Miette

How cute is this video?!  Seriously a dream come true right here.  Just last week I purchased the Miette cookbook and have tried out a couple recipes so far.  I have come across some errors but Chronicle did publish list of errata on their website.  The cookbook is seriously cute, from the 6 inch cakes to floral endpapers and the whole book having scalloped edges!

Gary and I are finally taking a trip back up to San Francisco to visit some friends and have lots of eating excursions (and also celebrate my birthday, I guess).  The last time I went Miette was on my list we didn't have time to make it out to the Ferry Building.   This time both locations are on my to-do list! 

Have you gone to Miette? What are your favorite things to get?  I browsed their Yelp photos and love that you can order panna cotta in a little glass jar.

When it comes to baking, cakes are my weakness. And while I haven't made a complete mess of one in a while, they never come close to what I'd imagined in my head. This cake was just a hair too dense while the frosting/filling was too soft in comparison. I think a stabilizer would have been nice but I am very much a novice with cake baking.

And of course, leave it to me to take photos of the side with the chunk taken out by my finger! The camera and I have not been the best of friends lately, hence the lack of posting and photos. Hopefully this shall be rectified this weekend.

last dessert for a while

I made mille feuille with the puff pastry I made from scratch.  As much as I love sweets I need to take a break from all the butter!  Click here to see the rest of the post.

Valentine's Treat

This is the brown butter ice cream I made recently.  I love ice cream but can't eat more than one scoop of this.  There's a whopping two sticks of butter in here!  Honestly, it kind of leaves a film in your mouth like you just ate butter straight.  I attempted to make some turtles/pecan caramel clusters but they didn't come out exactly like I wanted. But I think they make a good match for valentines day!  Gary and I didn't exchange gifts this year, just little things for each other.  I made him this paper cut out and he got me some rescue remedy pastilles. 

Gratitude - Jan 17

Last week I…
+ baked a brioche pastry with mixed berries and custard
+ baked a brioche loaf
+ baked a boule
+ made this lasagna with pasta from scratch
+ made fresh fettucine with a tomato sauce from scratch as well
+ tried on various panama hats (without much success)
+ wore short sleeves due to the 80 degree weather
+ bought a pair of running shoes
+ ran half a mile (the most I've run since high school)
+ caved in and bought some eyeshadow primer (part of my "take better care of my appearance" resolution)
+ wore makeup over the weekend. All because I finally bought that eyeshadow primer! 

This week I will...
+ do a thorough cleaning and purging of things I don't need
+ bake more bread... so good for breakfast.
+ work on Valentine card designs
+ run a mile...!

Strawberry

homemade strawberry ice cream.

Chocolate Ice Cream

Last week the was a post on the Etsy blog about Van Leeuwen's Artisan Ice Cream.  Attatched to the article was a recipe for bittersweet chocolate ice cream.  Right then I knew I had to make it! I looked for a chocolate bar with the highest percentage of cocoa (the recipe asks for 99%), but only came up with something around 86%. Although my chocolate of choice wasn't according to the recipe, it still came out delicious.  It has just the right amount of sweet and bitter.  I'm not a fan of super sugary ice creams and noticed this one calls for less sugar than other recipes I've tried. It's rather flavorful so I only have to eat a couple small scoops rather than my usual uh... half a quart. (Did I really just admit that?) Anyway, if you are a lover of chocolate and ice cream, definitely try it out!

Lemon Bars

Yesterday I tried out a lemon bar recipe from a recent Donna Hay issue.  I had all the ingredients at home so I thought, why not?  It's my first time making lemon bars (excluding the boxed kind), and they taste great!  I also made batch of heart shaped one from a silicone mold, but this is the only one that came out looking good.  Now I'm wondering what recipe I should try out next.  Perhaps something savory, all these sweets have an awful lot of sugar...