Brava! Looks perfect…enjoy.
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It was very popular: disappeared over the course of the day! Even with fewer people in than usual…
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Terrific! Definitely a make again, happy you had success. I happen to enjoy pear and chocolate combinations, also nice with hazelnuts in the mix. Now I want one, too!
Did you happen to sample?
Just a small sliver, since it went so fast. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely more chocolatey than peary!
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A bit of cross-cultural baking today for a Diwali party.
Savory multigrain mini muffin bites, a riff on a traditional indian dish called Handvo. (The actual dish is also baked, but in a special stovetop baker that looks like a giant bundt pan with lid - lots of crispy surfaces.)
Batter of rice and assorted lentils, spices and aromatics, and my “secret” addition today of minced broccoli slaw. Tempering on top.
(Now I just have to not eat them all before the dinner tonight for which they are one of the apps I’m contributing… a few have already been “tested”…it’s one of my favorite snacks, haha)
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Puff pastry question for those more experienced with it:
I am making savory puff pastry spirals as an appetizer for a dinner party tonight (stuffed with potato, spice paste, and cheese).
I’ll bake them at home, then reheat them at my friend’s place before they are served.
I made the rolls already (last night, so everything would be well-chilled and easy to cut today).
Does it matter when during the day I do the first bake? Meaning is there any advantage to baking them closer to when they’ll be reheated vs baking them now, and sticking them in the fridge until tonight?
I know they’ll lose something from being twice-baked, but that’s the way it’s got to be. Now I’m just wondering if there’s a way to preserve most of the freshness by timing things a certain way.
Also - I figured I would par-bake them ie cook but not brown, that way the reheating can finish the browning as opposed to overcoming them - does that sound right?
Thank you for any insights!
Is refrigerating necessary?
I would par-bake anytime today, let stand to cool, maybe cover but not refrig when cool, and then transport + bake tonight.
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No I guess there’s no need to refrigerate since it’s same-day, reason would have been the potato filling.
Just decided to skip making another main, so I’ll have time to bake them later, let them cool on the counter and then finish them just before we eat.
Thanks!
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This is the way
parbaking is, so far as I’ve ever done it successfully (which is, like, twice), is to get all the rise/spring part done. It’s getting all those holes you’ve put in your dough/batter to open up and then solidify that structure, whether they’re there from yeast or baking powder or butter and steam.
The second bake can be all about browning and getting whatever Maillard reaction color and flavors you want in the final thing.
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Something creative. I used a basic muffin recipe to get the wet and dry ingredient proportions correct, and then riffed on some thing that I am deeming an updated peanut butter and jelly muffin. It includes tahini, black sesame seeds, and a little dollop of grape jam that I made earlier in the year from unripened grapes that were knocked off of our vines prematurely.
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PI was given as a gift a box of goodies from local emporium Oaktown Spice Shop which included orange extract (something I’ve never bought, nor would it occur to me to buy) and their potent vanilla sugar, which includes ground vanilla beans. So I made a batch of soft and chewy orange-vanilla sugar cookies, flavored with a lot of orange zest rubbed into the sugar, along with vanilla extract and a lesser amount of orange extract, rolled in organic sugar with more orange zest and some of the vanilla sugar. The flavor came out very well, and they’ve been popular with friends and family. I started the vanilla sugar cookie recipe in 100 Cookies, less around 25% of the sugar in the dough. They’re still on the edge of too sweet for me, so I might skip the rolling in sugar (though the the texture’s nice) and add some of the vanilla sugar to the dough instead if I make them again.
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Savory Puff Pastry Spirals — not sure whether to call these Bombay Sandwich Spirals or Samosa Spirals or Batatavada Spirals, but the potato mixture is so darn delicious I’m not sure it even needs a formal name 
Puff pastry (from some pre-pandemic year, amazing that it held up so long in the freezer), heavily spiced potato mixture, thick green chutney, a bit of grated cheese to bind.
I thought I might need to top these with more chutney, but it’s already a flavor bomb, so they’ll be served as is. Off to write down what I did while I remember, so I can replicate it again 
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I love your recipe but I’ve changed it a bit. (My friends are wild for them too. I bake, cool, wrap in plastic wrap, then foil, into freezer bag, reheat from frozen state.) I’ve gotten better at rolling and now prefer smaller ones.
Now, no potato, use fresh mint, parsley, cilantro in Cuisinart, shallots, garlic, softened cream cheese. After, I mix in chopped water chestnuts and some shredded cheddar cheese. If anyone wants amounts, let me know.
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That sounds great too, but every inspiration I had for my version is an Indian potato snack - batavada, samosa, my mom’s potato sandwich, and the Bombay sandwich - so I won’t be skipping the potato 
(Did I mention I love potatoes, yes, yes I believe I did because @LindaWhit asked, lol.)
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I LOVE potatoes every which way but I thought it made it harder for me to roll up, everything too woozy.
I put some finely chopped serranos too, not too hot.
A really perfect appetizer.
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Drooling on my keyboard…
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I’m going to try to get some pumpkin date bread done this weekend and start on some Day of the Dead skull shaped sugar cookies with colorful decorations. Pictures to follow. I did bake some 'Cowboy ’ cookies the other day for the people who can eat those in this house. Saved out a dozen for a visiting child.
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Today is my girlfriend’s birthday. She requested a chocolate cake with vanilla icing and shredded coconut.
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Peanut butter ingots from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes.
These are financiers with the addition of peanut butter, and how could brown butter and peanut butter not make for something delicious?
Well, in my view, if no salt were included that could do it. 
So I used salted butter and I added 1.5 grams of salt. And honestly I think another .5 grams of salt would be even better. Peanut butter in particular just cries out for salt to reach its full potential in baked goods.
Still, these are wonderful and a great way to use up some egg whites. The power briefly went out before these were done baking, so the larger ones aren’t as brown as the ones I made in mini aluminum tart pans, but I baked all of them a bit longer than Rose called for because I like financiers to be brown and they are moist by design, so there’s no danger of drying out.
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