Yesterday I made these Thin and Crispy Black Sesame Oatmeal Cookies. Wow, they are delicious. In fact, there are only three left. I had help eating them from my husband and our neighbors lest you believe me to be a glutton.
Unlike seemingly everyone else, I like crispy cookies and dislike soft cookies. I’m also a fan of roasted sesame in desserts and of desserts with flaky salt on the top. These cookies lived up to my hopes for them. The texture is wonderful. The roasted sesame flavor is strong.
My husband prefers soft cookies to crispy cookies and he isn’t fond of roasted sesame in dessert, yet he can’t stop eating these cookies.
A few days ago I made this Poppyseed/Lemon/Tangerine cake.
This recipe perfectly suits my taste. I really like poppyseeds. Most recipes call for, in my view, tiny amounts. With the full cup in this recipe, you get lots of poppyseed flavor and crunch.
I used my favorite tangerines, Page mandarins and Meyer lemons from our garden.
I gave some to our neighbors who texted me describing it as stupendous and a miracle cake.
That’s based on my favorite poppy seed cake. The original is just vanilla. It’s one of my favorite cakes and always well-received by people who try it.
Ok. It’s his bday. I made the cake. All the components were fairly tasty but there was slightly more whip cream than I needed (1 1/2 extra cups?) and twice as much ganache as I needed. For those of you trying this recipe in the future. I also bought dark cherries in syrup (Oregon brand) per the instructions, but I’m not loving the taste of them. I like a tarter cherry. So if I ever venture this way again, I may try to reconstitute some dried montmorency in simple syrup for the decorations and maybe up the kirsch in the syrup for a little extra kick. I will photo the cake, including a slice, tonight or tomorrow and let y’all know how it went. I’m no pro baker or decorator, so it definitely looks homespun. But I hope it makes the kid happy.
I made the caramel first, which cooked a degree or two too high, so was more like toffee, but it got baked again anyway, so I hoped for the best.
The cookies are good. I cut the sugar to 100 g instead of 135 and used fresh flaked oats. They are just sweet enough with the caramel in the middle giving a nice sugar hit. The caramels in mine didn’t pool nicely, as on the website, because they were harder to begin with, but still softened up enough in the cookie. They were also puffier because fresh flaked oats need more water than conventional and I didn’t figure that into the recipe. I’ll adjust next time, but this batch turned out really light and crisp, so I don’t know if adding more liquid would necessarily be better.
So I tried to make a yeast-raised cheese tart for Pi(e) Day, but it got late on me and the oven wasn’t heating up as it can do sometimes in the evening. I was also working on a small Russian Napoleon and a few other things before that and ultimately was just kind of done with these . I didn’t egg wash them diligently enough, the dough warmed up on me so shaping was really annoying, and I’m fairly certain that even after the oven managed to heat up it dipped again when these were in the oven. I did two different styles, but really I just need to try these again when I can devote all my time to them.
At least I’m happy with how the filling turned out. I didn’t put starch in it as I don’t like starch in cheesecake, and used an extra yolk instead and it baked up perfectly.
Do you know if this one has ever been BCOTM? All day I’ve been pouring over the book in the link you posted. Some very interesting things there, especially for those of us who might be looking for an entry-level gateway to tarts (in addition to some delicious sounding recipes for scones, cakes, and cookies).
It’s a little jewel of a book but also little known. Happy to hear you are able to make use of the flip book, I should take a look at it on my PC as I’ve only accessed it on my IPad. I wish there were weights rather than volume measurements but the recipes are solid and tempting. If you get the opportunity, the Sweet Tart Dough is very good. I also like the fact that they are not overwrought productions but carefully thought out pastries that are high on the taste factor.
. I didn’t egg wash them diligently enough, the dough warmed up on me so shaping was really annoying, and I’m fairly certain that even after the oven managed to heat up it dipped again when these were in the oven. I did two different styles, but really I just need to try these again when I can devote all my time to them.
