The Genius Dessert Challenge - Month #4 and #5 Cakes, Bars and Candies!
Cakes, Bars and Candies!
We are entering the fourth month of my Genius Desserts challenge!!! Welcome 2021!
Food52 and Kristen Miglore have a book out called Genius Desserts, and it has over 100 recipes inside (recipes are from many different chefs).
I am continuing to bake all of the recipes in this book and share them with you here. This is a year long adventure and I am up for the challenge! All of my experiences in baking these recipes are added each week, and I am eager for you to join me through my joy of cooking. This month is a bit out of order but we will be back on track soon.
WEEK 13
CHOCOLATE CLOUD CAKE from Richard Sax
The name of this cake is 100% on point. It is a fantasy of clouded chocolate. My husband couldn’t stop mentioning how light and fluffy it was. We both were amazed at how most flourless chocolate cakes/tortes are heavy and really rich, but this one was crazy light and not super-rich. It is a welcome change from what I have typically had in flourless chocolate cakes.
The hardest thing about making this cake was the delicate job of incorporating the beaten egg whites into the melted chocolate. I didn’t have a springform pan but found a way to line a round cake pan that worked really well (see photo below). I did not have any of the alcohol choices in the recipe, so I used a lovely Tawny Port from my bar.
Do not hesitate to try this recipe!!! It is amazing and a real treat.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
If you have any issues with dairy, you could replace the whipped cream on top with whipped coconut cream.
If you are looking to put this out for dessert, whipping your cream to stiff peaks will allow it to stay firm and retain its splendor.
Depending on if you use alcohol or not, espresso powder would be a great boost for this cake.
WEEK 14
THREE-INGREDIENT COCONUT FUDGE (TOPRA PAK) from Meera Sodha
Easy Peasy!! I love this variation on a recipe that my Nan used every Christmas. Except my Nan made them strawberry flavored and rolled them in red sugar…...maybe a bit more americanised than this recipe. LOL
When I choose to make these, I cut the recipe in half because it was only me and I had an epiphany recently regarding the amount of sweets I was making and how I could technically cut it in half. I also used sweetened condensed coconut milk to make it extra coconut-y.
This is a great sweet treat for any coconut lover. It is easy to make and would make a great gift. I have thought of many variations that could be done with this recipe (see below). If you’re a coconut lover, don’t neglect to give these a try.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
Make sure they come to room temperature before indulging
If these were dusted in Matcha, it would be heavenly. Or even cocoa powder.
EASY BAKLAVA from Einat Admony
I have made traditional Baklava before, and this is definitely easier. I love these little rolls of crispy sweetness. Its much easier than trying to cut a pan of baklava. If you are a honey and nut person, don’t fear trying this recipe. It is easier than you imagine.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
I bought a box of frozen phyllo and only used ¼ of it, so you can probably double this recipe and make a ton of these. Perfect for a party.
I mistakenly pulsed my nuts too much, so don’t go nuts with your processor.
I also rolled mine a bit tight and lost some flaky layers (see photos), so roll a bit loose to maintain the layered look and experience.
I have made a decision to create these posts as short as sweet as possible. Kristen Miglore, compiled a magical group of recipes for Genius Desserts and they are all great recipes. I am only passing along my experience in making them, the what went right or what went wrong. Or perhaps, how I felt about the flavor profiles. When I can, I always link to an online recipe if I can find it. Thank You for being here. - Stacy
Week 15
CROCCANTE from Marcella Hazan
I struggled with this recipe. On the first try, my caramel never came to the “rich tawny, gold color” that is referred to in the book. When I added the almonds, it just went into a stiff sugary mess, but I kept stirring and eventually it browned and become something. But it had chunks of sugar throughout it and was not pretty. The photos I am posting below will be from that batch.
I swore that I wasn’t going to make this again because it was so stressful, but I did try again. I thought maybe a larger pan would be a help, but alas it did not. Again, a hot mess….. I was right to not want to try again. Quite honestly I do not think I will ever try to make this recipe again.
It tasted good (what pieces of it, I could eat), but just not worth the stress and mess to make this recipe again.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
I simply have no tips
PEANUT MARZIPANS or MAZAPANES de CACAHUATE from Fany Gerson
When I saw this one, I messaged a friend with Hispanic roots and asked if she had ever heard of it and what her thoughts were. She said that she knew one thing and that was that she loved them.
Quite easy to make and a bit crumbly when shaping, these candies are very close to the center of a peanut butter cup except they lack the oil in peanut butter cups. They are sweet and tasty. Upon trying one my son said it needed chocolate but I suspect that is an American thing. We all associate chocolate and peanut butter.
My suggestion, make these when you are looking for something sweet but not too sweet. They are just right.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
Give these a firm press when shaping them and they will stay together
You can use any nut. I also made a batch with pistachios and walnuts.
I used a mold to make mine and they turned out divine.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL RASPBERRY COOKIE BARS from Karen Demasco
YES!!! You must make these, back to school or not. They are a perfect combination of oats and fruit and were exceptionally easy to make.
I honestly can’t believe they didn’t go faster in my house but I think my husband forgot they were there. I can’t wait to make these again. I used raspberry jelly but want to make some with my homemade lavender berry jelly. Yummy!
Make these today.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
Just make them as soon as possible and share them with all you love.
WEEK 16
FRAGILITÉ from Jhoannes Steen
True story, I have discovered through this challenge that I LOVE making meringues. I love their crispy outside and marshmallow insides or crisp insides (depending on what you’re making). This recipe has ground hazelnut mixed in with a mocha buttercream, so YUMMY!
I was a bit intimidated by the idea of a Fragilité, but it turned out to be quite easy. Well, easy if you have 4 hours to dedicate to it.
The buttercream recipe in the book was different from the one in the link. So, I am including the buttercream recipe I used here. It was a bit harder to make than I am used to but it has a much better taste to it.
I made mine small, about 3in diameter to allow for one per person, but they were still too big for one. This is a very sweet dessert and is a definite share. We sliced it into 4 pieces and each had one.
Completely and totally decadent and worth every moment!
These are my tips and observations for this one:
Start early in the day or make your meringues the day prior and the buttercream the next day. This will ease putting them together.
Pipe the discs without any peak in the center, I did this and regretted it. Keep them all one height.
Don’t substitute the corn syrup in the buttercream! I did because there was an option in the cookbook, and the mixture was tough to incorporate.
This buttercream does best used right away. If you refrigerate it to use later, it may separate on you.
It’s all about timing!
Neoclassic Buttercream
From The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum (William Morrow & Co., 1988)
Adapted by StarChefs.com
Yield: 4 cups
Ingredients:
6 large egg yolks
¾ cup sugar
½ cup corn syrup
2 cups unsalted butter, softened
2 to 4 Tablespoons liqueur or eau-de-vie of your choice
Method:
Have ready a greased 1 cup heatproof glass measure near the range. In a bowl beat the yolks with an electric mixer until light in color. Meanwhile, combine the sugar and corn syrup in a small saucepan (preferably with a nonstick lining) and heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a rolling boil. (The entire surface will be covered with large bubbles.) Immediately transfer the syrup to the glass measure to stop the cooking. If using an electric hand-held mixer, beat the syrup into the yolks in a steady stream. Don’t allow syrup to fall on the beaters or they will spin it onto the sides of a bowl. If using a stand mixer, pour a small amount of syrup over the yolks with the mixer turned off. Immediately beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Stop the mixer and add a larger amount of syrup. Beat at high speed for 5 seconds. Continue with the remaining syrup. For the last addition, use a rubber scraper to remove the syrup clinging to the glass measure. Continue beating until completely cool. Gradually beat in the butter and, if desired, any optional flavoring. Place in an airtight bowl. Bring to room temperature before using. Rebeat to restore texture.
ETON MESS
After shaping your fragilité, you may have leftover meringue batter. With this, you can make some smaller meringues. You can just straight up eat them or you can make Eton Mess.
Eton Mess is your leftover meringues, crushed up and mixed with whipped cream and eaten with berries or any sweet addition you choose to add.
We had this for dessert and it was light fluffy and just right. I can’t wait to have it again and may just make one tonight.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
Don’t shy away from fun flavor combinations. No limitations here.
WEEK 17
BRAZILIAN CARROT CAKE (BOLO de CENOURA) from Danielle Noce
This is definitely no American carrot cake! Of course, the title says it but sometimes you can just assume it is a minor difference. This cake is most assuredly not average and a fantastic way to slip those carrots past unassuming diners. It took hardly any time to put this cake together and bake it and could be easily done if you were in need of a last-minute dessert.
Instead of shredding carrots for it, you blend the carrots with your eggs and oils. This produces a moist cake with just a hint of sweetness from the carrots. Part of the directions is to not peel the carrots, and I did this but it did cause me to have a minor allergy to the cake. I am a tad sensitive when it comes to unpeeled fruits and vegetables. You are unstructured to line the pan with “bread crumbs” (i used almond meal because I didn’t have any) it was a nice change to see no flour spots on a bundt cake, and it was easy to brush the crumbs away and have a clean cake.
The chocolate ganache on this cake is unbelievable! It’s thick and not too sweet. Never would I dare to combine carrot and chocolate but it works perfectly here. Plus (as you can see in the photos), it is a thick layer of chocolate and it definitely is pleasing.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
My bundt pan is a 10 cup pan and this would be awesome in a smaller pan. It would create more space for the ganache to cover.
If you don’t have bread crumbs you can easily toast a slice of bread in your oven, at a low temperature and create your own.
I would totally peel those carrots…..just sayin’.
EAST 62nd STREET LEMON CAKE from Maida Heatter and Toni Evins
Again this week hands me a cake that is like a pound cake. This one is heavy-duty but subtle in flavor. Most of the lemon is coming from your syrup-like glaze. Which, speaking of glaze, this one gives you a crispy top, I absolutely loved the crunch experience when running my fork through this cake and combined with the moist cake, it was a delight.
I would have loved for this cake to have more of the syrup inside the cake. The top ½ inch is just about all that has the syrup flavor in it, even though you soak it while it is still warm. Because you don’t heat the syrup up before soaking it you create a crystalline layer on top.
Again this cake, like the carrot cake is subtle on the flavor side of things. I would love to have had a stronger lemon flavor in a “lemon cake”. So I would definitely change a few things (see below). But if you are a fan of subtle lemon cakes that are a bit on the heavy side, this is your cake.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
In the future, I would split the syrup and heat half of it up to soak the cake. And then top it off with the unheated lemon and sugar syrup.
Maybe, I might add some lemon extract to boost it? I don’t know but it’s worth a try.
WEEK 18
OLIVE OIL CAKE from Maialino & Rachel Binder
Olive Oil Cake…..I had my reservations about this one going into it. My intuition was correct. For me, I do not enjoy olive oil enough to sit down and eat an olive oil “heavy” cake.
You can definitely taste the olive oil in this case, but there is one thing I can say and that is that it is in no way dry. This cake was really moist, but so much so that I actually had residual oil on my fingers after eating it. I decided to make this recipe into muffins and then used my leftover batter to make a 6-inch cake. This cake had a great crisp to the top and as I said was not dry.
I feel like this cake needs some fruit on it, whipped cream, or icing. I did find a recipe for a ricotta cheese buttercream and that seems intriguing as a combination with this cake.
Would I seek this recipe out on a regular basis? Nope. For a special occasion...maybe.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
Be choosy about what olive oil you use, because you will taste it.
The muffins were quite a nice option.
Add some complimentary flavor to this cake. Fruit, cream, or whatever you like.
PIEKIES from Jeni Britton Bauer
I had no idea how much I needed Piekies in my life! They are forever going to be on my rotation.
I love pie, so an opportunity to have pie in a bite-size manor was a for sure yes for me. Not to mention that I can have many different flavors in one batch.
The cream cheese added to this dough is what I think makes the flavor really special. Don’t skimp on the refrigeration with a dough like this, because it’s integral to keeping it flaky and moist. I choose to use apples, nectarines, apricots, and raspberries for mine and I added a passionfruit puree to the apricot.
I cannot wait to make these Piekies again. I am so excited to share them with my loved ones.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
Chill the dough….Chill the dough!
It’s okay if your fruit loses some juice in the oven, it makes it just as good.
I would like to try this dough in an actual 2 crust pie.
WEEK 19
ALMOND CAKE from Amanda Hesser
If you are looking for a great cake that isn't big, but each small slice serves a punch this is the cake for you. This cake is dense and it's full of almond. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to make this cake, as I have been with several of the recipes I have tried here.
All in all, this is a quick bake and could be whipped up easily for any kind of function or if you are just looking for a substantial snack cake around the house. The texture is perfect and the addition of almond paste gives it what I want to call gooeyness, but it retains its moisture well yet isn't fall apart soft.
As mentioned in the cook it freezes well and also travels well. I would definitely make this almond cake again and I don't think that I have any changes for it. I love it just the way it is. Maybe adding some fruit to the top of it, such as balsamic strawberries or sliced fruit would be really great.
If you are a fan of almond and you love cake this is the recipe for you.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
This one has a long shelf life and gets better as it ages. It would be perfect to ship to a friend or make for an event.
Butter your pan thoroughly! You don’t want it to stick.
You will need a Springform pan and this will make your life so much easier.
TEN-MINUTE LIME CRACKER PIE from J.Kenji López-Alt
I wanted to really love this recipe, not to say that I didn't. But, it was a little bit of a disappointment. I feel that it lacked flavor somewhere and compared to the icebox cakes I have had over my lifetime, it isn’t in the top 5. Because that's what this is, basically an icebox cake.
I was hopeful that the Ritz crackers would come through with some kind of flavor, but they didn't. They were just a cracker layer and the flavor was lost. I would consider using this recipe as a base for some other flavor combinations. Such as strawberries and lemon or peaches and cardamom. As well, I would shift out to a different kind of cracker or maybe add more, I'm not really sure. Many of us have had banana pudding which is very similar to this and uses vanilla wafers as the cookie base and that would be nice but it does add sweetness and not saltiness. I also have another recipe where they use ginger snaps in an icebox cake. I think that you could use any crunchy cookie cracker that you like and that compliments whatever flavors you have inside your cream mixture.
I don't know that I would make this exact recipe again, but all in all this recipe is super quick and the lime kick is great for the summer.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
This recipe makes a lot, and I cut it in half. It was totally enough for 4 people.
A great base recipe for quick icebox cakes.
WEEK 20
DOUBLE BLUEBERRY TART from Mindy Fox
Blueberries, blueberries, blueberries! This week was all about blueberries. I couldn't have been happier, I love blueberries. We began with a blueberry tart and not just any blueberry tart, a double blueberry tart. It was incredibly yummy.
I enjoyed the tart shell in this recipe, it isn’t overpowering but also isn’t subtle. This shell is stiff enough to hold up to what you are putting in it, and not get soggy hours after it’s done. The cinnamon and nutmeg in the tart shell really come through and I was pleasantly surprised at how they complemented the blueberry flavorings. As you bake this tart, you place your blueberry mixture in the shell to bake it, and then after it's done you add some raw blueberries on top (which is what makes it double blueberry).
One thing I would have enjoyed was taking all of the extra blueberries I put on top and putting them in whenever it baked it. I understand that this makes it no longer double blueberry, but I really enjoyed the cooked blueberry filling, and having a bit more is a “yes” for me.
This is a must-have in your recipe collection, especially when we come into blueberry season.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
I do not have the proper type of tart pan, so I had to use my springform pan. It was a little big but I made it work. Make sure that you do prepare your pan really well so that your tart comes out cleanly.
Wash your blueberries early and set them in a colander so that they can drain and dry. This will keep any extra moisture from getting into your tart shell.
As of right now, I cannot seem to find a recipe for this online, but if you are so inclined you could buy the book Genius Desserts and you will find it, and all of the desserts I have made in this blog, in there. (This blog is not sponsored by Food52 or Genius Desserts)
BLUEBERRY SNACK CAKE WITH TOASTED PECANS from Brooke Dojny
Hello, new breakfast cake!
This blueberry snack cake was so good that I actually had to kind of hide it from myself so I didn't keep eating it. This blueberry snack cake was easy to make and the pecans on top are just amazing, they give it a great crunch and are aided with the sprinkling of sugar that finishes the treat magnificently.
I will agree with the author of the book, that whenever we use store-bought blueberries they're bigger and they have a tendency to sink to the bottom. Local blueberries are a little smaller and have a tendency to stay higher. So smaller blueberries do work a little better.
I would definitely make this snack cake to serve in the morning warm for guests. There's something here for everyone to love. You can't go wrong with this blueberry snack cake.
These are my tips and observations for this one:
As usual, preparation of pan is super important, so grease the pan, line it with parchment paper and it will make it easier to remove and to cut.
I was concerned about my blueberries sinking, so I tossed them with a little bit of flour in hopes that they might not, but they did anyway. I had big fat blueberries.
When I sprinkled my sugar on top some of it didn't melt away, you could still see it. On a second bake, I will use a turbinado or demerara sugar on the top and think that will yield a better result.
She has a little bit of cornmeal in her, don't let that turn you off, it adds an element of structure and color to the cake. Don't skip the cornmeal.
