The second day of Mah Jongg at our house provided the opportunity to bake these black chocolate cookies again. (Follow the link for recipe and method.)
These are delicious cookies with the bitterness of the Dutch process cocoa offset by the sparkling sugar sprinkled on the top. Previously I flooded them with royal icing, (but this coarse sugar is easier.)
I made Paul Hollywood’s Olive Bread Sticks in 2017 and thought it was high time to repeat. It was another perfect golf day (but not a perfect score.) I love olives and I love bread. Ta Da!
See the recipe and method on the link above. Easy to make, although a tad messy. The dough is very slack and requires a lot of flour to be able to shape and move it. I also brush the finished breadsticks to remove excess flour after they have cooled.
You would think having been out of the chemistry laboratory since 1978 (please don’t do the math) I would lose some of my scientific method mentality, but I haven’t.
I made rough puff pastry for the first time this week. Also for the first time, I bought an exorbitantly expensive commercial puff pastry (Dufour’s.) For price comparison, the Dufour was $11.99 for two sheets about 8”x9”. Trader Joe’s at $4.99 are only available in October and November. (Buy a bunch and stock up… I do!) Pepperidge Farms is $6.25 for 2 sheets, and my rough puff pastry is $1.65 for an equivalent size and number of sheets. Yes, not a typo, $1.65. It does take a little elbow grease to roll the cold dough out, but aside from the sore wrist, it is nearly free.
As for performance: Trader Joe’s puffs the least, which for a number of applications is an advantage. Dufour’s puffs more than Trader Joe’s but not as much as Dede’s Rough Puff, which in turn was less than Pepperidge Farms. All four tasted excellent, but as humble as I am capable of being, my rough puff was outstanding. It was as flavorful, puffed as much and was as easy to roll as any of the other three.
(I have made so many pastries with both Trader Joe’s and Pepperidge Farms I didn’t include them in today’s head to head analysis.)
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
It’s really rough puff pastry and it’s magic that I made it! Usually, I buy either Pepperidge Farm, or Trader Joe’s puff pastry. Pepperidge Farm puffs up at least twice Trader Joe’s and I choose depending on what I am baking.
While significantly more work than driving the couple of miles to the supermarket, this is significantly less expensive and more self satisfying. I was pleasantly surprised with the resulting puff pastry and even more amazed at the resultant baked pastries.
Rough Puff Pastry has been in my “What’s Up in Dede’s Bakery” for months and to give you an idea how bored I was this morning, I decided today is the day!
I found an excellent blog (theflavorbender.com) with detailed, clear instructions. Her instructions, with minor edits, are below. The hardest part is grating the frozen butter (without skinning a knuckle) and the last few rolls of the laminated dough.
Rough Puff Pastry
INGREDIENTS
• 60 g unsalted frozen butter grated and kept in freezer while the flour chills
• 200 g unsalted frozen butter grated and kept in freezer while the flour chills (weigh the butter after grating it)
• 350 g AP flour that has been kept in the freezer for a couple of hours
• 1 tsp salt
• 120 – 150 g ice cold water I used about 9.5 tbsp (142ml)
• ½ tsp lemon / lime juice / white vinegar
Costs
• Butter ~ $1.50
• Flour ~ $0.15
METHOD
I love key lime. I saw a recipe that inspired me to make two pastries featuring whipped key lime (like a chiboust with key lime curd mixed with stabilized whipped cream.)
My first attempt used Pepperidge Farm puff pastry to form the pastry cups. This puff pastry “puffed” up too much. My second try used Trader Joe’s puff pastry which only puffs about 25% of Pepperidge Farm’s. This pastry worked better.
Cut the puff pastry into circles (I use hexagons as they don’t waste as much pastry) about 2” larger than the diameter of the cupcake pan pocket. Fit the circles into each pocket. Try not to fold them over along the sides and more than necessary. Place a mini-cupcake paper in each and fill with baking beans (not baked beans,) then cover with an identical cupcake pan. This will retard the “puff” of the pastry.
Bake about 15 minutes at 400F. Remove the upper pan, the cupcake paper and beans, turn the oven off and return the baked shells to the over to dry the bottoms. This should take ~5 minutes.
INGREDIENTS
• 1 sheet puff pastry (Trader Joe’s preferred)
Whipped Cream Key Lime Curd:
• ½ c white sugar
• 2 Tbl cornstarch
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• 1 large egg, plus 2 large egg yolks
• 2 tsp lime zest
• ⅔ c key lime juice
• ⅔ c sweetened condensed milk
• 2 Tbl butter
• ¾ c heavy whipping cream
Key Lime Drizzle:
• 3 c confectioners’ sugar
• 2 tsp lime zest
• 4-6 Tbl key lime juice
• ¼ tsp Agar agar.
Alternative Raspberry Drizzle
• 12 oz raspberries – fresh or frozen; about 320g
• ~4 to 6 Tbl granulated sugar – to taste
• ~1 tsp lemon (or lime) juice
• ¼ tsp Agar agar.
METHOD
Alternative raspberry drizzle:
This recipe for a chocolate magic custard cake flew by my Facebook stream and I knew I was going to make it.
Baked in one pan the resultant cake has three distinct layers, hence, the magic. The bottom is a typical, albeit dense, cake. The center is a delicious chocolate custard, much like a smooth, rich pudding. The top has the consistence of a very thin brownie.
The originators of this recipe have a number of “magic” cakes, Zerrin and Yusuf Gunaydin. Try them, they are worthy.
INGREDIENTS
• 4 eggs, room temperature, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 110g butter (½ cup), melted and cooled
• ½ cup AP flour
• ⅓ cup and 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups lukewarm milk
• 1 tablespoon powdered sugar for dusting
METHOD
With perfect timing this recipe crossed my FaceBook feed a while ago when I needed a dessert like this for a reception coming up in a couple of weeks.
The first rendition of the original recipe was sampled by QC and me and was subsequently “binned.” There was too much caramel and it was too runny. As I was making in accordance with the recipe I felt, and even told QC that this was wrong, but I persevered and it failed.
Next, I researched several other recipes, combining the parts that I thought were sensible and voila!
I cut the pears in halves and cut out the cores. I cut the apples in eighths to position three thick slices between each pear half. I did siphon off a half cup of caramel as I felt it was too “soupy”and if I cooked it down too much more the apples would disintegrate.
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup granulated sugar
100 g butter
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cut in eighths
1 large Bosch pears, peeled, quartered
2 sheets frozen butter puff pastry, slightly thawed
1 egg-yolk, beaten
½ cup water
¼ cup caster sugar
thickened cream, to serve
METHOD
Thickened Cream
Oh, there is so much I could say about an orange tart, but this is neither the time nor the place.
I saw this recipe and decided to give it a try. I changed out the orange custard for another recipe I had, and used my standard tart shell recipe. Actually, all I kept was the orange filling. It intrigued me because it seemed like it would produce an orange jelly without any gelatin (which I never use) or agar-agar (which is my go to “gelling” agent.)
Once one of the small tartlets was submitted to QC we both thought it needed something else. I made a quick batch of basic meringue and piped stars around the perimeter of the large tart. I should have taken the time to make Italian meringue. It would have been firmer and kept its shape longer.
INGREDIENTS
CUSTARD FILLING
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 4 egg yolks (Save the whites for meringue)
• 1 teaspoon fresh orange zest
• 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
ORANGE FILLING
• 1 cup (250ml) orange juice, strained
• 1 cup (220g) caster sugar
• ⅓ cup (50g) corn starch
• 2 Tbl (30g) unsalted butter
SHORTCRUST PASTRY
• 100 g cold butter cut into small cubes
• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 60 g icing sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 eggs – 1 for the dough and the other reserved for an egg wash
METHOD
For the pastry shell:
INGREDIENTS
• 3 egg whites (90g), at room temperature
• ¼ tsp ( 1.25 mL )cream of tartar
• ¼ cup ( 60 mL )granulated sugar
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METHOD
As I was updating “What’s Up in Dede’s Bakery” this recipe crossed my path. After all, I had fresh figs (but used a previous years fig jam for this bake) and the other scheduled bakes could wait, so it usurped my plans.
The original recipe called for a Bundt or tube cake pan but I opted for two decorative pans that I haven’t used in a while. The small well pan didn’t work great. The crumb was too big for any detail of the pan to be well defined, but it did make nice bite sized mini-cakes.
This is a basic, easy cake recipe with clear directions. The result is a moist, soft, flavorful cake. The glaze adds a bit of sweetness. Sprinkled with confectioners sugar would also work well.
INGREDIENTS
For the Fig Cake:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 cup (4-ounces) unsalted melted butter
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 Tbl lemon juice in a cup of milk)
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup fig preserves, or jam
• 1 cup coarsely chopped macadamias or hazelnuts
For the Caramel Glaze:
• 4 tablespoons (2-ounces) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 dash salt
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
METHOD
Make the Fig Cake
Make the Caramel Glaze
My blackberries finally succumbed to the heat. I picked several pints but lost many times that due to dehydration in the 100+ temperatures. Luckily I froze a few pints and used about 175g of them to make scones this morning and have enough to make another couple of dozen scones later. Also Luckily, the scones freeze well and only need to come to room temperature to be as good as fresh.
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
aBatteredOldSuitcase 