That’s what I was wondering too! They all look beautiful.
Soooo….I think my first choice might be the one from Gateau. It has a strong chocolate presence and it also has a syrup of cocoa, espresso and rum incorporated in it. I think I would submerge two of the chocolate pieces into the mold next time and leave just the one on top.TJ used to carry shredded chocolate chunks which I think work better than the little squares. ( I “think” I saw the recipe on the web a couple weeks ago, possibly a newspaper in California.) But…if you are interested in a quickie… no doubt the two bite brownie fits the bill.I add a pinch of salt and a pinch of baking powder to the flour and sometimes a squirt of chocolate syrup, large chocolate chips or pieces work best. I prefer the Nocciolata by Rigoni di Asiago (dark) as it does not have palm oil in it. They do not have the intensity of a true bouchon but 3/4 minutes mixing and 8/9 minutes in the oven can’t be beat . lastly we come to Thomas Keller’s…I’ve had the ones from his bakery at Times Warner and they are wonderful. There seems to be more than one of his recipes for the bouchons floating around, these are good but hard to justify the amount of butter. I’ve saved the best for last…the bouchons from the Standard Bakery in Portland, Me. They are my benchmark. I had them more than ten years ago and still remember them. I also have their cookbook but just never got around to making them…next on the list!
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Thanks for the very thorough review!
(Btw - TJs has chocolate chunks back in stock, I guess they are now “seasonal” though they’ve been back for a couple of months)
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I just got the chunks and they are little squares…a pink wrapper instead of the transparent one 
. By the way, I failed to mention that the bouchons from Standard Bakery have more butter and chocolate than the Keller bouchons!
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Raw Apple Cake. This is a recipe for a 12" camp oven so I always use my 4 qt Staub Cast Iron, just cuz. The kitchen smells of apples and cinnamon right now, it’s definitely autumn.
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Bite-sized “impossible” quiches as a dry run for next week. Idea and recipe courtesy @heidicooksandbakes (a couple of years ago, but I finally got around to it, lol).
1 egg, some homemade bisquick replacement (flour, BP, butter, salt), milk, plus Boursin and cheddar needing to be used up
Slightly over-baked for me today, but timing can be adjusted next week.
Tasty!
(@MunchkinRedux it struck me that these are very similar to Dorie’s puffers)
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Sweet potato flan with some yellow sweet potatoes I got my hands on recently. Flavor is great but I’m not satisfied with the texture. Pumpkin/squash is less starchy than sweet potato, so it blends in better with the custard. Sweet potato makes it much thicker. The texture ends up too soft from all the sweet potato solids. The solution is to pass it through my very fine cheesecloth, as the sweet potato goes through even my very fine sieve that typically catches everything. I’ll also be using the blender rather than my hand blender.
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I made one in a Bundt pan yesterday, but no cinnamon in the recipe. Maple syrup, brown sugar and Granny Smith apples cut in dice and quick apple sauce made with more apples. Really tasty with maple whipped cream (whipped cream and maple powder). Perfect warmed, on a cold night such as these we’re having.
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Those are always a fave in my house, and you can tweak them with whatever fillings you want!
One time I faked the family out by using SPAM I crisped up and they were none the wiser. Of course after I told them, they were horrified, but they really liked them!!
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Made mini cheesecakes mostly with cherry compote, but a couple with strawberries for garnish. I tried out a CI recipe for mini cheesecakes made with condensed milk and cream cheese just to see what they’re like. It’s not a repeat for me. I’m in the minority, but I just don’t find condensed milk and cream cheese to be very compelling flavor-wise. I added vanilla and lime juice to boost the acidity and I had a small container of Greek yogurt open and threw it in there to give it some more tartness and interest. Not bad, especially with modifications, but not as good as any other cheesecake I make.
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Apple recipes in the fall are necessary! Home made applesauce is so good, I’m jealous! My family loves that Apple Cake but it doesn’t keep well with all the apples. I always freeze whatever is left over the first day, if any, and warm it up later. A little Blue Bunny Vanilla Bean ice cream on the side doesn’t hurt either. Happy Autumn!
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Lemon tart from “Standard Baking Co.Pastries” pg.66. This tart uses the entire lemon, peel and all. I used a thin skinned Meyer lemon and pulverized it with the sugar until perfectly smooth. Did I mention sugar…a whole lot of sugar, 1 1/2c. which is a similar ratio to Dorie’s in the NYT.
My DH found it to his liking, I found it tooth achingly sweet. The crème fraîche was not enough for me to offset the sweetness. The crust, also from the book, was excellent. It had almond meal and confectionery sugar in the mix and is a delightful “sweet tart dough” pg.161. Crisp but tender, it cut easily and I would definitely make the crust again . This tart needs to be served in small slivers! We had it at room temperature, I’m going to chill it.
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My brother and family are here and will be here for the next 10 days. They flew out yesterday, which was my SIL’s birthday, so I thought I’d make a cake for her. This is 12-layer malted chocolate mousse cake. It should have a gorgeous bunch of white chocolate curls, but my white chocolate is out of temper and it doesn’t melt smoothly if attempting the method with the tray, and was only faring a bit better with the peeler over a frozen tray to catch the curls. Still, I’m sure this will be delicious.
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That’s a masterpiece! Do you have a form you build that with to keep the edges so straight? Really impressive, she must have been thrilled!
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Thank you! And yes I used a mold for this. She still doesn’t know as my brother made sure to mention that we’d have to go buy a cake later and my mom said that I’d been busy baking yesterday to sell so couldn’t make a cake. 
It would be fun to see her face when she spots that!
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David Lebovitz chocolate yogurt cupcakes…les cupcakes in the book, “Gateau”. The recipe is also available on Smitten Kitchen. These have 200g chocolate to 200g. flour, I used TJ’s 72%. Fine crumb and tender but for some reason I felt these would benefit by a little chocolate frosting which they will likely get. The smaller size is just right with an espresso.
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King Arthur’s Whole Wheat Apple Muffins.
After a few disappointing bakes with fresh apples this year, I decided to try something with dried apples. This KAF recipe swings both ways – fresh or dehydrated. I like that it uses a lot of layers for flavoring – apples, applesauce, boiled cider – and thought the inclusion of ginger a nice touch. 100% whole wheat is always a bonus in my book. The only change I made was to pre-soak the raisins in two tablespoons of warm apple juice.
These came out tasty, apple-y, and not too moist (my major complaint with fresh apple cakes and muffins). While not as long-lasting as those pumpkin muffins I made the other day, they should hold up for several days if kept wrapped.
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I have been enjoying the autumn (baking friendly) weather and the autumn produce/flavors.
I’ve recently baked:
Pear Sour Cream Snacking Cake from Snackable Bakes by Jessie Sheehan
This cake is flavorful and moist. My husband who says that cake is his least favorite dessert ate three slices the first day and another three slices the next day. His usual objection to cake is dryness; this cake is moist.
This cake has been one of my favorites for years. I am a fan of nutmeg (since I started grating it instead of using the icky powdered form). This cake perfumes the house with the scent.
I made these squares (they’re kind of a cross between a cake and a brownie) yesterday. Wow, they are delicious. I gave some to our neighbors who texted me a glowing review.
I made several changes to the recipe:
I assume that the only reason the recipe called for using a mixer is that it’s sponsored by Kenwood. Normally when the fat is in liquid form, you whisk the ingredients (unless you are aerating the eggs which isn’t the case here). I whisked the wet ingredients, then folded in the dry ingredients.
I substituted dried tart cherries for the cranberries. I like dried tart cherries better than I like dried cranberries plus cherries and chocolate pair beautifully.
I thought that twenty minutes at 325 Fahrenheit wouldn’t be long enough. I was correct; the squares took much longer to bake.
FYI, the recipe doesn’t state whether the chestnut puree should be sweetened or not. I used sweetened. The squares are not too sweet.
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That looks great! I really love chestnut…
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