Recipe Baking Desserts!

I dug through a few pages of Tilted Food, and didn't find any general dessert baking threads (Other than @genuinemommy's cookies thread, but I'm making more than cookies. So there).

I love baking when I have time. I have so much fun. Breads, cakes, cookies, cupcakes, whatever. It's all good. It's funny, because I don't have a huge sweet tooth, but I FUCKING LOVE BAKING. What do you like to bake? What are some of your favorite recipes?

I'm also starting this so I can show off what I'm baking today for St. Patrick's Day: Bailey's mini cheesecake cupcakes and Double Chocolate Guinness lava cookies.

Progress so far:


Ingredients.


Prized possession



This is what reducing Guinness with brown sugar looks like. It also smells amazing.

More updates will be coming.

Post things you like to bake for desserts!

 

I have to ask... just because. Are you taking requests?

 

Duh,

 

...from everyone?

 

Are previously baked desserts okay to post? Because I have some awesome ones.

 

Yes!

 

I just came across a recipe for coconut creme pie.
It said use a double boiler. I don't have a db, but have two pots that can sit in each other.

My question is, why use a db if you can just lower the temp and keep an eye on it?

 

My image quality leaves a bit to be desired... But, here are some of my favorites.



View attachment 4162

A few years ago, there was a request for key lime pie for a birthday. Emeril's recipe ROCKS it.



I made up a random recipe for my sister's birthday. She wanted chocolate and raspberry with a white cake.
So I made a gorgeous white cake and cooked down fresh raspberries to make a filling, and did whipped chocolate buttercream frosting. With extra filling to drizzle on top.


Ninja bread men. Naturally.


One of my masterpieces... The Boston Cream Pie he wanted for his next birthday.

 

I got the Boston Cream Pie recipe from Saveur Magazine's top 150 recipes: Boston Cream Pie | SAVEUR
The key lime pie was from Emeril's recipe here: Key Lime Pie Recipe : Emeril Lagasse : Food Network
I don't have my recipe book here for the rest of them

 

Reduced Guinness and brown sugar



Cookie dough


Chocolate crusts!


Mini Bailey's cheesecakes done and tested!



Cookies done!

 

I DO have a huge sweet tooth and I am local (unsubtle hint).

 

I can make that happen.

 

You know where I work!

 

My wife found a great recipe for Sour Cream Coffee Cake With Brown Sugar-Pecan Struesal in our recently re-discovered America's Test Kitchen cookbook. She was the main chef, but I played an important role.

Which mainly involved making sense of the directions. At first I couldn't understand why my wife kept reading, re-reading, & re-reading the recipe. Eventually she told me to read it to her while she mixed the ingredients. With all due respect to ATK, the recipe in the book is very poorly written.

It was worth the effort. The cake turned out great (we left out the pecans).

 

I made some hamentaschen for Purim this year. Turned out decently.

I did one batch of raspberry jam and sweetened farmer cheese filled ones; one batch of apricot jam, chocolate, and marzipan; and one batch of sour cherry, pistachio paste, and pomegranate molasses with cardamom. All three turned out well, I think, though the last batch were a smidge soggy. Might have to cook down the sour cherries and pomegranate molasses a little more next time.

I make nut macaroons for Passover, too. They're usually good. Just finely ground nuts, sugar, salt, egg, a little vanilla and nutmeg, and a pinch of matzo meal.

On rare occasions I make pie, and can usually do that decently, though nine times out of ten I purchase a ready-made crust from Whole Foods or something, because that's the part I'm worst at. I usually do fruit pies: my specialty is spiced apple and raisin, but I also produce pretty decent mixed berry-cherry pie, sweet potato and pumpkin pies, and mince pie. I did a Vienniese style tort a few times, with marzipan, brandied apricot, and a chocolate drizzle on top, came out decently. I once managed both coconut cream and banana cream pies, but I found them very difficult to get just right.

On even rarer occasions, I can make cakes. Mrs. Levite's favorite in the world is carrot cake, so I sometimes make that for her. I do a dense, moist, and spiced carrot cake, usually with a lemon cream cheese frosting. But I have also made Black Forest Cake, which didn't suck. I don't know if zucchini bread or banana bread count as cakes these days, since technically that's what they are; but I make them from time to time. And on rare and special occasions I make a Greek spice cake called kareidopita that's soaked in rum and a honey syrup. That's good stuff. I got the recipe from my mom, who makes it around once a decade.