glazed – Page 2 – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

17-23: Mocha Éclairs

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods June 2, 2017September 5, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, boiled, brunch, butter, chilled, chocolate, choux, coffee, cored, cornstarch, creamy, crispy, custard, dark chocolate, dessert, dough, éclairs, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, filling, folded, French, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, hard, icing, lactose-free, MD2017, melted, milk, mocha, Mother's Day, party food, pastry, pastry bag, pastry cream, piped, powdered sugar, profiteroles, salt, Silpat, sliced, slit, stiff peaks, temper, untested, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

As part of my Mother’s Day brunch this year (MD2017), I wanted to push my limits by attempting some of the hardest pastry recipes in the book. I tested my skills not only with 17-44: Homemade Danish Pastries, but with this recipe as well, 17-23: Mocha Éclairs. My mom always referred to éclairs as something that challenged her when she was learning to cook and bake, and that a well-executed one was something that really impressed her. With that in mind, I knew this recipe was a must-do.

I may have to make a few adjustments to Simply Delicious‘ version of the recipe–first of all, there’s no chocolate listed anywhere in this recipe, and it’s advertised as “mocha”, which is coffee AND chocolate. We may have to do something about this “slicing the tops off” idea as well.

17-44: Homemade Danish Pastries

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods May 29, 2017September 21, 2020all-purpose flour, applesauce, baked goods, breakfast, brunch, butter, cake yeast, chilled, chocolate, creamy, custard, Danish, dark chocolate, dollop, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flaky, folded, glazed, granulated sugar, layers, MD2017, melted, milk, Mother's Day, party food, pastry, powdered sugar, proofed, pudding, puff pastry, salt, sliced, untested, vegetarian, yeast

Strap in ladies and gents, this one’s a long one. As part of my Mother’s Day brunch this year (MD2017), I thought I’d raise the bar and attempt some of the harder ones in the book–nothing impresses your mother like showing her you can cook (and bake). My mom LOVES pastries, so I made her 17-44: Homemade Danish Pastries to nosh on while I worked on trying to serve up 5-4: Eggs Benedict. Luckily, these turned out better than my hollandaise sauce attempt did.

Obviously, mine look a bit different than what’s pictured on their card–we’ll get into all the decisions and pitfalls that led to that being the case after the jump.

1-1: Orange-Glazed Chicken Wings

Jamie Martin Group 01: Hot & Cold Appetizers, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters May 6, 2017February 19, 2024appetizers, blender, bone-in, broiled, canola oil, chicken, dairy-free, dinner, easy, egg-free, glazed, gluten-free, green onions, hors d'oeuvres, inexpensive, lemon juice, lunch, marmalade, oranges, party food, salt, snacks, Tabasco sauce, untested, wings

We’re over 3 years into this project, and I’m only now covering the very first recipe in the book, 1-1: Orange-Glazed Chicken Wings. I don’t think I’ve ever made these wings before, but the memory of coming up with this project and starting to put it into motion (by sitting down and actually scanning the cards) features this recipe very prominently. Since this was the very first one, that might explain why the edges of the card pictures are strangely cropped.

While this would probably make a decent appetizer, I feel like as a society we’ve come pretty far in wing technology and distribution methods in the last 30 years–these are a lot of work for something that are pretty easy and cheap to just buy in, especially in more interesting flavor/spice combinations. There’s entire restaurants dedicated to wings at this point (even ones that don’t feature an owl and scantily-clad women).

We did make wings in-house during my restaurant tenure, but people are awfully finicky about the preferred style (fried vs baked, breaded vs non-breaded, vinegar-based sauce or not, etc.) of their wings, especially when craft beer and other hipster-y stuff like chalkboards and cornhole are involved.

16-39: Apricot Tart

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 24, 2017November 5, 2020all-purpose flour, almond extract, almond meal, almonds, apricots, baked goods, baking powder, breakfast, butter, citrus, creamed, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, filling, fruit, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, half-and-half, jam/jelly/preserves, julienned, lemon juice, lemons, melted, milk, party food, pastry, peeled, pie crust, sifted, snacks, springform pan, tart, tart pan, toppings, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

I had mentioned in 16-24: French Chocolate Cake that it was one of two desserts that I made for a recent baby shower I attended: 16-39: Apricot Tart was the second dessert. I’ve been meaning to make this thing since near the start of this project, and it only took me a few years to finally get around to it. There’s something about this recipe and procrastination, though–this entry’s been sitting in my writing queue half-finished for over a month.

For the length of time that it took me to make it (and to write about it), I never even got to try it–I ended up leaving this and 16-24: French Chocolate Cake still wrapped up on the table at the party. We’ll just assume that both of them were delicious and everyone ate every last crumb of them.

16-24: French Chocolate Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 18, 2017November 5, 2020all-purpose flour, baked goods, baking powder, butter, cake pan, cakes, candied, chilled, chocolate, cocoa powder, cornstarch, creamed, creamy, decorative, double boiler, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, French, frosted, garnish, glazed, granulated sugar, grapes, icing, layers, marmalade, oranges, party food, powdered sugar, semisweet, sifted, springform pan, unsweetened, untested, vegetarian, wax paper

I recently attended a baby shower for a former co-worker and took it as an opportunity to knock out two more Simply Delicious desserts: 16-39: Apricot Tart and this one, 16-24: French Chocolate Cake. I wanted to bring something fruit/nut and something just plain chocolate, since some people there had nut allergies and others might just want something simple and chocolate.

This was a combination birthday party/baby shower (same person being honored for both), which will hopefully explain the odd decorations on my version of the cake. I’ve spared you pictures of the worst of my decoration choices, but let’s just say I made liberal use of all 4 colors of a grocery store icing kit. I kept meaning to hit a craft store for better cake decorations (or even Amazon), but time got away from me. ⏳

16-14: Orange-Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 14, 2017July 30, 2020all-purpose flour, almond paste, almonds, baked goods, bundt, butter, cake pan, cakes, chilled, chocolate, citrus, creamed, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, frozen, fruit, garnish, glazed, grated, individual, juiced, loaf pan, melted, nuts, orange juice, oranges, party food, sliced, snacks, toasted, vegetarian, whipping cream, zested

No, this isn’t a repeat of 16-47: Orange-Almond Pie–at least, not exactly. 16-14: Orange-Almond Cake uses almond paste while the pie version used almond meal (flour). This one also includes dark chocolate, which ALWAYS goes well with almond and orange flavors. 🍫

In the interest of not eating the whole cake at once (which is possible with something like this), I’m going to bake 12 individual cakes instead with a mini-Bundt pan that I have. That way, I can make them all, wrap and freeze them so that we can pull out a portioned piece for dessert without the temptation of eating the whole thing.

7-24: Cran-Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Adam Martin Group 07: Pork, Section 2: Main Courses December 28, 2016October 15, 2020autumn, black pepper, boneless, canola oil, Christmas, cranberries, cranberry sauce, dairy-free, dinner, dried spices, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fall, garlic, ginger, glazed, gluten-free, herbs and spices, lunch, minced, pork, pork tenderloin, red wine, salt, sautéed, sliced, Thanksgiving, untested, winter

Simply Delicious contains the best recipes for pork tenderloin. I particularly enjoy this preparation, 7-24: Cran-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, which uses cranberry sauce–my favorite part of the Thanksgiving (or Christmas) meal. 🍒

Pork and wine taste great when combined together. Instead of marinating the pork as in 7-18: Pork Tenderloin in Wine Sauce, the cranberry sauce and wine are put in the pan to create a sauce to coat the pork tenderloin in flavor. 🍷

6-9: Orange-Glazed Turkey Breast

Adam Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses December 22, 2016October 15, 2020Asian, autumn, boiled, boneless, breasts, butter, citrus, cornstarch, dinner, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, fall, glazed, leftovers, lunch, mandarin oranges, maple syrup, melted, orange juice, oranges, roasted, sliced, soy sauce, tamari, Thanksgiving, turkey, untested, winter

Sometimes a dish can remind you what you like about a particular ingredient. 6-9: Orange-Glazed Turkey Breast reminded me that I really enjoy turkey breast. Turkey breast is a low calorie protein that is delicious to eat any time of year, not just at Thanksgiving.

This dish would be really easy to make with Thanksgiving leftovers. We bought a turkey breast on manager’s special and froze it for storage until I was ready to make this recipe.

9-9: Pork Meat Loaf with Horseradish

Jamie Martin Group 09: Ground Meat & Sausage, Section 2: Main Courses December 19, 2016February 1, 2021all-purpose flour, allspice, Asian, Béchamel sauce, black pepper, broiled, brown sugar, butter, Chinese/dark soy sauce, cloves, cornstarch, creamy, dinner, dried spices, egg-free, fairly easy, five-spice powder, glazed, grated, ground meat, ground pork, half-and-half, herbs and spices, horseradish, inexpensive, loaf pan, lunch, meatloaf, nutmeg, parsley, pork, roux, salt, sliced, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, untested

I don’t often have ground pork on hand, but I happened to pick some up at a supermarket sale a few months ago and had been holding it in the freezer for a Simply Delicious recipe–I knew there were a few that called for it. 9-9: Pork Meat Loaf with Horseradish would have been a silly recipe to sub in ground beef for (my usual move), so this one will get the honor of being used with actual pork. 🐖

You guys, this picture does not look promising. Meatloaf is already difficult to get excited about, and I’m not sure if a creamy horseradish sauce is going to be enough to save it. Despite the copy reeking of desperation at the bottom of the recipe card (does this look “extravagant” to you?), I’m still willing to give it a shot. 🙈

17-4: Cinnamon Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods June 9, 2016August 23, 2020all-purpose flour, American, baked goods, breakfast, brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, dessert, dried spices, egg wash, eggs, filling, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, grated, kneaded, melted, milk, Mother's Day, parchment paper, party food, pastry, proofed, rolls, salt, Silpat, snacks, untested, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, yeast

I realize it’s now June, but here’s a recipe I made for Mother’s Day this year, at the request of my very own mother. What can I say…it takes a while to actually sit down and write these things sometimes. We were doing brunch at their house this year, and she wanted us to bring cinnamon rolls, so I solved two problems at once by making 17-4: Cinnamon Rolls.

This particular recipe doesn’t include an icing/glaze with it, but if you want one (as I knew my mom would), I used this recipe from food.com and it works just fine. Let’s be honest–the ones in their picture are probably NOT what you pictured when you thought of cinnamon rolls. Whether you’re thinking of their picture or mine, this recipe (with a few tweaks) will probably suit your needs.