What Did You Bake the Week of September 4, 2016?

[BakerAunt]

On Labor Day, I baked two loaves of Grape Nuts bread--my husband's favorite for sandwiches. On Wednesday, I baked Hazelnut Heart Cakelets (the recipe came with a Nordic Ware pan, 5 cups) that has six hearts. I really like the flavor, especially when served with fresh strawberries. Saturday evening, I tried a new recipe, Norwegian Coffee Buns (Hveteboller), from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, by Beatrice Ojakangas (p. 95). I had some difficulties with the recipe, so I will post about it in a separate thread.

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• This topic was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by BakerAunt.

[cwcdesign]

On Sunday, I baked my Irish Chocolate Cake to take to an outdoor concert - a Motown tribute band who is always great. I gave half to my friends and left half at home - it didn't last long at either house. If anyone is wondering, my friend doesn't drink alcohol and we were a little worried if she'd like it - she loved it and couldn't taste the alcohol.

The changes I made with all your input definitely put it back in the category I always remembered, so thank you all for that. Now, if we can do the same thing with the Honey Vanilla Pound Cake, that would be wonderful. I added more information to that thread yesterday.

[Mike Nolan]

I made my birthday cake (buttermilk yellow cake with Lyle's Golden Syrup added to give it a 'burnt sugar' color and taste.)

[luvpyrpom]

Besides cooking a storm (see other thread), on Tuesday, I baked crack pie bars for work. That recipe always leaves me with a lot of egg whites left over so this time I tried making KAF macarons. I think I overbeat the whites this first time and a friend who makes them all the time, she tasted some and said that I needed to bake them 1-2 min longer as they were a little bit hollow. And then on Friday, I made Barefeet in the Kitchen's pineapple cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting, and her sugared shortbread cookies. Definitely need to remind self not to make these cookies when it's super warm - I kept having to chill the dough in between rolling them out.

[BakerAunt]

Luvpyrpom--I just saw these tips on macaroons. Maybe they will help you.

http://www.tastingtable.com/cook/national/how-to-make-macarons-french-cookie?utm_medium=email&utm_source=TT&utm_campaign=Daily&utm_content=Editorial

[Mike Nolan]

When I see the word 'macaroons' (rhymes with 'tunes'), I always think of the coconut goodies that show up mostly around Passover. (And I love coconut cookies.)

I prefer the French word 'macarons' (falls in between rhyming with 'johns' and 'lawns', there's no real equivalent in English, you have to sort of swallow the vowel) for the meringue-like cookies made with almond flour. When you get them just right, the inside is deliciously creamy.

What spelling and pronunciation do folks prefer?

[cwcdesign]

I agree with you Mike. They are 2 different cookies with different spelling and pronunciation. But they're both delicious ?

[luvpyrpom]

I love both cookies. I like the French macarons as it's dairy free with the Swiss method of adding cooked syrup to the meringue. I haven't found a dairy free version for the coconut macaroons except for the KAF mix version.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't tried making any of them, but if you google 'dairy free coconut macaroons' you'll get several recipes. (I always thought they were gluten-free, kosher for Passover and dairy-free.)

Another homemade coconut candy I like but don't get often is chocolate haystacks. I've never made them but several people in my home town used to bring them to bake sales. (I haven't been to a good bake sale in years, they're kind of falling out of fashion in the schools due to issues with food allergies and a few unfortunate food poisoning incidents.)

Since my wife won't eat coconut, I seldom have it in the house. I always get all the coconut candies in a box of chocolates, though these days candies are not on my wife's diet.

[BakerAunt]

Oops! I goofed. But at least it got people talking!

[Mike Nolan]

Not really a goof, some very experienced chefs (but not pastry chefs, I think) refer to the French meringue ones as 'macaroons'.

But anything that gets us talking is good. 🙂

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