What are you baking - Spring (Apr - June 2016)

I made some apple turnovers yesterday. I went with the rectangle because it’s easier than cutting out circles and no waste with scraps! They came out tasty. I baked six, have 8, unbaked, in the freezer for another day. Nothing better than a freshly baked turnover!

Today I will mix up a starter for Amish Friendship Bread (the sweet, quickbread kind). I haven’t made AFB in many years. The idea is to make mini-loaves, and bags of starter, for a charity bake sale April 30. Sometimes the starter has worked for me, other times it’s been a science experiment gone badly awry - wish me luck! BTW, here’s a good site for all things AFB: http://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/

Here’s my experience, posted on the Fermented Foods board: Amish Friendship Bread redux

Interesting that people weren’t interested in buying the starter. Not many bake from scratch these days. And clearly nobody here bakes much either. I’ve long forgotten Chowhound but I miss the baking discussion. Oh well. Thanks for sharing!

Macaroons.

Tomorrow I’m baking some blueberry muffins to have for Mother’s Day. I do love a great blueberry muffin!

Just made meyer lemon cake. Used Ina’s lemon cake recipe, mostly. Delish!

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I love Ina’s lemon cake recipe - I make one every year for our annual visit to a friend’s lake house. It never disappoints.

Not sure if it’s still spring, but I thought I’d hit up the baking board to see what’s shaking! I’m making some cupcakes for a friend’s baby shower right now - a dozen each yellow and chocolate. I also made a double batch of @roxlet’s cooked flour frosting - it is SO good. Billowy, creamy, buttery heaven. The cupcakes will be transported naked and we’ll be decorating them as a fun activity during the shower. I mixed up pink, lavender, yellow and green tints and will take an assortment of decorating tips with me, so the ladies can experiment!

Glad the icing worked out, biondanonima. I recently made a strawberry version. Man, was that delicious. I pureed the strawberries in the food processor and used the puree instead of milk. I added a touch of vanilla. I could have eaten it by the spoonful. I have also made a coffee version using instant espresso, and that was also fabulous!

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MMMM, the strawberry sounds delicious! I have made it several times since you posted the recipe on that other site. It’s my favorite icing for flavors because you can use so much juice/puree/flavored liquid, and the flavor comes out strong and true. I made an orange version (OJ instead of milk) and maple (maple syrup and a small amount of milk instead of sugar+milk) recently, and both were huge hits.

Learned the hard way that the cooked flour frosting does NOT do well in warm weather or after being refrigerated! I put it in the fridge last night and when I took it out today to stir it before applying, it had become grainy. Not sure if beating it again would have helped, because I was already at the baby shower venue at that point. Anyway, it still tasted fine but was not terribly attractive, and when it came all the way up to room temp, it melted into a soupy mess. Huge bummer, because it tasted great! I think I’ll be sticking to American style buttercream if I know it has to be stored or piped from now on - I find it hideously sweet, but it definitely holds up to abuse.

I don’t usually bake and don’t have a sweet tooth. My partner doesn’t like stone fruits but when I say I’d make this he suddenly changes mind. All his.

With almond meal and crème fraîche

Both are big

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Were they done on a grill rather than in an oven? It’s surprising that the edges burned but most of the (apparently sugar-topped) fruit didn’t.

This reminds me that I have frozen puff pastry, a partial can of almond filling, and some overripe plums…but it’s over 80F today, so the oven’s a no-no!

My convection oven is crap. The hottest spot is in one corner. Everything burns in that exact spot.

I made a knock out cheesecake Friday. I used 1lb of fresh cream cheese, 1 and a half pounds of fresh ricotta, 4 eggs, I tsp of vanilla essence, lemon juice and sugar to taste. For the base I use English McVities Digestive Biscuits crushed and mixed with melted butter. The cake was baked at 300 degrees for an hour, left for half an hour in the turned off oven with the door open. I had not one crack in the top and it came away from the springform pan with just a little easing with a sharp knife.

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Sorry to hear that happened. The strawberry version I made was refrigerated prior to using, and I saw no difference in texture. Also, when I make the Momofuku chocolate chip cake, which is frozen and then defrosted prior to serving, I have never seen a change in the coffee version I use on that…

Hm, perhaps I let the frosting get too warm while I was making it, and the butter recrystalized in a weird way. Regardless, I’ll probably use something else for piping in warm weather, or maybe try stabilizing this one by using half shortening or something.

Even with turning your pans halfway through? Every oven has hot spots and convection isn’t perfect. Rotating your pans will help with even baking.

Sounds like you broke the emulsion of butter and liquid. I haven’t used cooked flour frosting, but I re-beat Italian meringue buttercream frequently. I use the paddle attachment and the propane torch. Beat on medium while waving the torch around the bowl just enough to melt the icing so it will slide down the side of the bowl. A hair dryer can also be used.