I’m not much of a baker, but I’m pretty proud of the mincemeat muffins I made tonight.
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I love that photo of the brownies with the recipe… It looks like baked fudge frosting 
Wow, those look amazing! And I am SUPER jealous of your workspace!
Thanks. That is just my dining room table with its two extensions in…at full length it is about 11 feet!
Just an update - I made my buckeyes yesterday! I did some experimenting and ended up with a mixture of peanut butter, butter, sweetened condensed milk and melted white chocolate, which tasted great but was 100% NOT stiff enough to roll. Sigh. I ended up adding enough powdered sugar to stiffen it just enough to roll when cold. Less sweet than my mother’s, but still too sweet for me.
Next time, I’m thinking of subbing some cocoa butter for the regular butter, since it’s harder at room temp than butter. Also, peanut butter is something of a mystery to me - it stiffens if you add just a touch of liquid (I know that this happens because it’s a suspension of particles in oil, just like chocolate), which is why I added the SCM (which did work to stiffen the PB when it was just those two ingredients). However, something else I added softened the mixture back up, and I’m not sure what it was - maybe the butter? Candy experts, @Babette, please feel free to weigh in!
Not baking, but I just finished making a batch of champagne caramels. Del Posto serves these as a mignardise and I’ve been dreaming about them since my visit to the restaurant. I don’t know if I duplicated their recipe exactly, and I couldn’t find one online, so I just modified a recipe for apple cider caramels, subbing reduced champagne for the apple cider in the recipe and omitting the spices. I’m waiting for them to cool - we’ll see how they turn out!
re: buckeyes
I’ve never made them, but cocoa butter should help with the texture. CB will be most effective if tempered. I make a peanut butter “truffle” that is really a gianduja because it is chocolate and nut paste with no liquid. (But so many people ask what a truffle is, I’m not going to confuse them with gianduja 
) 2:1 milk chocolate:peanut butter by weight is pretty stiff, if you used white chocolate and add a little butter (or browned butter, mmmmm, or even coconut oil) it should be a little softer and more like a scoop & roll truffle. Or do closer to 50/50, or look for a PB meltaway recipe.
If you want something not-too-sweet, sweetened condensed milk is going to work against you. If you want to stay close to the original recipe, you could try subbing something else dry like powdered milk for some of the powdered sugar in the regular recipe (haven’t tried this, just thinking about the ingredients in white chocolate) or adding a bit of unsweetened cocoa powder to tame the sweetness and make them more chocolate-y.
Thanks Babette! I was thinking of incorporating the cocoa butter by melting it along with the white chocolate. I didn’t go to the trouble of tempering the white chocolate this time because I figured it was just going to get whipped into the PB mixture, but it probably would have set up more firmly if I had, so I will do that next time. My initial mixture was approximately 2:3 white chocolate:PB, and it was definitely not stiff enough, but it was sweet enough. I don’t think I’d want to go as high as 2:1 WC:PB, but maybe tempering and additional cocoa butter would help.
As for the SCM, I was experimenting with it because I had a can open for something else, and I figured a tiny amount would stiffen the PB without sweetening it excessively - I thought maybe I could just make the filling out of those two ingredients, maybe with some regular butter whipped in. The SCM did stiffen the PB, but the resulting mixture had a somewhat pasty texture unsuitable for buckeyes, so I realized I needed to go in a different direction. One of the other ingredients I added re-loosened the mixture, but I’m not sure if it was the butter or the white chocolate (I’m guessing the butter, since there’s water involved).
Anyway, I appreciate your suggestions! Adding powdered milk is a GREAT idea and one I will keep in mind for next time, although I will experiment with tempered white chocolate and cocoa butter first. Luckily, the buckeyes I produced are perfectly edible (and delicious, according to my husband), so not a total loss!
You’re welcome. And if you can get your hands on some Valrhona Dulcey Blonde chocolate, it is ridiculous with peanut butter and salt. It has the flavor of dulce de leche with the properties of white chocolate.
Oooh, that sounds AMAZING! I love dulce de leche…I was actually thinking about trying David Lebowitz’s caramelized white chocolate the next time I lay hands on some that is of sufficiently high quality. The buckeyes made their debut today and were VERY well received, btw! I ate one myself and was pleased with the texture - letting them sit in the fridge for a couple of days seems to have helped the filling set somewhat, so they were no longer as soft at room temp (either that or the room was cold). They’re still a little too sweet for me, but I think I’ve got good ideas to fix that next time!
Nine loaves of my DH’s families’ xmas bread. 
Dough and filling waiting to be united…
Cross section of the finished product. Done for another year.
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Is that a walnut filling? Looks delicious!
Yup. Walnuts, honey, sugar, butter, and vanilla.
I am not much of a baker - made my first puff pastry last night - it worked out! but jeez what a process.
Unfortunately there will be no pictures of its final use because my torte/pie thing turned out really homely the recipe was so vague and I had to improvise and by assembly time I was just too tired to think well - it will be tasty and I am bringing it to the event i made it for but aesthetically I am not pleased - the puff itself is gorgeous.
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I think anyone who successfully attempts puff pastry is a pretty good baker! I have never even thought about trying puff or any laminated dough product.
My copy of Joy has very clear step by step for puff pastry started in the food processor. It is not hard but it is time consuming. The tapered rolling pin I picked up in the dollar bin outside was very useful. I am glad to check it off my list but will leave it for a day with more time in the future. The torte dissapeared so i know it was good.
2nd those Dulceys. I have a giant bag of them!
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