What are you baking? Jan 2023

I was gonna say:

I learned more about baking cheesecake in Shellybean’s one post than in anything else I’ve read.

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Aw, thank you! I’ve never thought about it, but I’m happy to offer any tips I can. I’ve gone on a cheesecake bender lately because people really love them here and nobody else really makes them here, so I have a bit of a niche going.
In other news, the guy who has ordered the chocolate and dulce de leche cake wants another one. This will be his third and I will seemingly never free myself from this cake :joy:.

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Oh good Lord, I have to show this to Daughter #3. Thanks! She’s a Matcha lover.

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Envious of your lime trees!

I like this guy’s history lessons (which BTW I do recommend, very interesting) more than the baking, but in this one case he does Sally Lunn bun/breads.

Have you guys tried recipes like this? Is it as great as he says? Thinking to try tomorrow or next day depending on family schedule.

Thanks!

I’ve seen this bread on Smitten Kitchen and she raved about it.

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This afternoon, Sunshine and I made some peanut butter cupcakes. This is a recent recipe posted on the “Preppy Kitchen” youtube channel. Although John Kanell made a peanut butter frosting, we decided on chocolate frosting (Betty Crocker). Sunshine very much enjoyed her afternoon snack fresh out of the oven.

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Gingerbread blondies ( again to use up heavy cream from Christmas)… https://www.theenglishkitchen.co/2012/01/gingerbread-blondies.html they are really wonderful, and alarmingly easy to make…

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Oh those look and sound awesome!

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Made a few crème brûlée for a friend’s birthday. She said she didn’t really feel like doing much, but if there’s one thing she is ALWAYS up for it’s crème brûlée. :joy: Made half espresso and half vanilla.

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This is a Sally Lunn bread according to Max Miller’s “Tasting History” show (link below - also I mentioned above that I’d like to try it).

It was supposed to be Sally Lunn big buns, but he’s got a problem in his recipe conversion and this ended up so wet (much more than even the wet dough shown in his video) that I ended up dumping it into a 16-inch long loaf pan instead of trying to make the big buns of it.

Still, it’s a very tasty bread.

The potential problem is he recites both 1.25 cups of whole milk and states this is “280 ml” of whole milk. I suspect his recipe used 280 ml rather than 1.25 cups (which is closer to 300 ml). Not a huge difference but in an already quite hydrated recipe, another 20 ml is a fair bit.

Here’s the bread/loaf using the long pan. As I mentioned, it’s a very tasty, and delicate, bread. The only change I’d make other than reducing overall liquid would be to cut the zest some. I think I had a quite large lemon, and it contributed a bit too much to the flavor.

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They really are!

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Hi, when making espresso crème brûlée, do you just sub in a Tbs per serving, or is it a lot more? I’ve never thought of flavoring with crème brûlée with espresso.

Thanks!

I just added instant espresso powder to taste. For three 4-oz portions I used around 1.5 tsp. If I had been doing all espresso I might have used a shot of strong espresso to sub for some of the milk instead. I like making crème brûlée with mostly cream and a little milk (like 500 g cream and 100 g milk), so half espresso half milk would be good, or more depending on how much coffee flavor you like. Espresso powder is definitely easier to control.

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Starting to get back into my baking groove post-holiday baking bonanza. I had some lemons to use up so I made these lemon brownies. I always am wary of baking from a new to me source, but these were great! A lemon loving coworker said they were one of her favorite things I’ve brought in. There’s a recipe for lemon curd stuffed cookies on this site that I have my eye on, as well.

I had some Ghirardelli peppermint bark chocolates that I was gifted, so I threw those into a batch of the best cocoa brownies.


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I know the holidays are over, but I didn’t make fruitcake of any kind and still had fruit that had been soaking for over a year and wanted to get it out of the fridge.
I had planned to make this recipe a while ago.

Rare for me, but I doubled the sugar. To me 50 grams of sugar is far too low for a cake, even with all the dried fruit, and especially fruit that’s been soaking in liquor for a while. So my cake is definitely darker. I also doubled the salt and used salted butter. I used all honey since I can’t get molasses here. And milk seems such a strange ingredient to me to put in fruitcake, not to mention unnecessary, that I initially used half of it but didn’t bother with the rest. I’d just cut it out completely next time. I had some homemade pumpkin spice and used that along with a little coriander and more ginger. I used a little more spice than called for.

The cake is thoroughly delicious. The sweetness is just right. I’m glad I used some candied ginger, which is especially good in this. I baked until the cakes hit 200°, but I think 210° would have been better as they are very moist. I also think larger pans are better for a thinner cake so there’s a more even bake. I made one in a 7-inch pan and the other in a 6-inch. I’d do two 8-inch pans or a 7-inch and 8-inch.

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Having started baking my own fruitcakes, I’ve become a big fan. This looks delicious!

Will you age any of it?

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No, since I can never wait that long, and the fruit is pretty aged already. :joy: Everyone really enjoyed this one, so I’d definitely make it again!

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Two types of orange financiers. One is whole orange with almond where you boil the orange and chop it up, and the other is pistachio with orange zest. Both got brushed with orange syrup. The almond ones didn’t puff up as financiers typically do, and I think it’s because of all the orange flesh, though perhaps it could be because I mixed the egg whites with the orange flesh to blend a little finer. They’re pretty good but I wish they


tasted more like financiers. I would like less orange flesh in them. The pistachio ones puffed up perfectly (I filled the molds maybe halfway or a little under) and are definitely more to my liking. They have a great light and fluffy texture for a financier.

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So far I’ve made another Milk Bar Birthday Cake. I was bored over the 3 day weekend and had all of the ingredients already. I left it in the teacher’s room and everyone loved it.

I am making CI’s Lemon Pound Cake for a birthday breakfast at work on Friday. I’m also considering making the brownies in Ad Hoc at Home. Best I’ve ever had.

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