Baked anything tasty lately?

Dial Hard

Yep, fat content is the issue. Irish butter is "only" around 80% fat.

She didn't specify region and AFAIK, French butter is more usually unsalted.

New Home

This is probably a stupid idea, but you could try making your own butter, if you were stuck - a blender or a mixer would be all you need, as well as some good quality cream.

Dial Hard

New Home wrote: »

This is probably a stupid idea, but you could try making your own butter, if you were stuck - a blender or a mixer would be all you need, as well as some good quality cream.

It's not me, it's a friend, but I suspect she'd be of the (correct!) opinion that making croissants from scratch is involved enough without making your own butter too!

New Home

Can you even be called a proper baker if you don't prepare the ingredients, too? :pac,:

rubadub

Dial Hard wrote: »

It's not me, it's a friend, but I suspect she'd be of the (correct!) opinion that making croissants from scratch is involved enough without making your own butter too!

I could take less time than travelling somewhere special. I had cream that was out of date that I was going do dump so just made it to see. I was surprised it was so easy, and it was grand. This site talks of french butter being soured/cultured (though I guess not all would be).

https://www.davidlebovitz.com/butter/

Part of it is the quality of the cream, and what the cows eat. It’s also due to the fact that the butter is made from slightly-soured or cultured cream, which gives it a nutty, mellow tang and reacts differently when baked.

https://www.abeautifulplate.com/how-to-make-cultured-butter/

Dizzyblonde

I made a marble cake this morning. Drizzling the white chocolate on top didn't go well so I went with blobs and squiggles

Tree

You can hide the shameful squiggles by sending it to me and i'll dispose of the evidence, so you can start with a clean slate...

Cork Lass

Red velvet cake and cupcakes. First time using my new Russian tips and I’m very happy with them.

Caranica

I made these cranberry, oatmeal and coconut cookies. Absolutely delicious. On the biscuit side of cookies so crisp but chewy too. Will definitely make them again. They're not very sweet so perfect for me.

https://family-friends-food.com/coconut-cranberry-oatmeal-cookies/

Cork Lass

Caranica wrote: »

I made these cranberry, oatmeal and coconut cookies. Absolutely delicious. On the biscuit side of cookies so crisp but chewy too. Will definitely make them again. They're not very sweet so perfect for me.

https://family-friends-food.com/coconut-cranberry-oatmeal-cookies/

They look really good. I must get dried cranberries the next time I’m shopping so I can make them.

sdp

Apple sponge slices, not made them for years, we all forgot how nice they are :rolleyes
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Caranica

Cork Lass wrote: »

They look really good. I must get dried cranberries the next time I’m shopping so I can make them.

I had some from previous (sickly sweet) cookies so wanted to use them up. Googled recipes and found that one, had coconut and porridge oats too so was sorted.

Am intrigued by the Nutella shortbread on that site too so will give it a go at some stage.

Space Dog

Made a Basque burnt cheesecake yesterday. It's not very photogenic, so no pictures, but it's really good, rich and velvety. And so easy to make.

Conor Bourke

Space Dog wrote: »

Made a Basque burnt cheesecake yesterday. It's not very photogenic, so no pictures, but it's really good, rich and velvety. And so easy to make.

Recipe plz! Been dreaming of them for the last 18 months since I was in San Sebastian

badbeatcentral

Two seeded white sourdough boules and some mini sourdough baguettes, first time trying the baguettes, they probably needed deeper scoring, tasty tho!

RentDayBlues

Lemon and caramel cupcakes, one of each not at together, for a very excited little girls birthday tomorrow

Cork Lass

RentDayBlues wrote: »

Lemon and caramel cupcakes, one of each not at together, for a very excited little girls birthday tomorrow

They’re really cute

Cork Lass

Space Dog wrote: »

Made a Basque burnt cheesecake yesterday. It's not very photogenic, so no pictures, but it's really good, rich and velvety. And so easy to make.

Never heard of this - could you post the recipe please?

Michellenman

After 2 weeks of cultivating a starter from scratch I’ve managed to finally bake with it.

I don’t really bake bread normally so there’s definitely room for improvement in texture and rise etc but it’s been really satisfying to do it all from just flour and water.

This is my second loaf. The first had a bit of a soft crust, some steam this time around seems to have really helped!

Space Dog

Cork Lass wrote: »

Never heard of this - could you post the recipe please?

Conor Bourke wrote: »

Recipe plz! Been dreaming of them for the last 18 months since I was in San Sebastian

I used this one as it's a recipe for a small cheesecake:

https://norecipes.com/burnt-basque-cheesecake/

The only tricky bit is deciding when to take it out of the oven - the video on that page explains it very well.
I think I left mine in about 2 minutes too long and it didn't brown evenly at the top, but it's still very lovely.

I saw it in Nigella's recent series, she has this recipe, but it's a big cake, too big for the two of us:

https://www.nigella.com/recipes/basque-burnt-cheesecake

Dizzyblonde

sdp wrote: »

Apple sponge slices, not made them for years, we all forgot how nice they are :rolleyes

I used to make them almost once a week and haven't even thought about them in yonks! I'll be making them this week now I've seen yours

leahyl

Made a key lime pie last week (well, just a lime pie really!). Very simple and fast to make!

ellejay

I forgot about Pancake Tuesday so rustled up Cream Puffs as a treat.
cream puffs.jpg
Strictly speaking not baking, more assembly but the jam is home made

Shenshen

Linzer Torte, using up some of the homemade seedless raspberry jam. We've still so much of it left, and it's only a few month until the next crop of them!

Space Dog

I love Linzer Torte Shenshen! Growing up I only knew the variant with plum jam and cocoa powder in the dough, we don't really do the one with raspberry jam where I'm from.

Cheshire Cat

Space Dog wrote: »

I love Linzer Torte Shenshen! Growing up I only knew the variant with plum jam and cocoa powder in the dough, we don't really do the one with raspberry jam where I'm from.

Never heard of that variant! Interesting as I love plum jam. My mother used to make Linzer Torte with red currant jam and I am following this tradition.

@Shenshen: how do you get the seeds out of the jam? I have a mouli, but never have the patience to stand for hours. My husband hates seeds in his jam. I'm hoping there is an easier way!

Shenshen

Space Dog wrote: »

I love Linzer Torte Shenshen! Growing up I only knew the variant with plum jam and cocoa powder in the dough, we don't really do the one with raspberry jam where I'm from.

Plum jam sounds very authentically Austrian!

My Austrian gran used to use redcurrant - because we had redcurrant bushes, and therefore more of the bloody beggars than you could shake a stick at! They went into jams, syrup, cakes... it's quite the childhood trauma for me.
So now I'm using a red jam I like, because I can!

There are spices in the dough (cinnamon and cloves), but I've never heard of one made with cocoa powder.

Shenshen

Cheshire Cat wrote: »

Never heard of that variant! Interesting as I love plum jam. My mother used to make Linzer Torte with red currant jam and I am following this tradition.

@Shenshen: how do you get the seeds out of the jam? I have a mouli, but never have the patience to stand for hours. My husband hates seeds in his jam. I'm hoping there is an easier way!

A sieve, a ladle, and lots of patience and elbow grease. I don't have a secret shortcut, sorry.

New Home

I'd say it might be easier if you do it while the fruit is just cooked but the jam isn't set, yet. Plus this would help. EBay is showing them at anything from $30 up (I've seen one at $96!!), but if you look around you can find one for €10-€15. They're great for baby food, too, if you want to remove all the "skins" from pulses, etc, which blending alone wouldn't do.



https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/p5kAAOSw8-hfpcdv/s-l400.jpg

Lady Haywire

I make seedless blackberry jam every year & that's exactly what I do ^
Cook the fruit but don't cook it for jam setting, remove seeds, then bring to simmer for the jam consistency.
Currently weighing out ingredients for an apple traybake, still using the apples I stored over winter