Minty ice cream 10.28.14

This ice cream was a bit too eggy.  I used a mix of dried mint and fresh mint.  The taste was a little leafy.

8 yolks
6 oz sugar
1 c milk
2 c heavy cream
1/3 cup fresh mint leaves
1 t dried mint leaves

Debra’s Natural Gourmet 10.20.14

Debra’s Natural Gourmet, 98 Commonwealth Ave, Concord, MA

I was lured here by a job posting.  It’s a great store with a lot of natural products.  These crispy rice squares were my favorite.  Ingredients: Organic Erewhorn puffed brown rice cereal, almonds, apricots, brown rice syrup, almond butter, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, sea salt.

This is the vanilla pistachio dream bar.  Also good and a more dense texture than the crispy rice bar.  The flavors are very clear, so if you like vanilla and pistachios, this is the bar for you.

Pumpkin maple cake.   The texture on this cake was a little gummy, so it wasn’t my favorite.   The frosting was very good though.

QBC cookies 10.17.14

Celebrating the two year anniversary of the Belmont store with some Quebradaman themed cookies.  The cookie press I made was a little too shallow, so the impression is not too clear.  The recipe is Cookie House Dough from Better Homes and Gardens 100 Best Cookies publication.  The cookies are very dense and tough.  They taste similar to a nilla wafer.  I would like to incorporate color into these cookies to make them a brighter way to show a logo on a cookie.

Kadayif 10.13.14

Mediterranean bakery, across from 905 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA

This is a new bakery, opening about a month ago.

This is their Kadayif.  It tastes a little like Baklava, although the texture is like crispy noodles.  It’s the first time I’ve had it, so it’s hard to describe.  The ingredients listed are Kadayif, butter, oil, walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar.  So I suppose it’s not like baklava at all since there is no honey.  But this was a great desert.

Angelina’s Pastry 10.13.14

Angelina’s Pastry, 1193A Mass Ave, Arlington, MA

I tried the Cannoli cupcake.  The frosting tasted like cannoli filling.  The cake was a little dry.

Mocha Ice Cream 10.6.14

The mocha ice cream was delicious. I used the recipe from Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream book.  Perfect flavour.

Apple Cider Jelly cocktails 10.2.14

Equal parts Apple Cider Jelly and Cognac.  An apple slice and dash of cinnamon for garnish.  Maybe add extra lemon juice next time.

Apple Cider Jelly ( I made ¼ x batch)
8 c apple cider
1.75 oz fruit pectin
4 apples diced
4 c sugar
2T apple pie spice

Apple Pie Spice
4T cinnamon
1T all spice
2 t nutmeg
1 ½ t ginger

Cook cider, pectin and apple until boiling.  Add sugar and cook to 220. Stir in spices and pour into jars. You can freeze or can this jelly. If jelly is too thick, return to heat and add 2 T for each cup of jelly until mixture comes together.

I haven't been able to figure out this recipe yet.  I can only get the mixture to 212 even after boiling for over 45 mins.  So this cocktail is an effort to save some of this jelly, since I can't use it for much now.  It is liquid.

Pumpkin Pie for the Masses 9.30.14

I made crusts for these out of a mixture of graham cracker crust, granola and an oat crust.  The pie filling I used was from Baking Illustrated using evaporated milk.

Chocolate Avocado pudding 9.30.14

I found this recipe online and the texture of the pudding is perfect, but I could still taste the avocado so I will try tweaking this recipe. I added more cocoa powder and honey, but the balance was not quite right yet.

1 avocado
2T cocoa
1T honey
1T agave
¼ t vanilla
1/4  t instant coffee
3T almond milk

Next time try the same recipe with ½ an avocado.

Quick Apple Strudel 9.21.14

Absolutely amazing and delicious.  This recipe is from Baking Illustrated and uses phyllo dough.  The dough was a little hard to work with (it kept ripping a lot, but I think defrosting it a room temperature was too tough on it).  I forgot to sprinkle sugar on the phyllo layers for the first one, but luckily it didn’t shatter. The apples amazingly cook in only 15 minutes.

Birthday Cupcakes 9.13.14

Playstation and Patriot themed cupcakes! The cake is Devil’s Food Cake from Cook’s Illustrated.  The flavor of the cake was good but it was soufflé like in texture and made it hard to bake correctly.  I think I’ll only use this recipe for Cakes, not cupcakes.  The frosting was a swiss meringue from Gisslen.
This frosting was cloyingly sweet and very butter.  It had great texture, but was very dense.  Perhaps I’ll try sticking with Italian meringues once I get a kitchen aid .

Orange Jam Oatmeal Bars for the masses 9.2.14

This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens Baking.  The crumble and crust are the same recipe.

La Patisserie 8.22.14

La Patisserie, 30 Church street, Winchester, MA

The yellow cake was good, maybe a bit dry.   The frosting was very sweet and tasted more like shortening than butter.  I really like the look of this cupcake.

Peach Crisp for the masses 8.6.14

I started by using the recipe from Baking Illustrated, however I didn’t add the tapioca starch and blueberries which I should have since the mixture was very soupy.  After baking there was a lot of melted butter on top of the crisp.  I had wished the topping was more crispy instead of so buttery and soggy.

Bellmont Caffe 8.5.14

Bellmont Caffe, 80 Leonard St, Belmont, MA

On my search for great NY style bagels, I tried a bagel from Bellmont Caffe which advertises bagels from montreal.  These bagels were slightly sweet.

Harpoon Brewery 8.3.14

Harpoon Brewery, 306 Northern Ave, Boston, MA

The soft pretzels were delicious!  My favorite was the plain pretzel with the marinara sauce.  I had the UFO beer flight and the raspberry was my favorite.

Mixx 7.31.14

Mixx, 66 Brighton Ave, Allston, MA

Lychee yogurt!

Stuffed squash blossoms 7.21.14

What a find at the West Newton farmer’s market.  I love stuffed squash blossoms, and this recipe is dairy free.

½ cup pine nuts, soaked in hot water at least 2 hours (pressed through garlic press 1 T at a time)
1 ½ t Dijon mustard
3 T water
1 T apple cider vinegar
1 T plus 1 ½ t lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T fresh basil
1 T fresh parsley
Leaves from 1 sprig fresh tyme
Combine all ingreadients in a food processor.  Taste and add salt and pepper.  (Was a little vinegary last time , use less vinegar or lemon juice next time?) Let macerate at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
Rinse blosoms and remove stamens. Make a slit in each flower and fill with about 1T of cheese.  Twist flowers closed and brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Bake 425 about 15 minutes.

Ben and Jerry’s 7.6.14

Ben & Jerry's, 1281 Waterbury Stowe Rd, Waterbury, VT

Lemon liz. Yum.

Nicolette’s wedding 7.5.14

A beautiful tiered fondant cake.   Yellow layer cake was served with chocolate drizzle.  Quilted pattern design on the fondant dotted with rhinestones.

La Chocolaterie du Village 7.4.14

La Chocolaterie du Village, L’art du chocolat, 888 rue St-Lois Quebec J6W 1J9, Terrebonne

Chocolate shop in Terrebonne.  The chocolates were delicious.  The chocolate enrobing was thin and crisp, just like EH.  Feuittine, ice wine, and a third flavour, but I forgot.

Terrebonne farmers market 7.4.14

Terrebonne farmers market, Québec, Canada

This was a maple beignet from a food truck at the market.

King Arthur Baguette 7.3.14

King Arthur Bakery, 135 US Route 5 South, Norwich, VT

With the likeliness of Clear Flour or Iggy’s this baguette was superb.  So crispy and great flavour.

Strawberry Shortcake for the masses 6.30.14

Strawberry Shortcake! A slightly sweet biscuit, topped with macerated sliced strawberries and creme chantilly.

I made these in lasagna pans.  Recipe from baking illustrated.
The shortcake is slightly sweet.
10 oz AP flour
2.25 oz sugar
1T bak pwdr
½ t salt
4 oz butter
1 large egg
½ c plus 1 T whole milk (or half and half cream)

I sliced strawberries and added some sugar to macerate.  For shortcake, blend flour, 3 T sugar, bak pwdr and salt.  Add butter pieces and pulse until coarse meal.  Mix egg with milk and pour into flour mixture.  Mix until dough holds together.  Lightly knead on floured work surface.  Pat dough into 9 by 6 inch rectangle and cut 2 ¾ in rounds with cutter.  Brush top with beaten egg white and sprinkle sugar.  Bake 12-14 minutes until nice golden brown.  (dough can sit in fridge for up to 2 hours).  Top with strawberries and sweetened whipped cream.

Masonic Museum 6.7.14

Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library, 33 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA

Scottish Rite Ice Cream Mold

Fruit Tarts for the Masses 6.3.14

These have a pâte brisée and pastry cream filling. I’d prefer additional almond filling, but the masses do not.

Chocolate final 6.2.14

Rosa Regale bon bons and minty chocolate Meltaways. Rosa Regale are square with the candied rose petal.  The Meltaways are heart shaped and dipped in powdered sugar.

Rosa Regale ganache (makes 28 bon bons)
83.3 g dark chocolate
66.6 g milk chocolate
32.7 g heavy cream
21.6 g butter
3T Rosa Regale (I think I ended up using 4.5 T after tasting it)
1.3 t brandy
2.2 t corn syrup or invert sugar
Enrobe ganache in dark chocolate and garnish with candied rose petal.

Minty chocolate meltaways (makes 44 bon bons)
86.6 g milk chocolate
25.8 g coconut oil
27 g dry mint
2 tsp peppermint schnapps (optional-only use if not enough mint flavor)
Pipe ganache into molds and after set, cover in powdered sugar.

Lychee ganache
23.3 g heavy cream
10 g corn syrup
15 g butter
156.6 g white chocolate
20 g lychee liquor
This ganache stiffened when I added cream and liquor to chocolate.  Not sure how to fix it.

Large batch amounts
Rosa Regale ganache
250 g dark chocolate
200 g milk chocolate
98.2 g heavy cream
65 g butter
95.8 g champagne
4t brandy
6.5 t invert sugar

Minty Meltaway
1040 g milk chocolate
310 g coconut fat, melted
10 drops mint essence ( or 324 g dry mint leaves)

Lychee ganache
140 g heavy cream
60 g corn syrup
90 g butter
940 g white chocolate
120 g lychee liquor

Swissbakers 5.24.14

Swissbakers Inc, 168 Western Ave, Boston, MA

Donuts and pretzels from Swiss bakers.  The pretzels were good, but not very chewy.  I prefer New York Style chewy pretzels. They also make a pretzel croissant.

Choco Wegglis and Berliner

The pretzel Croissant!

Lizzys Ice Cream 5.18.14

Lizzy's Ice Cream, 367 Moody St, Waltham, MA

This ice cream had unbalance flavours and a strange gummy texture.

Bagelville 5.15.14

Bagelville, 1398 Mass Ave, Arlington, MA

This bagel was okay, but felt expensive for just an egg on a bagel.

Pear Tarte for the mases 5.12.14

The masses don’t like nuts, but fortunately for me I made an extra tart to keep at home.

Cabot’s 5.10.14

Cabot’s Ice Cream and Restaurant, 743 Washington St, Newton, MA

Brownie sundae and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Lion Shortbread Cookie 5.5.14

It's a lion!