What are you baking these days? September 2013 edition!

Question

Hi and happy back-to-school month (I still like to wear a new outfit the day after Labo[u]r Day). Apples, pears, and prune plums aplenty at my farmer's market yesterday...as well as stunning peaches (I think maybe Elbertas, sizeable ones -- but they may have too much red on the skins to be). So, what's lighting your fire? Fruit desserts? Back-to-school treats? Birthday cakes? Just everyday baking? Spill ;-)

2 questions: 
1. what is your favo(u)rite breakfast pastry -- we are having friends over tomorrow ar brunchtime, and I'm always at a loss to think of sumpin to give people in that situation...and
2. has anyone ever made that tofu chocolate mousse that was quite the thing a while back? Is it any good? I need to make a chocolate dessert for a Chinese dinner and thought it'd be amusing to serve this.
TYIA and hugs.

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I'm dying to find an occasion to make this:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cream-filled-coffeecake-recipe

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Made a fig and almond cake by David Tanis yesterday from the NYT. It was out of this world and easy and a beautiful presentation.
http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1014976/Fig-and-Almond-Cake.html

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1. Brioche is my absolute favorite breakfast pastry..however, I need to drop 20 pounds, so I'll be eating more fruit and yoghurt for b.fast!
Last night my son's girlfriend brought over the best rustic tart I've ever tasted. Her crust was amazing and the filling was blueberries, plums and peaches and made for a great dessert (um. did I mention I need to drop 20?)
That being said, this September I am going to attempt to make a St. Honore cake. It'll be a "practice" for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. Yeah. I'm preparing for the holidays now that it is September!
Oh. 2. I have never made tofu chocolate mousse. Sacriledge in our house--the Frenchman would have a coronary!

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I've made the tofu chocolate mousse (and I'll probably be making it again in a week or so for a family member who'll be recovering from oral surgery and only be able to eat soft foods for a bit). Anyway, yes, it's good, especially if you use good chocolate. It will be very liquid when it comes out of the food processor, but will set up in the fridge. It has a light, mousse-like texture and good chocolate flavor. Your guests will not guess that it's made with silken tofu! I use the recipe in How to Cook Everything (one of two recipes I use from that book, the other being the caramels and their chocolate variation), and TJ's Pound Plus 72% chocolate.

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I love any breakfast pastry, but I consider a really good coffee cake a great treat with a cup of coffee in the morning.
In an effort to be prepared for back to school I made a batch of oat bran muffins with banana and raisins, a healthy start to the day and the kids still get to have muffins.
Also made a banana Choc chip Bundy from Walter's Great Coffee Cakes.
I will likely whip up a batch of cookie dough (leaning towards the classic ccc, but baker girl has a yummy looking sprinkles cookie featured right now) tomorrow so the kids can have freshly baked cookies after school on Tuesday.

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I have been dying to make the NY Times (Marian Burros) plum torte recipe since reading about it on one of these threads. Today was finally the day. As it was in the oven, smelling heavenly, it occurred to me that there was something familiar about it, so I did a search and discovered there WAS something familiar -- it is virtually the same recipe as the famous Galley Girl tart!! Only differences are that that one uses pears and calls for a tsp of vanilla. I admit, this made me a little nervous, because I had made that one back in the day and not been super impressed (it was good, but not transcendent or anything). But I just turned the plum torte out and helped myself to the little bit that stuck to the bottom of the pan, and it was DELICIOUS. Pumped to slice myself a piece for dessert tonight.

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It doesn't quite count as baking, but I made fresh fig gelato with white peach chunks. My fig tree is insane this year with literally thousands of figs now getting ripe, so this won't be the last thing I make with figs!

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Hi, buttertart! To answer #2 first, no, I've never made a tofu chocolate mousse, and I can't say that it's calling my name (maybe I'm playing deaf). Since it's mooncake season, would you consider a chocolate ganache filled mooncake, maybe with a candied chestnut or two or a lump of salted caramel in place of the salted egg yolk? Or mochi filled with chocolate and rolled in toasted rice flour?

As for question #1, do Belgian waffles count as pastry?

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Favourite breakfast pastry would definitely be a simple cinnamon or raisin whirl Danish pastry! A neat trick is to make a large batch of dough and then make several different types of Danishes from it...

In terms of baking, I made a traybake from a recipe that I found in a 10-year-old stack of paperwork. All it said was "Chocolate Sin" as the title (which I think is a family nickname), no description... It was made of crushed digestives held together with syrup, melted butter, cocoa powder and sugar, pressed into a tin and chilled before being topped with melted chocolate - does anyone have a "proper" name for this sort of traybake?

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Tofu in a dessert? Perish the thought! I skip over tofu anything.

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I made the chocolate chunk and chip cookies from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook yesterday. They were easy to make and a big hit with our guests. I'll definitely make them again

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I'm making these chewy sugar cookies for my son to take to his first period advisory tomorrow. He hated his previous advisor, and is excited to have been able to switch to one of his adored teachers, so he wanted to bring something to start off the year -- his final year of HS!

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I love Dorie Greenspan's blueberry and orange muffins from Baking from My Home to Yours p-4. They are very buttery and delicious. I use the tiny wild blueberries in them.

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Favorite breakfast pastry is a sweet potato biscuit that I can't reproduce. There was a bakery in Somerville, MA that was famous for them - long since closed. They were sturdy enough to be great even hours after they came out of the oven, just sweet enough, beautifully colored. (Pastries I have known...)

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I'm not baking anything at the moment, the humidity is just awful today, and I'm still waiting for more than three tomatillos at a time to ripen for the tomatillo tart that I want to try. Plus we are currently in the drowning in tomatoes phase of gardening, I picked five pounds of tomatoes, not counting the grape tomatoes, this morning.So I'll be dealing with those for a bit.

To answer your first question, my favorite breakfast pastry would have to be a croissants with strawberry jam.

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BT, one of my employees used to be a vegan chef. He makes a chocolate mousse using silken tofu that is stunningly good. You'd never know there is tofu in it. Very smooth, very light, very mousse-like :-)

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I haven't baked in a while so I decided that since this was a 3-day weekend I would.

First up was a Chocolate & Maracuya Tart...maracuya being passionfruit. http://www.thelatinkitchen.com/recipe/chocolate-passion-fruit-tart

We like this tart alot. I thought the filling was a bit overset and will probably back off the cornstarch a little next time. The coconut flavor in the pie is not pronounced. The recipe is an easy-peasy keeper and I will make it again.

Yesterday I made this Blackberry Buttermilk Cake recipe http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Blackberry-Buttermilk-Cake-366398 . It was good but not as successful as the passionfruit tart. 

The cake is fairly simple to make, but the baking time, and hour and 25 mintues, is SERIOUSLY off. I went 65 minutes and that was probably about 7 or 8 minutes too long. The long baking time reduced the blackberries to nearly mush, although they eventually did set up. The cake batter itself was very, very light, but the slight center crater when I took the cake out of the oven and the surprising coarse crumb would lead me to believe there is a little bit too much baking powder in the recipe. The cake was nice, the orange and blackberry went together well, but I think the choice of fruit could be better. I liked the recipe well enough to want to tweak it a bit by using a sturdier fruit and less baking powder to see if I can get a better result. 

As soon as the butter is soft enough I will be making Lemon Brownies from a funky recipe my cousin sent me. The photos looks great and I'm betting these come out well. 

So far this weekend I'm batting .500 on baking projects. Here's hoping the Lemon Brownies push me to 2 out of 3 being hits.

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I'd love to be baking, but it's too danged hot and humid (even here in usually-dry San Diego county). I have a new-to-me savory tart recipe I want to make, but have to wait for some cooler day. Actually, I've been up since 3 a.m...hmmm, next insomnia time could be baking time, right?

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chiffon cake. guava chiffon cake with raspberry whipped cream. couldn't find guava concentrate so used guava juice instead. definitely not the same. i also melted chocolate and put that in the layer. next time if i find guava concentrate i would do lime zest whipped cream and make some sort of guava jelly or custard in the middle. it's also my first high altitude cake.

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Peach crumb bars and browned butter peach scones (with some local red havens).. making the most of the end of peach season!

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I've been busy today. 4 loaves of bread made, and one loaf of GF bread rising at the moment. I also made a blueberry sour cream cake, the one from Dahlia bakery that was mentioned in the last thread.

I also made carrot soup and mushroom and leek lasagna (both from Flour, too) and also some mushroom-rice burgers. They're in the freezer awaiting the arrival of my mothers visit next week.

Favourite breakfast pastry is croissants, brioche or a bread with a fruit filling or swirl.

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Though Autumn is my favourite season, I have come to love and appreciate the dog days of summer and can't help but feel there just aren't enough of them in my neck of the woods.

That said, bt - thanks for the warm welcome to the September thread. I'm likely in the minority but as much as I love my sweets, I'm a savoury breakfast gal so a lovely quiche would be my breakfast pastry of choice. I do entertain quite a bit though and I realize there are a LOT of folks out there that love something sweet in the morning. Here at Cucina bc, a fruit infused, crumb-topped coffee cake is without a doubt a favourite of guests that have come and gone over the years. I find men prefer bread/toast over croissants so for the effort involved, I'd resist the temptation to make them even though a freshly baked croissant would be my second choice after a lovely quiche for my breakfast pastry of choice. All that said, if I were hosting a breakfast or brunch in the near future, I'd likely pay homage to the donut fad that seems to be sweeping these parts. A custard and fruit filled donut would likely appear on my menu.

But now, what brought me here in the first place. Some baking to report. I believe I purchased Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy on the basis of a recommendation from a hound who reported here on a scrumptious sounding Ginger Cookie. Today I finally baked:

MY GINGER COOKIES -p. 154 - CHEWY GOOEY CRISPY CRUNCHY by Alice Medrich

In the recipe headnote AM says "With crunchy edges and a chewy center, beautifully crackled on top, spicy, and loaded with diced crystallized ginger, this is my favorite spice cookie."

All I can say is that I agree whole-heartedly. Damn these are good! Thanks to you bt for this thread and for those of you who post here for the inspiration. These come together in no time and made a ginger cookie lover out of mr bc who normally turns his nose up at non-chocolate cookies!!

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Today I baked a chocolate pomegranate Bundt, using this recipe and my 6-well Bundtlet pan (for half the batter). I used dark chocolate chips in place of the semi-sweet, and was very (VERY) happy with the result.

http://amelieschoice.blogspot.com/2011/04/chocolate-pomegranate-bundt-cake.html

To answer your Q1 re: breakfast pastry - my favorite is a flavored scone. Orange yogurt scone is one I make a few times a year. The Laura Childs Hazelnut (filbert) scone is also wonderful. And a bit later in the fall, especially, pumpkin scone with double glaze.

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I made a double batch of bread this week to make cinnamon rolls for the freezer, I did bake a few for tomorrow's breakfast.

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I made some pies, apple and peach. I ran out of peaches on the second peach pie so I filled in with some teeny champagne grapes for the second layer. Turned out delightful. 
 I like the frozen croissants from TJs that you let rise overnight, almond and chocolate.

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Favorite past 'pastry'/breakfast-cake was the Behemoth Crumb cake (or if you're short on time... Monkey Bread was what I loved as a kid)

Behemoth Crumb Cake, almost too much crumb...
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/05/cakespy-crumb-cake-recipe.html

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I made the Black Forest cake from "The Cake Bible". To begin with, I made madeleines for the cake crumbs called for in the recipe. 

The picture in the book looks like a chocolate génoise with a light texture; mine was leaden. I discussed it with a professional baker who said that it would be difficult to replicate the recipe using the volumetric measurements given, i.e. flour, sugar, ground walnuts, and cake crumbs, all in cups. 

Too bad. The recipe (using chocolate instead of cocoa) looks promising. I will try it again, weighing everything so that I have repeatable measurements when experimenting.

One thing in the instructions that really surprised me was that it tells you to grease the base and line it with parchment, but the sides should never be greased. I tried it that way. I don't think the cake rose at all, and it was a pain to clean the pan after.

I tried one store for sour cherries, but could not find them, so I bought a can of bing cherries in syrup. They tasted like water. You definitely need sour cherries.

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I'll probably throw in some my emergency cookies from the freezer (oatmeal choc chip) for after-school, but I won't be baking until they fix my backed-up sink. :(

Favorite breakfast pastry: 

potato cinnamon rolls

pain au chocolat

fruit kuchen

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I'm almost embarrassed to admit this, but... I made brownies in the microwave!

I just really, really didn't feel like heating up the place with the oven but really wanted brownies.

And, to my shock, they were really good! Fresh out of the microwave, eaten with a spoon and vanilla ice cream they rivaled a molten chocolate cake.

Today, out of the fridge, they seem hard at first, but are actually just super chewy.

Microwave brownies are not for the cake brownie crowd. But, in a pinch, and if you like them dense and chewy, I was amazed at how they came out.

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Oh, and I know your brunch is long gone, but pecan sticky buns are my favorite breakfast pastry to make. Or the sour cream Ashkenaz coffee cake from Epicurious, double struesel.

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I want to make cookie dough cupcakes from the way the cookie crumbles for my daughter's birthday. Has anyone tried it or another recipe?

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I always make a breakfast pound cake/quickbread with seasonal fruit. Right now, figs are good, so I'm doing an orange poundcake with fresh figs and eating it all week. It's the best breakfast with a cup of steaming hot coffee!

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NY Times Essential Cookbook's 1943 brownie recipe

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2. I haven't made a tofu mousse, but have you tried the mousse that's just chocolate and water? Looks intriguing: http://food52.com/blog/2932-herve-this-chocolate-mousse

1. I'm a bit late for your pastry question, but I'll answer anyhow: coffeecakes of all sorts, the Danish pastry braid from Baking With Julia (very versatile and impressive: http://beatrice-ojakangas.com/2010/03/much-requested-danish-pastry-recipe/), cream scones.

Today I'm making challah, possibly one with apples and crystallized ginger too. I'm also going to make the Ronald Johnson apple cake that's so good. Oh and maybe a noodle kugel.

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This morning I made a batch of banana walnut muffins with the recipe I got in 7th-grade home-ec class more than 40 years ago. I remember feeling quite daring when I altered the recipe at home to add some cinnamon and reduce the nutmeg. And it tasted great.

I still enjoy "playing" in the kitchen.

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Cheesecake with Apricot-Blueberry Sauce from "Essential Pepin". 

http://blogs.kqed.org/essentialpepin/2011/09/11/cheesecake-with-apricot-blueberry-sauce/#comments
 He recommends fresh blueberries for the sauce so I wanted to make this while they were still in season, but I found myself enjoying the cake without any topping at all as its flavor and texture are exceptional.

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I'm in a fall mood, even though it's still in the high 80s in Eastern Washington. I've got two pumpkin bread loaves in the oven now. I had a moment of panic after the loaves had been in the oven for 15 minutes already, that I might have forgotten to add the baking soda, but they finally started to rise. That certainly would have been a huge waste of ingredients.

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I did make the mousse, and two out of three people loved it. I used a tetrapak brick of firm silken tofu, about 3/4 c of heavy cream, and a cup of chocolate chips (this was for the friend who likes chocolate but not too chocolate, and it was he who was underimpressed). Puréed the tofu in the FP. melted the choc chips in the cream, whizzed it together, added a dash of salt and about 2 tsp of vanilla. It was very loosely based on Martha's recipe. Very good.
I didn't get around to a brunch pastry, but have taken note of all the suggestions :)
I made the recipe for my dad's favourite cookies with chocolate chips instead of currants, and rolled most of them in coarse Demerara-style brown sugar (very nice finish, I'll use it on my next ginger cookies). I rolled some in finely-chopped walnuts for the Beast, who is not otherwise a chocolate chip cookie man. Took the major part of the sugared ones to my new office, and they were appreciated.

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I made a cherry financier from last month's COTM, Mediterranean Harvest. I've always adored financiers (brown butter and almonds, what's not to love?), but only have had the bite-size ones. This is a cake, with a layer of sweet cherries put in the pan before the batter goes in. Fresh cherries are done here, long gone from the farmers' markets and even the shops, so I used thawed and well-drained frozen ones. It's just wonderful.

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Peanut Butter Crunch Cake--for breakfast. This went over well for another morning meeting.

http://www.foodlibrarian.com/search?updated-max=2013-06-14T16:01:00-07:00&max-results=10&start=8&by-date=false

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Chocolate chip cookies. I think I'm getting a reputation in my Maine weekend retreat neighborhood. Here now on vacatilon. Got a call from a friend here who is concerned about an elder in the neighborhood who hasn't left his house in weeks. He wants to lure him out w a plate of my homemade cookies. A high compliment. Hope it works.

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Today it was a take on rice krispie squares for an after school treat. I had an abundance of Cheerios so used them instead, and mixed in some butterscotch chips with the marshmallow mixture until it was all melted. They were well received by the kids and some moms.

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I've made butternut squash and maple pecan mini loaves, where grated butternut squash was used in the loaves as in a carrot cake, then topped after baking with maple syrup and pecans. I also made chocolate brownie bowls from Nigella Lawson's 'Kitchen' to serve as containers for strawberries and cream

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Its a bit warm here so I cheated and made chocolate waffles with pastry cream and cherry sauce (with whole cherries) for dinner. Oh, and thick smoked bacon on the side. 

That's as close as I'll get to baking for another week or two, or so the weatherman says.

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I just took molasses spice cookies out of the oven. I subbed Bourbon Barrel Vanilla Sorghum for the molasses. Yum.

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I adore my best-friend's mother's brownie recipe besides my personal favorite: Supernatural or Outrageous Brownies.. but I am trying Ghiradelli's Double-chocolate mix. I thought it was for a 9X13, so I made it then realized it was really thin... it is for a larger group of people so that wasn't going to work. Then I just ran to the store to get a second box. We'll see how they go over. --Regardless at both grocery stores, I purchased the last box of 'Double-chocolate' so maybe that is a good sign.

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I'm in the middle of yet another Ultimate Moist Fluffy Ridiculous Coconut Cake for tomorrow's football extravaganza. As if I didn't already have enough to do. I can't help it. I'm obsessed with this cake! 

http://willowbirdbaking.com/2013/04/01/the-ultimate-moist-fluffy-ridiculous-coconut-cake/

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I'm making individual apple crisps in my mini Staubs with the apples from our tree! I will cheerfully and happily admit I am a touch too excited about it. It's just that there was so much squirrel theft we weren't sure we would end up with any apples at all.

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Pretzels! We love soft pretzels, so we make them a few times a year and invite friends to come help us eat them. I always use Alton Brown's recipe, but use oil instead of butter because it's easier. So fun.

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Made the brioche from Joanne Chang's Flour this week and they were great. Not for the impatient-you make the dough the day before, which I hadn't realized-but it worked out well. Made enough dough for about 3 dozen roll sized brioche, and I made them three days in a row, keeping the dough in the fridge. Not quite as much rise by the third day but the flavor was better, I think. The first day, I tucked a few chocolate chips into the center of each one and that was a huge hit.

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I made, and don't like, the TJ's mixed berry scones. So I am making them into bread pudding, including blueberries that I froze a couple of weeks ago. Bread pudding masks a multitude of sins!

I am still on the hunt for prune plums for mom's version of Pflaumenkuchen. Pit and quarter the plums, then arrange in overlapping concentric circles, cut side up, in a pie tin or tart pan into which you have pressed your favorite simple cookie dough, be it sugar, ginger, oatmeal, etc. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the fruit, bake at 350F, then glaze with melted currant, apple, or quince jelly (optional). This is almost too pretty to cut into, and dead simple.

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The breakfast request from my son was for chocolate chip muffins, so I made the ones from the kingarthurflour.com web site. Since I also had some over-ripe bananas, I also made their banana chocolate chip muffins with whole wheat flour and cinnamon chips. I gave half of each to a neighbor, since there is no way my son can get through two dozen muffins in the near term.

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I was amused to see the Apple Dapple cake recipe I posted in 2006 (I got it from Sylvia Carter in Newsday) pop up in the apple desserts feature on Chow...speaking of apple cakes, how about a link to your recipe, roxlet?

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My friends absolutely insist that I make homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast or brunches. Here's the trick. Make the bread dough up to making the rolls the day before and put it in the fridge. The next morning, at least two hours before you want to serve, take out the dough (which will have risen in the fridge) and make the cinnamon rolls. (They will take extra time to rise because they're cold.) Voila!

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Peaches and mangoes (esp. mangoes) are going out of season here in Houston, so I've been making peach mango pie. 

Granted, I'm half FIlipino and have sold my soul to Jollibee's Peach Mango pies...there's no Jollibee here, so I had to make do with homemade. 

I've also been making tiramisu cheesecake, with a double crust since both hubs and I like more crust than cheese. 

As for your questions:
1. My heart is torn between croissants and fruit danishes. Pretty much anything sweet and flaky will do the trick for me though. Apple turnovers are delish too.

2. Tofu choco mousse??? What.

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I'm no great shakes as a bakestress, but I "made up" a cake for a Southern-themed dinner last night that turned out very nice in spite of myself. It was basically a bourbon peach-praline upside down cake, using a modified version of Ina Garten's "plum cake tatin" cake base and the standard topping for my praline pecan cake, plus peaches.

Cake base:

6 Tbsp. butter, at room temperature, plus extra for buttering the dish
3/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 c. plain sour cream
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 c. plus 2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Topping:

1 very large yellow peach, or two small/medium peaches, cut into thin slices
1/3 c. chopped pecans
1/4 c. butter 
2 Tbsp. whipping cream
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. bourbon
pinch of flaky sea salt

1. Butter a 9" glass pie plate (or preferably something 10", like a cast iron skillet) and preheat oven to 350F.

2. Arrange the sliced fruit in the pie plate and sprinkle the pecans over top, tucking some in the spaces between and under the fruit. Sprinkle the peaches with the flaky salt.

3. Make the topping. In a small skillet or saucepan, melt the 1/4 c. butter, cream, and brown sugar and whisk until sugar is just dissolved. Stir in the bourbon. Pour evenly over the fruit in the pie plate.

4. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Whisk in the eggs one at a time along with the sour cream and vanilla. 

5. Combine the dry ingredients separately and stir them into the wet ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix.

6. Carefully spread the batter over the fruit topping, spreading it all the way to the edge. The pie plate will be very full.

7. Place the dish in the oven with a foil-lined baking sheet on the rack below (to catch any topping that may bubble over). Bake approx. 40-45 min. or until golden and a cake tester comes out clean. Carefully remove from the oven (the topping will be very liquid and may splash).

8. Cool 10 min. in the pie dish on a rack. Turn out onto a serving plate (don't wait too long or the topping will stick to the pie plate.)

Enjoy with unsweetened whipped cream.

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Nothing too exciting given that it's still hot in NYC, but I did throw together a loaf of no-knead bread last night (using some sourdough starter plus a touch of yeast) and baked it off this morning for a friend who has been in and out of the hospital, recovering from ACL surgery. He isn't much for sweets but refers to this bread as "crack bread," so hopefully a freshly baked loaf all for him will lift his spirits!!!

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Tried Alice Medrich's Screaming Ginger Cookies, but my ground ginger unfortunately turned out to be almost 2 years old, I scraped my knuckle trying to grate 2 T ginger (so I probably only ended up with 1-1.5 T) AND I didn't have quite the 3/4 cup candied ginger called for (not to mention that Penzey's candied ginger doesn't seem very potent). SO, needless to say, the cookies weren't screaming with ginger. Nice cookie anyway, though mine turned out much flatter than the pic in her book.

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In answer to question 1 

orange butter coffee cake 

recipe here http://www.yesterdish.com/2012/12/11/orange-butter-coffee-cake/

I grew up eating this every Christmas morning for breakfast as a kid. I knew it as orange rolls. My mom gave me the recipe and when I googled it I found out it was originally called orange butter coffee cake. I've carried on the tradition since my mom shared the recipe and my family loves it too.

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I made half whole wheat pita to go with tirokafteri for a quilt guild meeting. They didn't make pockets, but they're thin enough for wraps, and it doesn't really matter with a dip.

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Dorie Greenspan's classic brownies

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Today I made this flourless honey cake and it was very well received. It was supposed to be dessert but we ended up eating some for breakfast because it smelled so good and we couldn't wait!
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/flourless_honey_almond_cake.html

Crumb cake is my favorite breakfast pastry to serve when I have guests. I love cinnamon rolls but have not yet tried baking them myself.

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Gooey Butter Cake---Ew!!! This is the worst thing I have ever tasted. I guess I just learned I don't like egg-custard type things because I absolutely cannot stand this. (I passed it off to my neighbor. He likes it.) I probably should have known better because I also don't like cream cheese.

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We're celebrating the birthday of one of my coworkers tomorrow, so I made an apple cake from the 1975 Joy of Cooking but doubled the crust recipe, used heavy cream instead of milk, used at least six cups of (thinly-sliced new crop) apples, and strewed the top with sliced blanched almonds on top of the sugar, to which I had added a whiff of nutmeg -- so it's a bit of a "my grandfather's old axe" version of the cake. Smells and looks pretty darn good.

Since I'm not sure how many I'm making cake for, I'm also making a chocolate-sour cream loaf cake from Nick Malgieri's Chocolate, which he credits to Dorie Greenspan's first book (which is good, but the recipes use more cinnamon than is good for them, in my opinion). It's a cocoa cake, so I'm adding a chopped-up 70% Lindt chocolate bar, and added a tb of espresso powder for the heck of it. Recipe didn't call for salt, but I'm adding 1/2 tsp, or vanilla, but I'm adding 1 tsp or so. It will go into my swirl heritage Budt pan instead of the loaf pan called for. So hello again, Grandpa.

I'll have to take photos at the office, I left my phone charger there...

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I have the brown butter nectarine (well, peach in my case) cobbler from NYT that somebody linked to on this thread in the oven. Smells so, so good..

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Oh, and with the apple cake I made cherry almond biscotti with a bit of amaretto to plump the cherries and subbing 1/3 of the vanilla for almond extract. Double batch so I'm going to freeze some. 

My oven is acting up so I burned one of the trays pretty badly. I probably need to move the pizza stone to the bottom. Usually I get a 25 degree increase with the stone in there, but this time it was 50+ degrees.

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More Baked chocolate chips cookies (so good!). Also, a pound cake from Bon Appetit Y'All for work.

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I made French Bread with Kalamata Olives and Thyme, from epicurious:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/French-Bread-with-Kalamata-Olives-and-Thyme-104688

It's one of their "blue ribbon" recipes so maybe some of you are familiar with it; if not, it's an easy, delicious no-knead bread that gives you the option of same day or overnight rising. The baguettes are meant to be shaped free-form, but I happened to have bread pans.

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Right now I have Gougeres in the oven. They are for the cocktail hour. They are lovely little puffs. I used D. Greenspan's recipe in Baking From My Home to Yours. I added 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper for a bit of zip.

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I have finally gotten around to trying the coffeecake cookies that someone posted last month. The first tray is in the oven and smelling wonderful. Can't wait to try them!

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Maybe not quite 'real-baking,' but I just used the King Arthur Gluten Free brownie mix for my GFree friend's birthday... these might be the deepest, richest, most authentic chocolate tasting creations I have ever had. I might even prefer them over Outrageous or Supernatural from-scratch. I did use coffee instead of straight water and Plugra instead of regular oil/butter.

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The only thing I'm baking lately is repeat batches of old-fashioned vanilla cup custards - of the simple eggs/egg yolks, milk, sugar, vanilla bean variety - for a relative who's recovering from some major oral surgery and can only handle very soft and smooth foods at the moment. The custards are the only thing that's not uncomfortable to eat, so she's kind of living off them.

The CSA gave me a basket of plums, which I haven't tried yet. But if they're not too watery, I might turn them into a crisp or something.

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We're invited to a Housewarming Party on Sunday afternoon given by some friends who just moved out of our town to about 30 minutes north of here, and I told her that I would bake something for her party. Actually, I'm thinking of baking a couple of things since I rarely have an occasion to bake and get it out of here! I'm thinking of doing a gingerbread baked in the honeycomb bundt pan I have, as well as an apple cake since I have some apples begging to be used, but maybe it's the occasion to try that alluring King Arthur cream coffee cake.... Hmm. I'll have fun over the next few days deciding what to make. It has to be portable, and I would prefer something that can be carried on either a cardboard cake round or in a aluminum tin. This is part of the fun!! What to bake, what to bake.

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First try at a French apple tart. And first try at For Love of the Table's crust. I'll be super interested to have some tonight.

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I baked coffee cake cookies today, taking into account the recommendations here for extra cinnamon and nutmeg. I made the cookies smaller than in the original recipe -- and they're still good-sized (and yummy).

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For the first time ever, the Wilton Easy Release failed me. I made the Guiness Gingerbread cake from The Last Course to take to my friend's housewarming tomorrow, and it broke when it came out of the pan. I used the Heritage bundt, pan, and I would have thought that was too involved a pan, but I had made a small loaf with extra batter, and that broke too. Both were in the Williams-Sonoma gold touch pans, which are non-stick to begin with. I'm completely perplexed, and afraid to make it again since I fear I'll have the same problem even if I use a different pan.

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Baking for a birthday celebration tonight: banana upside down cake, Magic Cake, and David Lebovitz's Chocolate Idiot Cake.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2007/01/shf-27-chocolat-1/

Making frostings after today's 2:30 pm America's Cup race - May New Zealand take home the Cup today! Oracle's made the last race interesting with recent win; too much wind cancelled races; no wind made for slow racing.

Whipped Cream/Banana Upside Down; Magic Cake/powdered sugar; Chocolate Idiot Cake/ganache

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I made a variation on the CI Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies tonight - used their recipe, but instead of just melting the butter, I browned it, and allowed the dough to rest in the fridge for about 8 hours before baking. These were good, and very thick/chewy, but there was way too much crispy edge for my taste. I like my cookies REALLY soft, though, and I find any cookie made with butter tends to crisp up too much for my taste (I usually use Crisco for choc chip cookies, for this very reason). DH loved them, though. If anyone has a SOFT chocolate chip cookie recipe that they love, I'd be grateful for suggestions.

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I went back to the drawing board for a cake to take to my friend's housewarming, and I came up with The Best Recipe's carrot cake, which I like because you make an emulsion of the egg and oil, and then stir in the flour/carrot mixture. I made it in my honeycomb pan, which I find is great for parties since the pieces come apart very easily. I used a star tip to frost each piece individually, and I used Smitten Kitchen's maple syrup cream cheese frosting. Stupidly, I didn't take a picture, but this is the pan:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/honeycomb-cake-pan/?pkey=ccake-pans&cm_src=cake-pans||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_--_-

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I had some mealy peaches, so made peach yogourt muffins.. should be a nice breakfast.

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I made a cinnamon coconut tres leches cake. Just because. No real reason. I've modified this recipe http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pastel-de-Tres-Leches-100831 
I don't use evaporated milk and heavy cream, I replace them with a can of coconut milk. I also leave out the rum for religious reasons ;) 
I beat the whites with half the sugar, set aside, then beat the yolks with the rest, alternate flour and milk, fold in whites. I top with whipped cream, and serve with strawberries on the side.

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Carob chip cookies... I found out that I do not like carob. And after they baked, I thought it tasted even worse. I looked at the bag and despite that I just purchased them, the carob chips (Sunspire brand) were expired. So I returned them to get my $6 back.

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I made more chocolate chip muffins for my son's to-go breakfasts. I couldn't remember which ones I made before exactly, so I improvised using a One Bowl Baking recipe for Entemann's doughnut muffins, and putting chocolate chips in those. That was a fail since my son hated the addition of cinnamon and nutmeg to a chocolate chip muffins. I went back to the KingArthurFlour.com recipe for "golden" chocolate chip muffins, but made those with regular AP flour and not the white whole wheat. I think that's what I did last time, but I'll see how he likes them today...

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After I buy a Silpat or parchment paper, I will be making these to mail boxes to my grandparents.

Soft toffee peanut butter cookies.
http://www.averiecooks.com/2013/09/soft-and-chewy-toffee-and-milk-chocolate-peanut-butter-cookies.html

Flourless Chocolate cookies.
http://sugarforthebrain.com/2013/07/08/flourless-chocolate-cookies-gluten-free/

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Just made my first batch of homemade Jamaican beef patties!

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Today I made carrot cake cupcakes for my son to take to school for the Glee Club fundraiser at Homecoming tomorrow. I had left over frosting from a carrot cake I made last week that I wanted to use up.

I also made an apple pie for a little celebration dinner tonight. It was by my son's request, and for a change I made an all-butter crust. We'll see if anyone notices...

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I just keep making my September standby--plum and cardamom sweet bread from Regan Daley. So delicious, and another half basket of blue plums in the fridge. What to do, what to do?

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I made SK's peanut butter-chocolate sandwich cookies. I couldn't get them as small as she did (1.5 inches), so the cookies are a bit more substantial than hers. They smell good, though! I always forget, though that sandwich cookies require more effort (not hard, just more).

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I made brownies from Baked New Frontiers in Baking and these things are insane. So rich and intensely chocolately, and the flavor seems to have developed even more from yesterday when I baked them (Yes, I ate a brownie at 7 in the morning, we're installing insulation today so I figured I would need the energy)

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Not sure it really counts as baking, but maybe...

Anyway, my son and I made some cheese crackers today LOL!

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I made this Chocolate Pound Cake:

http://thisemptyplatedotcom.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/chocolate-pound-cake/

I'm not a fan of cocoa cakes where cocoa is sifted with flour; this one had the cocoa bloomed in milk, so I thought I'd give it a try. The crumb was very nice, and it was moist. Not chocolatey enough, though. I think that the next time I will melt some chocolate with the cocoa.

I dislike volumetric measurements; I used 24gm cocoa, 195gm flour, 300gm sugar, and 227gm butter. I used hot (not boiling) milk. I didn't do the thing with the extra 2Tbsp cocoa. My loaf pan was a bit too small; a Bundt pan would have been better.

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I was in "Chicago" (actually western suburbs) for a job training session last week, so no baking for me...making up for it today with Carol Field's pane di Como and something sweet today. Thinking of this but with Kirschwasser i/o rum...or maybe Cognac...rum is not a big fave in this house. What do you think?
http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Rum-Bundt-Cake

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I made the pflaumenkuchen from the Luisa Weiss book. Instead of sprinkling with cinnamon sugar, I put ground cardamom in the yeast dough. I should have let it cool a bit longer but it is very good, though messy with plum juices.

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I threw together a bread pudding last night with some freshly-picked apples and leftover rum cake I had in the freezer - sauteed two chopped apples in a bit of butter and tossed them with 10 oz. of cubed, toasted cake, then poured over a lightly sweetened custard (one egg, 1 c. half and half, 2 T. sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and salt). Absolutely delicious and much more interesting than the original cake!

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Chocolate zuchinni bread. It's in the oven now!

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Apple pie (yippee, I found Jonanthans!!), Raspberry Streusel Tart, Raspberry Jam, Pizza Sauce, two loaves of Whole Wheat Sourdough, one Pain de Campagne, some deep, dark chocolate-coconut-nut cookies, a batch of granola...I think that's all.

Basic, simple food, but a good day's work.

EDIT: Now I have to find some people to eat everything.

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I baked a batch of the "FAT" oatmeal raisin cookies that were posted elsewhere on Chowhound: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/625826#4750799

They were good, but they didn't strike me as that different from other cookies I've made. I didn't soak my raisins for the full hour, so I'm probably to blame. In any case, they were tasty and even better with Blue Bunny vanilla ice cream sandwiched in between.

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I'm going crazy this weekend for my boyfriend's birthday party. I am not much of a baker, so I have the feeling I'm biting off more than I can chew:

Two pumpkin rolls (one with nuts, one without; using butternut squash puree instead of canned pumpkin)
http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/32372/LIBBYS-Pumpkin-Roll/detail.aspx

One chocolate tart
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chocolate-Glazed-Chocolate-Tart-243610

Two Dutch apple cakes (one as directed, another with pears and raspberries instead of apples)
http://oneperfectbite.blogspot.com/2013/10/dutch-apple-cake-its-childs-play.html#.UmU7kVDbN8E

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Just made yet another panful of the 7-Up Biscuits (saw the recipe floating around the 'web). While I just got, from Amazon, 10 lbs of White Lily flour, can't believe we've gotten hooked on these Bisquick based biscuits.

Anyone know: yes, there's a cup of 7-Up--can I use a cup of plain club soda--is it just the bubbles that help w/ the rise?

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