

Made lots and lots of cookies, other cakes, toffee, caramel, and marshmallows, and all of them turned out great. Went through 20 pounds of butter (which to the pros is not very much, but to me it was a lot).

[Darcie B]

I had an absolute disaster trying to make lemon bars for the concierge in my building. I liked the dough part of one recipe and the lemon part of another recipe and tried to coordinate the two. And then I didn't have the right size pan ... for either recipe. Good God, what a mess. Even I wouldn't eat it (and that's saying something.) It went in the garbage. I made the pistachio cardamom cake for the concierge (that cake is foolproof, not to mention delicious.)

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Could you please share the pistachio cardamom cake recipe? Sounds great! Thanks.

[cakewalk]

I had an absolute disaster trying to make lemon bars for the concierge in my building. I liked the dough part of one recipe and the lemon part of another recipe and tried to coordinate the two. And then I didn't have the right size pan ... for either recipe. Good God, what a mess. Even I wouldn't eat it (and that's saying something.) It went in the garbage. I made the pistachio cardamom cake for the concierge (that cake is foolproof, not to mention delicious.)

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Could you please share the pistachio cardamom cake recipe? Sounds great! Thanks.

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It's in RecipeGullet. I'd supply a link, but I don't know how. It's a wonderful cake.

[Darcie B]

cakewalk - thanks, I should have looked there first. Here is a link for anyone else interested: Pistachio Cardamom Cake.

[ruthcooks]

I had an absolute disaster trying to make lemon bars for the concierge in my building. I liked the dough part of one recipe and the lemon part of another recipe and tried to coordinate the two. And then I didn't have the right size pan ... for either recipe. Good God, what a mess. Even I wouldn't eat it (and that's saying something.) It went in the garbage. I made the pistachio cardamom cake for the concierge (that cake is foolproof, not to mention delicious.)

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If it tastes bad, then the garbage is the proper place for it. I have, however, saved many a disaster dessert by layering pieces or spoonsful with whipped cream in parfait glasses.

[Ling]

I had two failures that I was able to fix. First, my ganache split because I was being inattentive (taking something out of the oven, and I left the ganache on the element though I had already turned it off.) I fixed that by beating it with my mixer.

The second failure was when I turned off the stove when the caramel pecans were ready, and went to answer the phone. Again, I left the pan on the element, and they were not burned when I got back, but more browned that I would've liked them to be. I ground them up and used in my ganache tart anyway, so no one could see the browner pieces. Still tasted good.

Here's my dessert with the two "failures". (There's a layer of crushed candied pecans underneath the ganache too.)

I had another minor failure--one of my batches of shortbread spread too much, and the edges were not as clean as I would've liked them to be. So when they were 3/4 done baking, I took out the pan, and carefully re-cut them with the cookie cutter. Then back into the oven for the rest of the baking time. I ate all the scraps, so they didn't go to waste.

Edited December 27, 2005 by Ling (log)

[cakewalk]

I had an absolute disaster trying to make lemon bars for the concierge in my building. I liked the dough part of one recipe and the lemon part of another recipe and tried to coordinate the two. And then I didn't have the right size pan ... for either recipe. Good God, what a mess. Even I wouldn't eat it (and that's saying something.) It went in the garbage. I made the pistachio cardamom cake for the concierge (that cake is foolproof, not to mention delicious.)

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If it tastes bad, then the garbage is the proper place for it. I have, however, saved many a disaster dessert by layering pieces or spoonsful with whipped cream in parfait glasses.

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The lemon bars were beyond help, but that is a good idea for future reference. (I fully expect to have other duds!!)

That's quite a failure, Ling. I wish my successes looked half as good!!

[judiu]

Using my wife's newfound marshmallow making powers, I suggested a smores kind of thing, with a graham cracker crust, then covered in chocolate.

It sounded good in theory, and the end result tasted good, but they were damn near impossible to cut cleanly, and the crust fell apart when placed under that stress.

Cest la vie. Next time we try this, I'm thinking just mixing chocolate chips into the marshmallow, then topping with graham cracker something kind of topping thing. The point of the crust was to make it a easier to get the tenacious little buggers out of the pan. They do not want to let go otherwise...

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FistFull, try the Reynolds Release Foil as a pan liner, or maybe a silicone pan. I just treated myself to a nice 9x9" version, and I'm dying to try it out!

[Anna N]

Brandy Snaps! Misplaced my usual recipe but found another one - what a disaster. The batter was like something from the Lost Lagoon - it wouldn't let go of anything! They never did crisp up at all. Finally found my usual recipe and was able to make a batch of yummy ones. Recipe is now on my computer and in two different recipe binders! They are my daughter's favourite at Christmas time so it was imperative to make a good batch.

[Teri Everitt]

The eggnog cheesecake bars were boring. And I couldn't figure out why the filling wouldn't smooth out when I was mixing it - it looked like watery cottage cheese. Any ideas what I did wrong?

Was the cream cheese mixture warm and the eggs cold when you added them in? Cold eggs or dumping them in all at once could cause the mixture to be lumpy. Sometimes a food processor works better than a mixer for making a small amount of cheesecake batter.

If it's any consolation, after making buche de noel for paying customers all week I had promised my 10 year old daughter we could make one at home....I then realized I had left my notebook with my own personal tried-and-true recipes at work, so I tried to do my chocolate sheet cake recipe from memory in a smaller amount than I would ever make at work. While mixing it I noticed that the cocoa powder I have at home sucks (instead of being nice and dark it was reddish brown and vaguely chocolate coloured. The cake baked, was turned out onto a clean towel sprinkled with sugar and rolled up to cool in a rolled shape. I can't even describe the look on my daughters face when I unrolled our cake to fill it and it had a half dozen large tears in it..........we made apple pie instead

[Zucchini Mama]

Using my wife's newfound marshmallow making powers, I suggested a smores kind of thing, with a graham cracker crust, then covered in chocolate.

It sounded good in theory, and the end result tasted good, but they were damn near impossible to cut cleanly, and the crust fell apart when placed under that stress.

Cest la vie. Next time we try this, I'm thinking just mixing chocolate chips into the marshmallow, then topping with graham cracker something kind of topping thing. The point of the crust was to make it a easier to get the tenacious little buggers out of the pan. They do not want to let go otherwise...

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The chef at Anona's down the street from me makes a version of S'mores with marshmallow piped onto a ginger cookie and covered in chocolate. There's a recipe here on the Food Network site that looks similar.

It's oddly comforting to hear experienced bakers make mistakes too. I can't understand why we can put men, women, dogs, and monkeys on the moon, but we can't develop a better candy thermometer. I mean, where are our nations' priorities?

Zuke

[miladyinsanity]

FistFullaRoux, there was somebody who did the same thing in the Marshmallow thread. You might like to check it out.

[Randi]

I'm thinking just mixing chocolate chips into the marshmallow, then topping with graham cracker something kind of topping thing.

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That's funny, I decided the same thing when I made these Chocolate Mint Mallow Cups. They were delicious but making the individual chocolate cups was a pain. I think next time I will just mix the semi-sweet chocolate bits in with the filling somehow. Oh, but then I guess I need to serve it in something.

Maybe a bowl with a spoon??

[Betts]

I had accumulated a lot of egg whites and saw a Joy of Cooking recipe for nut meringues and I already had ground toasted hazelnuts. The whites never really whipped stiffly and I think I was to impatient with the sugar. Instead af being really pipeable I used a scoop and they came out like flat domes - exceptionally tasty flat domes but not the peaks that I was hoping for.

[kthull]

Not really failures, but duds: Snickerdoodle Pinwheels from the Better Homes and Gardens Biggest Book of Cookies. They looked beautiful but turned hard as rocks...and I underbaked. Also made the Lemon Blueberry Crumbles from a recent Gourmet and they were ok, but I wouldn't make them again.

Failure that couldn't be helped: 15 minutes into baking a cheesecake, my daughter cut herself and had to go the ER. She's fine, but I turned the oven off and the cheesecake sat a few hours in the oven. Didn't want to risk making everyone sick, so I tossed it.