So this one is a bit of a stretch, but Dutch babies are actually an American creation from Seattle based on an egg based polish pancake. I used the recipe from Savory Baking. It’s a great one!
Like a lot of the WFD bakes we’ve done? I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how easy it is. These were very simple and easy to come together, especially with the preserves in them. Next time I think I’d make them as strawberry or blackberry instead of rhubarb. The crumble was good and they disappeared quickly.
I normally would never do a mousse but have been doing the Claire Saffitz r/Dessertperson bake along and this was part of the challenge. My husband is a mint chocolate guy and this was for his birthday. Turned out AMAZING and would absolutely do again!
How is it August? Anyone else struggling with summer already coming to a close? It seems like yesterday that the days were just starting to get longer! For August we have a killer set of bakes. I think both the WFD and DP bakes are fairly involved so make sure you’re planning ahead. If you want a less involved version of the cake, you can always do cupcakes! I’ve been dying to make the French toast for ages so am glad to have an excuse to do so! I had planned on doing the peach cobbler with nectarines from our tree but squirrels won this year and I didn’t get nearly as many as I’d hoped. As always, please put any tips and tricks you have from these bakes below! Happy baking!
August
- Dessert Person: Carrot Cake
- What's for Dessert: Peach Drop Biscuit Cobbler
- YouTube: Caramelized French Toast
It was my aunt’s birthday and she requested carrot cake, so albeit a bit early, I did it for the bake along. I’ve done the recipe before and absolutely love it. It is such a classic and truly it’s so hard to mess up. I let the carrots marinate in the buttermilk for over three hours. And the cake was so tender. It actually took much longer to cook than the 30 minutes she outlines. I only got these shots, taken on my lap in the car on the way. First time piping too!
Another Claire Saffitz r/dessertperson July Bake Along crossover! I’ve been dying to making this one for a long time and it did not disappoint! I ended up doing a half recipe since it wasn’t for a large crowd but I was super happy with it! I used fresh blueberries from the farmers market! 10/10.
Can I start by saying how difficult it is to get a glamour shot of a rice crispy treat? I absolutely love rice crispy treats and was so excited to have these on the bake along. I was excited for a chocolate “bake” as well because I’m truly a chocolate girl at heart. When getting the ingredients I didn’t realize HOW expensive cocoa nibs were - my goodness it was like 1/5 of my entire grocery bill, but alas, now I guess I have enough for quite some time. These were super easy, came together quickly, and were SO delicious. It was a heatwave here so the chocolate pieces melted a bit and I had little pockets of melted chocolate. I ended up popping them in the fridge and that helped. I also feel like I should’ve pressed down a bit more in putting them into the pan because they fell apart a bit but they were still excellent. They’re incredibly rich - the idea that this is 9 servings is diabolical. Anyways, I’d make them again in a heartbeat and would leave out the cocoa nibs if I didn’t have them because they’re too damn expensive.
Claire Saffitz’s NYT recipe except it calls for 2 turns - I did 3. Used Isigny butter. I forgot that once I make croissants I become obsessed and want to bake them exclusively. Admittedly I just happened to bake these (World Cup not considered) and it aligned well that France was a semi-finalist.
Does anyone else bake a lot outside the challenge? I have for the past 2 years and I’ve found that’s what makes it easier to follow along.
I had been anxiously awaiting this one. I am admiringly not the biggest blueberry baked good girlie usually but we have excellent farmers market blueberries and I after reading someone’s comment that it’s a bit more jammy as a filling I got excited. I don’t have an occasion to bake this for…I missed the 4th so did it for a Sunday dinner as the half slab. It was SO delicious. I definitely understand the hype and think this one is worth it. I liked the half-slab size and see she did this in her madein baking dish which I’m almost at the point of being influenced to buy - but even if I were to do this one again for a large crowd, I might do 2 half slabs. I tho I everyone wants an edge piece anyways so want to maximize them.
Although a tad late, I felt compelled to do the NYT croissants. I’ve done them before but now with a lot more experience under my belt, I wanted to give them another go with isigny ste mere butter. They are always a labor of love but they turned out SO well I can’t help but be so proud of myself. Love a reason to do a challenging bake and reminded myself that I’m a big fan of laminated pastry. Maybe just not in summer.
I absolutely love lemon poppyseed and anything that is yummy, doughy, and I can take “just a little bite” of. Enter Sarah Kieffer’s lemon poppy pull apart bread. It’s soooo good and yummy and you can tear off piece by piece and convince yourself you’re just having one. I’m also working on taking more aesthetically pleasing pictures of my bakes. This one was a 10/10.
I’m not sure how it’s already July and month three of our bake-along. It’s been so fun seeing everyone’s post and comparing notes. We’ll have to collectively ask for Claire to clarify how the crystallization is supposed to happen as **checks notes** no one ever seems impossible to get.
For July, we’re continuing with more seasonal bakes and some fun ones that seem perfect for summer nights! I know I’m personally SO excited to try the blueberry slab pie and like any excuse to get rhubarb. I’m still a kid at heart and the rice crispy treats seem easy and on the less serious side of bakes.
Enjoy July, everyone!
July
- Dessert Person: Blueberry Slab Pie
- What's for Dessert: Rhubarb & Oat Crumb Cakes
- YouTube: Triple Chocolate Rice Crispy Treats
Has anyone done the silkiest buttercream and left out the chocolate? Does it still work? I absolutely love it but want a French vanilla buttercream…
We love pizza night in our house. I always do the KA Neapolitan pizza recipe and it has never strayed me wrong. Super forgiving and absolutely delicious.
Baked in a Gozney pizza oven the first is a pepperoni pizza with jalapeño jelly and the second is a pesto pizza with prosciutto, corn, and mushrooms.
Another Claire Saffitz 52weeks crossover. I had purchased a ton of rhubarb at the farmers market and was super excited to try this recipe, having never done it before. I absolutely loved the crumble on top and would definitely make it again with a different fruit as different ones come in season. I love when rhubarb is available at the Farmers Market because it means it’s officially summer!
Made this for my husband’s birthday because he’s a huge mint chocolate guy. Mousse is definitely out of my comfort zone - I was a bit put off at how different the texture was between the two and after chilling how the chocolate wasn’t as smooth as the mint. Anyways absolutely delicious. If you make this, I’d do cups that you fill all the way - it was a nightmare cleaning these wine glasses to make them look neat.
On a whim on Friday night I decided to give macarons a go for this week. How hard could they be, right? Without much prep or research, I went about it with Claire Saffitz’s NYT recipe. They weren’t awful - over baked and severely over mixed but I knew I could do better. I spent some time at r/macarons, got some guidance and went for it again on Saturday with a ratio based recipe. I could tell I over mixed slightly but results were 90% better than the first time. On Sunday I went for it wish pistachio and felt confident in my mixing, both from the meringue standpoint and macaronage. I also get it. I’m obsessed. They are so good. Attempts 1 & 2 in the last pictures.
Attempts 3, 2, and 1 in descending order. Shoutout to u/buffa-whoa-tasty who has been my macaron Jedi master over the last 72 hours. On a whim on Friday night I decided to give them a go - here we are with som absolutely delicious pistachio ones. Now, what do we do with all the egg yolks? I just made a batch of ice cream but need more recipes since I know this isn’t my last batch this week. The second two are a 1 to 1.2 ratio of egg whites / sugar to almond flour and powdered sugar. For the sub, I did 50g of pistachio flour on the pistachio ones, on the chocolate, I added 10g of cocoa powder. I whipped the egg whites to meringue and then did macaronage. Piped and then let rest for 40 mins - baked at 275 or 22 minutes. The first ones were Claire Saffitz’s NYT recipe.
I realized I had tried to do a scheduled post and it did not work. Anyways - welcome to June our second month of the bake along! Below is the baking calendar for June! I tried to stay seasonal with June with the strawberry cornmeal pie - our famers market has gorgeous strawberries and I can’t wait to make this one. I also did a non-bake dessert with the mousse so if folks don’t want to heat up their kitchen, it’s good for any heat wave. Lastly, we’re going technical with the NYT croissants - I just did a butter purchase to make these specially! Excited to see everyone’s bakes!
Dessert Person: Strawberry Cornmeal Cake
What's for Dessert: Marbled Mint Chocolate Mousse
YouTube: NYT Croissants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpwY3nmLLaA
Would love some further feedback. I feel like these were MUCH better but could still use some help diagnosing how to do better. This time I watched the meringue like a hawk, didn’t over macaronage and didn’t let them dry for too long. I do think the feet were slightly more out than up. Anyways, thank you to u/buffa-whoa-tasty for introducing me to Mac-math for this very acceptable second attempt. First attempt are the Claire Saffitz recipe and last 2 pics.