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Evening chaps... Im sure many of us have a sweet tooth... I certainly do. So im wondering if any of you guys like to bake and if so what is your speciality.
Im sure this isnt the manliest subject but there cant be just me out there who enjoys making and eating cakes/desserts... Is there?
I normally don't do a lot of baking and such, but around the hollidays I do make several types of fudge and homemade pumpkin pie. My favorite of the fudge's I make is a white chocolate peppermint fudge.:)
Not tried to make any fudge but its on my list...food that weighs loads is normaly ace. If you have any tips with the fudge making send them my way.
Ive just made a simple sponge for this evening:
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The best tip I can give for making fudge is to follow the receipe to a T. Even the smallest deviation can lead to unwanted results(speaking from experience).
During the holidays I make several types of biscotti, chocolate chip and oatmeal-raisin cookies. Of all, the plain almond biscotti are my favorite. I also cook up a large batch of seafood gumbo.
My favorite dessert to make is NY cheesecake. Growing up in NY I learned how to make all kinds of foods that are terrible for you, but it is how I keep my girlish figure!
I used to make blackberry cobblers in a dutch oven for my Scouts on campouts-wish I still had access to all that dutch oven gear!
Is that a ganache, whipped cream and jam or are you using two chocolates?Quote:
Originally Posted by tbert33
I haven't for awhile but I do like to make peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal and raisin cookies and shortbread cookies. Not really a desert but bread in a can too.
Bob
Top is a dark chocolate ganache then whipped cream and homemade blackcurrant jam. I usually make far more ganache - enough to cover the full cake but i didnt have enough stuff in to make a full batch.Quote:
Originally Posted by rolodave
Hi bob...Quote:
Originally Posted by BobH
Thanks for your post. Im may sound thick here but what is bread in a can? Sorry if i sound a right simpleton.
Cheers
Tom
I still love using my Dutch Ovens! I've got a 12" Cast Iron and a 12" Cast Aluminum for outdoor use and a 10" cast iron for stove top use. It'll be 100 deg outside and I'll be cooking a pot roast in one and baking biscuits in the other all done with charcoal.Quote:
Originally Posted by ScoutHikerDad
I was on vacation and was baking a cake in the cast iron and the lady camped next to me couldn't believe that I was baking a cake in a 'pot'!:rofl2:
Check out this link:
Lodge Cast Iron Cookware - America's Original Cookware - South Pittsburg, TN USA
I am a huge fan of Dutch oven Cobbler(peach or apple) and German Chocolate Cake!
I have a few good dessert recipes that I will make every so often. I normally don't eat much dessert unless I am not at home. If I need to bring one, my favorite is caramel chocolate brownies that uses a german chocolate cake mix as the base with a gooey layer of chocolate chips and caramel sauce in the middle. I've also been working on getting my pie crusts nice and flaky.
I do bake a lot of bread. A lot of times I'll modify the recipes along the way. Caramelized onions, bacon, and cheddar are very tasty in fresh made bread.
Since we're on the subject....
This is one of my favorite desserts to prepare with my students. Chocolate mousse cake covered with chocolate ganache and served with raspberry coulis and white chocolate cream. A real show stopper!
Parker, yer killin' me!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by parkerskouson
Anne couldn't bake a brick...
Sir --Quote:
Originally Posted by Chefgordon
You're killing me!!! :beer1:
I bake pies throughout the year. I make the pie crusts from scratch. I make fruit pies in the summer, vegetable (e.g., pumpkin, sweet potato, etc.) pies in the fall and winter, and miscellaneous (e.g., custard-type, dairy-based, etc.) pies in the spring.
I also make tiramisu 2 or 3 times a year, mostly for my wife's birthday (at her request :)) and during Christmas time.
I make brownies. The kind that come in boxes. I typically eat 1/2 to 1/3 of the tray in a sitting....
Anything added to the brownie's? Perhaps something of an herbal nature? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by holli4pirating
I just got a craving for Chocolate mousse cake. That looks delicious. :chapeauQuote:
Originally Posted by Chefgordon
Cool thread! I did an apprenticeship, of sorts, back in the late 70's/ early 80's, in Classic French pastry. I worked at a chic Los Angeles restaurant that was somewhat famous in it's heyday called "Le Dome." Still there today, but new owners, menu, chefs, not quite the same place, or so I'm told. Haven't been back there since I left in 1981, or thereabouts.
The guy who taught me was a protege of Jean-Claude Bertenou (sp?) of the old Los Angeles French restaurant "L'Ermitage." My teacher was subsequently sent to study French pastry in France for one year with the famous French Pastry Chef Michele Richard. I was taught pretty much everything he learned. Or at least everything that was produced at Le Dome.
I learned everything you would ever need to know about making Feuilletage (Millfeuille or "Puff") pastry from scratch, and made the stuff in quantity almost daily (I was once told by one of the French chefs, actually the Sous Chef, that my puff pastry rose higher that any he'd ever seen! And the French hot line guys hated me! or at least resented me), Pastry creams, Creme Anglaise, French fruit tarts, Souffle, chocolate mousse, Classic Apple "Tarte Tatin" supposedly using the recipe and method adopted by Maxims in Paris... on and on.
It was a blast, but very hard, stressful, and HOT work (imagine standing in front of a couple of flat tops and about a dozen flaming burners for a solid 20-30 minutes constantly whipping a lemon cream to prevent it from curdling as it cooks. I had forearms like Popeye back then). I kept a lot of the methods and ingredients written down and still have them today. Once in a while I will still make something. But only if I plan on eating most of it (which is not so much anymore) since most people I know these days are afraid of the calories!
After leaving Le Dome, I worked for a time at the main bakery of the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City (Los Angeles), and then did a short stint in Santa Monica as Pastry Chef at a small French Vegetarian restaurant now defunct (their moto was, "Where the elite meatless meet to eat.")
I'm sure something like cinnamon, espresso coffee, vanilla, allspice, clove, almond extract...I could go on and on...Quote:
Originally Posted by Theseus
No, nothing added. And, based on my understanding, that wouldn't work with boxed brownies anyway. I seem to recall hearing something about butter...Quote:
Originally Posted by Theseus
Anyway, I made a batch two nights ago. Ate half that night and half the next day. That should hold off future cravings for a little bit.
Been a little rushed latley but had some free time last weekend to do some baking... Here are the results of my efforts:
Attachment 107786
Raspberry cheesecake (massive shame it split but still tasted ace)
Attachment 107787
I call this my messy cake. Lasted about 30 mins between me and 3 others
Boxed Brownie Mixes must have been manufactured very differently back in the late 60’s and the 70’s!!:rofl2:Quote:
Originally Posted by holli4pirating
‘Optional’ herbal additives worked great!! Hell as I remember they were ‘killer’!!:roflmao
When I was a young buck out running around smoking the herb the adults all told me that it was going to do something to my memory - - but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was supposed to do!!:shrug:
i have an unfair advantage at this because i do this for a living. one recent christmas season we were told that there might not be any red berries available to make fruit tarts so i walked around the produce dept thinking, and this is what i came up with. the pear on top is poached in a vanilla syrup.
Attachment 108013
Very nice! Love poached pears. I've attached a couple of images of competition pieces where pear was the ingredient. Pears poached in port with passion fruit and raspberry mousses. The second image with the chocolate mousse cake had a pear gelato and poached cherries along side.
plated desserts was my least favorite course in pastry school, and i had martha crawford for an instructor, Queen of the plated dessert. i'd rather make a yummy coffee cake than freak out trying to make something out of a bo friberg book. hippen paste....ewwwww.
Instructors and processes can be tough but at the end of the day it's what you love doing the best that counts the most. These are fun pieces but one of my favorite, simple desserts is pecan pie!
Are you still in the business or did you come to your senses and get a 9 to 5 job? ;)
Amen to simple! Love pecan pie, and even more, plain 'ole vanilla lemony, unadorned, New York style cheese cake with graham cracker crust. Oh, and with a cup of good, strong, black, Arabica bean coffee....oh gawwwd that's good!
My wife does nearly all the actual cooking in the house, but I love baking. Mostly desserts but also bread. This year I've undertaken to bake all the bread eaten by my family, which is going pretty well.
Each year I bake a handful of apple pies in the fall and usually some summer pies like blueberry, rhubarb, or peach. I actually like pie rather better than cake; I think its just as hard to bake a great pie as a great cake, and while you can find good cake at a restaurant or bakery it is nearly impossible to find good pie. A few months ago I baked a couple pies for a party using home churned cultured butter and home rendered leaf lard for the crust. I use 3 parts butter to 1 part lard or shortening for my crusts. Picture attached. If you haven't tried incorporating some leaf lard in your crust, give it a go; it really ups the flakiness!
Attachment 108095
I also like making cream puffs, eclairs, ice cream, cookies, and cakes. I've baked cakes or cupcakes the last couple years for my kid's birthday parties, and did a wedding cake for a friend of my wife a few years ago. A couple pictures attached.
Attachment 108096
Attachment 108097
Attachment 108098
Right now I'm working on cakes for a joint birthday party for my two eldest daughters. Both are smallish, two tier cakes, total of 8 layers each. One is buttermilk chocolate filled with dark chocolate ganache lightened with whipped creme fraiche, with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream frosting. The other is a white chocolate lemon cake filled with lemon curd and frosted with lemon swiss meringue buttercream. We'll also make some little decorations to go on top with marshmallow fondant. I'll post a pic when they are done.
Glad to hear that other men enjoy baking; I can't say I've met all that many of them! Some of my other manly pursuits are doll making and sewing clothes on a treadle power machine.
Well Hollygates im very impressed!!! I really love your work. Each picture that you have provided has got the belly rumbling!
As you have said its great to see that other chaps out there like baking. I love baking but due to work demands i dont find as much time as i would like to do it.
Bravo sir. If you ever feel up to sharing a recipe please feel free to PM me as i love to try different recipes.
still going at it for the earthy crunchy groceria. been with that co. for 11 years. some days it's not easy. i'm not getting any younger, just turned 62 and i've been on my feet in kitchens and bakeries since 1975.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chefgordon
Beautiful work! This has become a really good thread! :)
Kudos to you for the dedication. I worked kitchens for 35 years and now I'm teaching and this is the most difficult work I've ever done. Trying to convince young people to get off their butts and make magic. Our field is not for the faint of heart. Hard work and tenacity are definitely required for success.
Well done, my friend!
Thanks for the compliments tbert33 and Chefgordon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chefgordon
One thing that is nice about being an amateur is that I can spent FAR more time on something than if it was being done in a commercial setting. For instance, it takes me 2+ hours to make a pie from start to finish. If I had to charge for my time and cover the overhead of a licensed kitchen, this pie would cost over $100, thus insuring no one would buy it. I'm sure you guys who do food for a living are better and faster than I and have better equipment, but it still seems like it would be very tough to turn out amazing work so efficiently that it can be priced to cover costs (or even turn a small profit!!??). I really admire food professionals that can pull this off.
Another benefit of being an amateur is that I have a captive customer base. I can tell you its not hard to make a cake that little kids will be delighted to eat! Here is a picture of my son from last weekend, enjoying scraps cut off the side of a chocolate cake stack when I was prepping it for frosting.
Attachment 108194
One of my favorites:
Attachment 134021
Rocky Road ice cream.
Now your talking. Love Rocky Road
Many years ago I served an apprenticeship in one of the most acclaimed outfits in the world. It's called the U.S Navy. I used to work the night shift with our baker who was a pro baker before joining. That's where I learned the basics and I've been baking all my life-for fun of course. I don't do the fancy artistic stuff just plain old things like breads and cakes and pies.
