Something sweet from Something Sweet Inc.

Plump apples simmered in their natural juices topped with sugar and spice and golden brown crumbs!

Aka Apple Crisp!

Nice name for a bakery company - Something Sweet Inc.  Today we got to try one of their products purchase at the Whole Foods Market in Providence.  It was an Apple Crisp. This is something that was unfamiliar to some of our people.  When we explained what it was and how easy it was to make, there were some impressed people who indicated they might give it a try. We shall see.

As is supposed to be the case, this was a bunch of cinnamon apples covered with a streusel topping made of sugar, butter, flour, nuts and oatmeal.  All of those are sort of mixed together with a fork. The mix is then strewn across the top of the apples and the whole thing is baked for about 40 minutes - enough to soften the apples.  When finished - you have apple crisp. It is much easier than a pie or cake and usually pretty good especially if served with ice cream

Plump apples with crumbly stuff on top is Apple Crisp!

The "crisp" surface!

Lots of apples was a good thing!

This particular product was indeed good though we did not follow the instructions to warm it up and serve it with said ice cream.  If you come across this something sweet from Something Sweet Inc., we can recommend it. Alternatively you can buy your own apples and a mix for this usually found in the fruit section of a supermarket and put it together yourself - kind of from scratch!

Fruit and nuts from the holidays

Many times people get holiday gifts that they feel compelled to share. We could be cynical and conclude maybe they didn't like the gift but we won't go there.  Well just consider it a re-gift!

Fruit and nuts regifted from the holidays!

Today we had a nice big jar of Wellsley Farm cashews to start with.  Anyone with a BJs Wholesale Club membership knows that Wellsley Farms is their signature line so in truth we had big jar of cashews from BJs.....but that's okay.  They tasted pretty much as you would expect - typical salted cashews.

Good size jar of cashews!

Fancy cashews by Wellsley Farms...aka BJs Wholesale Club

In addition we had a chocolate covered fruit medley from "Dilettante Chocolates".  The definition of dilettante is a person who cultivates an area of interest, such as the arts, without real commitment or knowledge.  So are these chocolates from a company with an interest in chocolate but not real commitment to or knowledge thereof?  Who's to say?

Dilettante (?) chocolates!

The selection included dried Bing cherries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Royal cherries with acai, and apricots in premium chocolate.  The interesting thing is that you can tell pretty much what each is by the color which begs the questions what kind of chocolate is blue or orange?  

The white are the strawberries the rest you can probably figure out.

The strawberries were covered in white which may have been white chocolate but we are not sure.  For the most part everything tasted fine - though the strawberries may have been the best - but nobody seemed interested in having a real large amount.   It may take awhile for this to go away especially since we have other things lines up.

After two days there will still quite a bit was left.

Leftover brownies from New Year's

One of us had a New Year's dinner with brownies sundaes for dessert. It was supposed to be a Paris-Brest but since the skiing was good we opted to go skiing instead of stay home and prepare for the dinner.  Baker's Chocolate has a one bowl brownie recipe that is very easy and quick to make from scratch - not from a Brownie mix. After returning from aprés ski at about 6:30 time was of the essence to get the dinner going so we went for the brownies in lieu of the more complicated pastry.

Today's offerings

By the end of the meal everyone one was too full for a big dessert so they ate the ice cream without the brownies which then got brought today to cake hour!!

They were leftover but good

This is a very good and quick recipe and you can easily impress people by saying you made the brownies from scratch..which would be true.  They are quite chocolatey and very moist. They can be fudge-like or cake-like depending on your preference.

Slightly more cake than fudge like.

So go for it if you need to bake something quick.  The recipe does call for two cups of sugar, however.  We found you can do just as well with 1.5 cups or even a little less. 

We threw the nuts on top and it was deemed aesthetically good.

BTW- we forgot to add the nuts into the batter so just strewed them on the top.  People thought this was a nice touch despite it being a mistake. Oh, we also had a few remaining Lindt balls to finish off so chocolate ruled the day.

And we are working through the last of the Lindt balls.

She made a cake and is going back to France

Another of our research associated have finished the fellowship. So we celebrated the departure with a homemade cake and a few parting gifts.

She's leaving but she made the cake!

Bundt style and looking pretty good!

The cake was a circular bundt type cake.  It was a little experimental in that the cake dough was vanilla/white but our baker wanted to do something with cranberries so she added a cranberry jam type filling.  It was covered with a simple sugar syrup frosting and some decorative colored sprinkles. We thought it tasted good, that the cranberries work and did not even notice so much that the dough didn't really rise.  This was pointed out by the creator but we assured her that we hardly noticed.

Nice circular form!

A little sugar frosting with a dash of color!

The cranberries were good but the cake didn't rise - not that we cared!

Then we did our usual Brown clothing makeover.  We settled for a more feminine color and the duds were well received.  Brown now has a coffee cup with the name speed by elements of the periodic table.  We like this and so now feature it also as a parting gift to commemorate coffee hour and to keep them in the spirit when they return home!

Another successful makeover- we like the cup!

With the mentor!

And the colleagues say farewell!

Same group with one difference!

And the obligatory 10 second final shot!

Au revoir, notre amie!

A colleague says thanks with a treat from Pastiche

This is the final week for one of our research fellows from La France.  As we approach the end of her stay a colleague signed up for cake hour and brought a lovely fruit tart from Pastiche with a message of gratitude.

Cake Hour Gothic!

Another treat from Pastiche that is also a visual treat!

Always on a bed of great homemade crust.

If you have read any of this blog you know the deal with Pastiche - they do an incredible job.  This flan was not different. We have had a number of them but each one is different depending on the type of fruit they use or is available.  This one had a lot of the standards - berries and kiwi - but the added touch was the blood orange or red grapefruit used for the outermost and innermost circle.  Some thought it was red grapefruit but my tastes deemed it too sweet for grapefruit.

Special message on the top with a white chocolate slate!

The pastry cream is always just right!

Nonetheless it was the usual delicious tart with the great crust and the not too sweet pastry cream for the base.  Thanks to the colleague who wanted to thank his colleague for bringing in the much appreciated treat.

Nothing like a Boston Coffee Cake

We have seen these before..Boston Coffee Cakes...and today it was the classic cinnamon walnut! This is always great to have.  It is always moist, not full of sugar with a good amount of cinnamon. It is a particular favorite of our Japanese colleagues. As they would say...oishii!!

Always a good and popular choice.

This particular one is the all time classic.

Traditional shape!

View from above!

Cinnamon sugar and nuts top it off!

With a vein of cinnamon throughout.

GOOD STUFF!

Holiday cheesecake

We haven't had one of these for awhile - a good New York style cheesecake courtesy of the Vienna Bakery in Barrington, RI.  This was the good dense cheesecake that is legendary for the Big Apple. It was not one of those lighter mousse types that are also good.  Crushed graham cracker base, ample and thick cheesecake layer with some kind of fruit on top. This particular type is favored by some of our foreign colleagues.

We know it'll be good!

Not seen in a bit - a New York Cheesecake!

The classic construction - graham base, cake layer and then fruit.

Rather than have a single type of fruit on top the Vienna goes with a fruit design or crown made of slices of fresh fruit like you see in a fruit tart or flan.  This time they went with strawberries, pineapple, orange slices and blueberries. 

Crown of fresh fruit on top!

Nice colorful selection!

Just about everything from the Vienna is always good and fresh and this, of course, was no exception. The cake was good and dense and not too heavy nor not to sweet. 

Thick and dense cake layer.

The fresh fruit made for a nice complement to the dairy based cake. Once again the Vienna bakery comes through and our appreciation of a good cheesecake was renewed.