What are you baking today (2020-2022)?

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I hadn't heard of him before, hell I find it hard to replicate even with no blindfold. I'm gunna try making this sometime soon. When the wife's out.

Russ
 
TastyReuben said:
I finally made America's Test Kitchen's/Cook's Country's Cheddar Apple Pie, which has a full 8oz of cheese integrated into the crust:
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The crust also contains a bit of cayenne and ground mustard, and the cheese is certainly noticeable.

I like it quite a bit, there's a certain richness when eating. I did overwork the dough a little (it's a food processor recipe), because my crap processor had a hard time handling a standard two-crust recipe, so I had to run it a little longer than necessary.

The dough also somewhat relaxed a bit in the oven and lost some of the definition around the edge. Never had that happen before. 🤷🏻‍♂️

This was intended for the cheddar challenge. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post the recipe.
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Is it a dessert or main course?
 
Morning Glory said:
Is it a dessert or main course?
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The filling is a traditional apple pie filling (apples, cinnamon, sugar, etc), so as CD says, this is a dessert.

The cheese (along with the cayenne and mustard) don't really make for a savory crust, more like a...rustic crust. It's a hearty dessert.

The cheese isn't that unusual when you think about it - I've have cheese and apples at the end of a meal many times. This just puts it all in a pie.
 
I had a bit of puréed sweet potato left, so I made this li'l baby sweet potato cake. I'll get it in the contest tomorrow:
Sweet Potato Cake

Sweet Potato Cake


Sweet Potato Cake

Sweet Potato Cake


Sweet Potato Cake

Sweet Potato Cake


I'll tell you, I learned a couple of things on this cake.

First, it's a 6-inch cake, and there aren't a lot of 6-inch cake recipes out there, but thanks to Epicurious, I learned how to convert any 8 or 9-inch cake recipe to 6-inch. Here's the secret:

A 6-inch pan is 45% the size of a 9-inch pan, so to convert a recipe, use grams for measurements (where applicable), then multiply the grams by .45 and it'll tell you your new measurements. For an 8-inch pan, the multiplier is .57.

As to baking time, Epicurious says to start checking halfway through, but this one baked out at very nearly the time for a 9-inch cakes. It looks a little underdone, but I'm not sure it is - the texture is good, it's not gooey or wet, and the toothpick test and the internal temp were both right.

Secondly, I wanted a little stenciled design on there, so I found an easy one online. You know how parchment paper has a mind of its own...I couldn't get it to lie flat no matter what, especially after folding it four times.

Then I remembered that parchment paper is much more agreeable once it's been baked, and I was preheating the oven for something else, so it tossed it in there on a plate and it worked out much better. Not perfect, but better.
 
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Coconut cake for my dad:
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This cake gets crazy good reviews from people every time I make it, and I hate owning up to it being a cake from a box mix (white cake) doctored up with coconut extract and coconut cream.

I do make the frosting from scratch, because any bonehead can make frosting. It also has coconut cream and coconut extract in it, then topped with toasted sweetened coconut.
 
...Croissants continued:

Just out of the oven:
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With tart cherry jam and Hotel Chocolat's version of Nutella:
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With my coffee:
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I love the little one:
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The inside:
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The verdict: could be better, but so, so much superior to the utter crap from the supermarket that passes for a croissant. I need to get the inside a little more cohesive, I think, and a little fluffier, maybe, but the otherwise excellent.

Perfectly crisp on the outside, just gloriously crunchy and wafer thin. The butter flavor...well, you get to experience it three times: you can smell it before you even get near the pastry, you can feel it when you pick the croissant up, and then, of course, you get the payoff of tasting it.

As to the work involved: is it a lot of work? Yes and no. Nothing about it is terribly difficult, but it can be a little tedious, especially if you're a perfectionist (I'm not) or if you don't have that natural knack for rolling perfect rectangles (I don't) - that means I didn't roll perfect rectangles, but I didn't get too fussed about it.

I think where the perception of the amount of work comes from is that it feels like you're constantly tending to the dough. First, you make the dough, then it rises for a couple of hours (that's your longest break), then you shape it into a rectangle, fold it, and chill it for an hour, during which time you make the butter slab, then you roll the dough, place the butter slab, do the folds, then back in the fridge for 30 minutes, then again, so on and so forth a couple more times.

That's Day 1.

The next day, you're rolling once more, cutting and shaping the croissants, letting them rise, then finally baking them.

Phew!

Nothing hard, really, and hands-on time is probably less than 10 minutes at each step you're actually doing something, but by the end of the first day, you feel like you've spent more time with that dough than doing anything else, because before you know it, it's time to roll and fold that dough.

All in all, though, the end result, even my less-than-perfect one above, justifies the effort, and considering that the dough can be frozen (either just before or just after shaping into individual pastries), it's something where you can do a set amount of work ahead of time and have fresh-baked croissants just about any time you want them.
 
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TastyReuben said:
...Croissants continued:

Just out of the oven:
View attachment 67540


With tart cherry jam and Hotel Chocolat's version of Nutella:
View attachment 67541


With my coffee:
View attachment 67542


I love the little one:
View attachment 67543


The inside:
View attachment 67544


The verdict: could be better, but so, so much superior to the utter crap from the supermarket that passes for a croissant. I need to get the inside a little more cohesive, I think, and a little fluffier, maybe, but the otherwise excellent.

Perfectly crisp on the outside, just gloriously crunchy and wafer thin. The butter flavor...well, you get to experience it three times: you can smell it before you even get near the pastry, you can feel it when you pick the croissant up, and then, of course, you get the payoff of tasting it.

As to the work involved: is it a lot of work? Yes and no. Nothing about it is terribly difficult, but it can be a little tedious, especially if you're a perfectionist (I'm not) or if you don't have that natural knack for rolling perfect rectangles (I don't) - that means I didn't roll perfect rectangles, but I didn't get to fussed about it.

I think where the perception of the amount of work comes from is that it feels like you're constantly tending to the dough. First, you make the dough, then it rises for a couple of hours (that's your longest break), then you shape it into a rectangle, fold it, and chill it for an hour, during which time you make the butter slab, then you roll the dough, place the butter slab, do the folds, then back in the fridge for 30 minutes, then again, so on and so forth a couple more times.

That's Day 1.

The next day, you're rolling once more, cutting and shaping the croissants, letting them rise, then finally baking them.

Phew!

Nothing hard, really, and hands-on time is probably less than 10 minutes at each step you're actually doing something, but by the end of the first day, you feel like you've spent more time with that dough than doing anything else, because before you know it, it's time to roll and fold that dough.

All in all, though, the end result, even my less-than-perfect one above, justifies the effort, and considering that the dough can be frozen (either just before or just after shaping into individual pastries), it's something where you can do a set amount of work ahead of time and have fresh-baked croissants just about any time you want them.
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Beautiful work!
 
I have planned to try baking Flamiche, a leek tart, a yeast banana bread, a variation of La Tarte Tropezienne and a rye flour cake...over the next few weeks, so we'll see...
 
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