Do you adhere to a GF diet?
Gotcha, I usually add too much liquid, so I have to go more slowly!
Finally made the burnt Basque cheesecake, thanks to @rooster ‘s inspiration a few weeks’ ago. I used a recipe from LA times Masterclass. The recipe by Dave Beran was the chef’s attempt to remake as close as possible, an excellent dessert he had in La Viña, San Sebastian, Spain.
A simple dessert on paper, but it isn’t that straight forward. My mistake: I didn’t use Philadelphia cream cheese as emphasised, but a local Cancoillotte (Franche-Comté). Second (lesser) mistake, I used convection heat for the first 20 minutes, the cake remained quite liquid but with a nice glossy burnt top. I cooked it an extra 25 minutes in oven without convection. Strangely no extra browning on the top. I tossed the whole thing in the fridge for the night. Had a bite this morning, not bad, it wasn’t as solid as desired, I still blame the cheese.
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I made the same cake using tea instead of coffee. My brother in law, an avid tea drinker was the only person who noticed - until he brought it up, then everyone said, oh yes!
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Kanelbullar / Kanelsnegle (swedish / danish) or cinnamon bun, recipe I used was from the book Scandilicious Baking by Signe Johansen.
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Wow ! Remarquable !
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Are they supposed to be that dark?
I don’t think using spelt and whole wheat flour has impact on that. Must be because I bushed a lot of egg and my preference of cooking them longer in the oven.
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Lemon cake, chai (milk tea) custard filling, cardamom swiss meringue buttercream, sprinkled with freshly ground cardamom.
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Mmmmmm
I’m going to have to try these!
So I can ask you this without (I hope) fear of offense - what do you make of chai-ish flavorings in pastry? Did you actually steep tea?
(I’m all over cardamom and/or saffron, but most chai masala is too cinnamon/clove/pepper-heavy).
I made (GF) apple pie for the resident mom - my SIL - for mother’s day.
I don’t know if I’ve ever actually made apple pie before… I have been in the presence of making it, but someone else is always more excited / passionate than I am - given that I don’t actually like apple pie, lol.
Thumping reviews from the nephews, who didn’t realize there’s half a pie in the fridge (well-concealed by foil, obviously), and just asked me to make another one “next time there are people over and dessert is needed - so next weekend?”
I used cinnamon, cardamom, and @Rooster’s favorite Diaspora mace for spicing.
Half the apples were frozen (don’t ask) and exuded a lot of juice, so I drained it off before filling the crust, cooked it down with a bit of cornstarch, and poured it back into the pie along with the pooled “apple caramel” that had bubbled over onto the silpat.
.
AND I made a small orange olive oil cake for myself - because I don’t eat apple pie. (And yet, somehow, it is no more a day and a half later.)
I do love oil cakes: they get better by the day. This one used orange shrub and oleosaccharum that have been sitting in the fridge for probably a year.
I’m hating a bit on the “fancy” GF flour - cup4cup - that turns every batter into dough and freaks me out. Going back to my own subs for anything other than bread.
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I didn’t even know chai masala was a thing until I had chai at Starbucks one day and it was like… when you’re about to sit down and someone pulls the chair out from behind you. In my family, at most we would add a cardamom pod or two to our chai. I’ve become tolerant now that it’s everywhere, but for my own baking, chai-flavor means tea and milk. I did a test run of the custard filling by shredding the tea (regular desi tea leaves) before steeping in hot milk, but felt it was too strong. So for this cake, I just steeped the tea leaves without shredding. I wish I had gone the taxi driver direction again, though, because it would have stood up really well against the lemon cake. Still delicious, no complaints. The buttercream does require a long sit at room temperature, so I’m curious to try a cardamom-flavored white chocolate whipped cream or ganache to eat it straight out the fridge.
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Chai masala is a real indian thing - gujaratis mostly use a powdered spice blend instead of adding whole spices every time.
Different proportions of the spice components change the flavor profile from house to house, as with garam masala.
Over time, I have grown to really dislike the flavor of dried ginger and black pepper that are always in the blend, so I have reverted to fresh ginger and cardamom.
(I’m very puzzled by american chai, which tastes like mostly cinnamon.)
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I grew up around many gujarati families and they always used just cardamom. Even people I met later from Kerala, Goa, and other areas, there was talk of masala chai, but every day chai was plain. Like if I came over and they had leftover chai in the pot from a few hours before, it was plain. Once I had it with fresh ginger. You’re the first person I’ve “met” who really, truly practices masala chai as their every day chai.
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A lovely tart H made for Mother’s Day - strawberry, rhubarb and frangipane. It was served with whipped cream. Flowers too 
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Beautiful!
