Kouign Amann

The first, and only time, I've seen this French pastry was at the eGullet Heartland gathering in Kansas City.  I headed back to the table for seconds, only to find that there were none.  It's buttery, crispy, sugary, flaky, chewy and caramelized all at once.  I tried to make them once before, but they didn't come out at all.  This time, I did much better.  As soon as I find some time to make a rough puff pastry from scratch with really good butter, I'll be making more.  As a shortcut version goes, though, these were pretty darn good.  I used all butter puff pastry from Trader Joe's and lots of sugar in the folds and turns.  Then I cut them into squares, folded up the corners and placed them in individual parchment lined tart pans to contain the sugar and butter and help them hold their shape. 

More on kouign amann here, and here

Another Cake

This is a 6" round, 4 layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, marshmallow fondant and fondant decorations for a baby shower a friend was hosting.

More groom's cake pics

Carissa did a very nice presentation of the groom's cake in front of everyone at the reception.  I didn't see it when I arrived at the reception, so I asked the woman from catering that I had given it to earlier in the day.  Good thing I did, because they had forgotten about it!  No harm done, though, and I was so touched that she presented it to him in such a way.  I was worried about it, because I had not been able to taste it, so I asked the woman serving our table to bring me a slice.  They had taken a slice at the presentation, but the rest was being wrapped for them to take home.  She came back in a few minutes with a small slice.  It was exactly as I had hoped it would be.

Here are some more pictures:

Chocolate Macaron with Salted Caramel Ganache

I made these on Sunday for company.  I was so proud of them!  They came out perfectly and were delicious.  And our little friend, coincidentally, had recently had a macaron at a coffeeshop, so he was very excited to have some at our house.  I made up a box for him to take home and he asked about it several times to make sure we didn't forget them.  Very sophisticated for a 4 year old!

Pizza: Onion, Corn, Thyme, Basil Oil

I had a delicious breakfast out with a friend this morning, a roasted asparagus skillet with a crispy layer of hash browns, asparagus, a little cheese, topped with two over easy eggs, white toast on the side.  I left the restaurant full, but not stuffed.  We shopped a bit and I wasn't hungry until well past our regular dinner time. 

I had mixed up some pizza dough when I had returned home, so we had two pizzas for dinner.  The first was a typical pepperoni with fresh mozzarella.  The second was from the Food Network magazine insert, 50 Pizzas.  I caramelized a small onion in olive oil and a bit of butter, adding some balsamic near the end.  I drizzled the dough with basil olive oil, added the onions and some corn I had sauteed in a skillet.  Added some fresh thyme and mozzarella.  Another quick drizzle with the basil oil as it came out of the oven.  Delicious and different.  We had an awesome Pasos Robles cabernet sauvignon from Trader Joe's.  I think I drank 1/2 the bottle, which is easily a glass too much on a Sunday night. 

We got some huge, super ripe strawberries at Costco, so I made strawberry shortcake for dessert.  I was pleased with how much my biscuits rose.

Eat My Shorts

repost
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LBK asked me to make a cake for work since they finished their project. It's their project group's logo. I used two 10" squares, trimmed a small triangle off one side and reattached it to the top.
I wish I had piped the name instead of trying to do a transfer. It didn't work so well. It's okay though and I'm sure they will love it.

Christmas at last

To start St Andre triple cream cheese, crackers, pear, and fig jam.

For dinner, two New York strip steaks and frites.
Potatoes ready for the oil:

 

Dessert, double chocolate cookies (Martha Stewart) and a pecan cookie from the All American Cookie Book.  The pecan cookies use an interesting method.  You boil the chopped pecans and butter together to brown the butter and the pecans.  Then drain the butter from the nuts, chill it until it resolidifies, then use it in the dough.  The flour, confectioners sugar and baking soda are combined with the butter in the food processor.  Then part of the pecans are blended with egg, vanilla and a bit of water in the food processor.  This liquidly mixture is combined with the flour mixture and the other half of the pecans.  The soft dough is rolled out between parchment and chilled, then cut out, topped with a  pecan half and baked.

 

And some Canady chocolates that were one of my gifts.

Baking for the Secretaries

One of the first things they tell you is to make friends with the secretaries and the custodians. So every year, during registration, I bake for the secretaries. They devoured every crumb.

French Yogurt Cake with Orange Marmalade Glaze, from Baking: From My Home to Yours




Easy Jam Tart from David Lebovitz

Saturday is Baking Day

another re-post, slightly edited
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LBK takes soup for lunch most days in the winter. When I started baking bread last winter from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day book, he thought I was going to keep him supplied with yummy bread all winter. Unfortunately, he never really expressed that to me, and in a an effort to keep all those carbs from piling on the pounds, I tried to resist baking bread very often. However, he recently made a comment about wishing for bread to go with his soup, so I'm stocking the freezer with bread for him. He can grab one in the morning for his lunch and just give it a quick refresh in a toaster oven or eat it as is. It will be thawed by lunch for sure. Here are the results of today's baking: 8 mini loaves like these and 2 larger boules.



I have to work on sizing and slashing. I think these are a bit too big, though he may think they are fine. (if you click on the pics to see the larger ones, you can see the blistering on the crust and how delicious the inside is. These pics turned out pretty good.)

I also baked another French Pear Tart since our friend is in town.

Easiest dessert ever

Toasted slices of poundcake - homemade or Sara Lee, doesn't matter, this one is homemade
Mascarpone - dolloped on top of cake
Apricot jam - heated gently and spiked with Amaretto
Almonds - slivered or sliced, but definitely toasted

Add coffee and fork.  Thanks, Giada de Laurentis.

St Basil's Serbian Festival

Saturday, we went to St. Basil's Serbian Festival. It's not so much a festival as it is a feast. Roast lamb and pig, grilled sausages, cabbage rolls, and lots of desserts. Pictured above is the best dessert we had: krempita, a vanilla custard lightened with whipped cream, then sandwiched between superthin layers of puff pastry or filo. It looks like it might be heavy, but in fact is very light.

The Quintessential Summer Dinner

What could say summer better then bbq chicken, sweet corn, cole slaw and nectarine blueberry grunt? Or slump, or cobbler?

Sweets and more sweets

Just a few pics of some recent baking...

Chocolate chips cookies, from the inauguration of the new oven after the POS died during the self clean cycle again.



It's still so shiny and clean. It's a Frigidaire Professional Series free standing gas oven with convection and warming drawer. It did a nice job baking three full trays of cookies at once. I turned them one time and pulled the bottom tray out first. They were very evenly baked.



A fruit tart which I totally cheated on by using a Pillsbury refrigerated crust, baked in a 9" tart pan, filled with purchased filling from the restaurant supply, and topped with - wait for it - fruit I actually cut up myself and a glaze of thinned apple jelly. It was very pretty and very tasty despite the lack of homemade-ness. Sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.



And last but not least, some treats for the dogs. They don't really taste like anything, but the dogs like them, even picky Milo.