The Sweet Life

I just got back from Ace Hardware with a dozen 4 oz jars with lids! Exciting, I know. It's cherry season again! And seeing that I still have brandied cherries in my fridge (apparently I don't drink enough cocktails!), I decided to make pickled cherries this year. I made some at work for our cherry inspired dessert on the McKinlock Court menu, so I figured why not make some at home and . . . try canning them! And of course, give them away as gifts. The following recipe is sort of a template in that you can substitute as needed. For instance, I didn't have any cider vinegar, so I used champagne vinegar instead. I also didn't have any cloves, but I had some wine muddling spices left over from winter and since it's mostly cloves, I used that instead. Feel free to substitute whatever you want that complements your fruit. I made a little over twice this recipe (2.31 times to be exact) and had enough to fill twelve 4 oz jars and one. Pickling Syrup 116 grams ...

Seems cream puffs are all the rage these days. At least among the chefs I admire. I remembered something from my days back at Trump when my pastry chef Hichem was working on  pate a choux with a "streusel" top. He had conversations with a French chef, and experimented at work. I'm not sure if he was testing the other chef's recipes, or if they were sharing ideas and working on a technique. But in any event, I used this technique for my Raspberry Cream Puff, one of the new desserts at AIC. I got the recipe, which I call cassonade dough, from a French recipe. I rather like these, though they're becoming more commonplace at many bakeries and restaurants across the US. But at least I can say that I was a witness during the development stage! Raspberry Cream Puff Raspberry Cream, Lemon Curd, St Germain Chia Seeds,  Micro Lemon Balm, Freeze-Dried Raspberries

Baking cookies for a bake sale. Instead of baking something new, I'm going back to cookies I baked last Christmas for friends. I can't recall where exactly I got this recipe, but I'm sure if I wasn't lazy, I could do a "Google" and find the original and tell you where I got it. But, seeing that it is 12:22 and I've only my second dozen cookies in the oven and that I haven't been feeling too well lately, I'm hoping that you'll let me off the hook. In any event, the recipe isn't mine, and the idea isn't original, but I'm filling the "thumbprints" with ganache, and a brandied cherry half-the cherries I brandied myself a couple of years ago. 226  grams butter 272 grams sugar 1 tsp vanilla paste 40  grams yolks 115 grams Dutch cocoa 2 tsp salt 272 grams flour 30  grams cream Cream together room temperature butter and sugar, with vanilla paste. Add yolks, scraping after adding and mix until incorpo...

Milk Tea Mousse, milk chocolate almond biscuit, sesame streusel, blackberries, micro lemon basil, bubble sugar I made this for the Woman's Board lunch on Tuesday. I will be serving it this Thursday as a dessert option in the Member's Lounge. I'll be adding a sauce, either blackberry, or a tea caramel (or blackberry tea caramel?). This dessert replaced another one they originally wanted; they grew tired of creme brulees. I used to drink milk tea when I visited Chinatown with my friend, and so, it evolved into a dessert. I tried to think of many ways to keep a pure tea taste and ended up using one of my white chocolate mousse recipes. Worked out very well. Once I get the sauce down, I'll repost another photo.

Working on items for our Small Plates restaurant this season and piped these guys. They were supposed to be eclairs, but they shrank into little peanut shapes (they were supposed to be minis for this platter on Wednesday . . . but, whatever, these are much better!). So, instead of getting discouraged, I got excited, made some peanut butter cream, filled them, put them in a bowl and shared them with coworkers. The best bowl of peanuts, hands down! Best of all, no messy shells to sweep up and toss.

Can you believe that Christmas is this Sunday? Neither can I! I've been a busy little elf, and after the Cookie Swap, I've been inspired to carry on with the cookie and candy making. For my pastry team, I bought oven mitts and stuffed them with little treasures: And for friends and "chosen family" I made coffee caramels, nougat, more Spiced Cookies with Cranberry Jam and Jivara , and Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies with ganache and brandied cherries! Chocolate thumbprints filled with ganache and brandied cherries!  Filling the spiced cookies. Cookie and candy tins! Cookie Bags! I hope everyone has a happy holiday! Merry Christmas and I'll see you in the new year!

Let me preface this post by stating that I woke up at 2 am and realized that I didn't post this, nor did I send my link in to be added to the round up. But that's not why I woke up that early. Lately I sleep about 4 hours a night, and wake up at 2-ish and am up the rest of the night. One day I was up for 25 hours straight, but that's another story. On to the cookies! I did something I normally don't do. I participated in something. I joined a cookie swap and baked three dozen cookies, mailed them, and waited for cookies to arrive. Three dozen. I wanted to do something a little different than what I've baked in the previous years.  I also wanted to send something a little special; something festive and fancy for the occasion.  I made Spiced Cookies with Cranberry Jam drizzled with Jivara Milk Chocolate, an adapted a recipe, from Epicurious. You can get the original recipe here .  Instead of sandwiching the cookies with Jivara ganache as usual, I decided that ...