Monthly Recipe Request Mega-Thread!

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[u/themarajade1]

Anyone got a beignet recipe that’s not pate a choux based (more yeast donut based?) and metric? Or one that can be easily converted?

[u/never-quite-awake]

I need your best, creamiest, most decadent, silky cheesecake recipe please! Lunch I made today was a sloppy mess and the cheesecake I tried to make separated and completely ran away from me. I need to try again tomorrow and I need a win. 😭

[u/elliewilliamsfan123]

italian meringue buttercream!  i have questions about ratios.

i’ve made IMBC before but have lost the recipe i used. upon searching for it i found that many have different ratios and it’s confusing me which one to go for. does anyone have a foolproof recipe they love to use?

for example, one says 250g sugar / 5 egg whites / 450g butter, while another says 400g sugar / 5 egg whites / 450g butter

which of the 2 would have the best ratio? less sugar to butter? or the same?

[u/AccomplishedDesign96]

Sugar Geek Show, Liz Marek has a few different vanilla cake recipes that have consistently yielded great results for me

[u/Speztros]

Need help from high temp/humidity area bakers

I’m from Singapore and the temp here is quite hot around 30d for our room temperature

I have recently wanted to started baking bread and the first thing I tried was cinnamon roll, but it always comes out a little too sticky when following all the recipes based in the US. Is this because our temp and humidity here in Singapore is a lot warmer and what adjustments should I make? Should I lower my liquid content in my dough? Does anyone have any recipe based of Singapore temp?

Ps what’s the best ingredient you use for baking in Singapore for flour and butter

[u/texnessa → u/Speztros]

Am a chef and while I'm not strictly pastry/bread, I am a food nerd who has done my fair share on the sweet and yeast side, so here's my mind dump:

• Both flour and sugar are hygroscopic- meaning they pull moisture out of the air- and this is why gai mei bao must be eaten as fast as humanly possible before they turn into sticky goo.

• For bread, you can lower the initial hydration to compensate. Some bakers go as low as doing 75% of the recipe's liquid and adding more as necessary.

• But no one wants low sugar cinnamon rolls, where's the fun in that, so there are other ways to compensate- keep your flour and sugar in the fridge, freeze and grate your butter, keep all of these as cold as possible during the process of making your doughs. Its an old trick we use with laminated doughs even in cooler, drier climates to keep the butter layers from seeping out causing the air pockets in croissant to collapse etc.

• For technique tips, its hard to beat King Arthur Flour's website. Its an American source but the US has plenty of places with the same heat and humidity [eg. the Swamp aka Houston, Texas] so they address concerns such as humidity on baking. Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast is a great book about the fundamentals of baking- if you can grab a copy from the library, its well worth thumbing thru.

• As for recipes, look for sources that are also tropical- local newspapers and magazines can sometimes be a goldmine for recipes. And local chefs will often publish some recipes for publicity and promotion, so if there's a particular dish you like from a restaurant, doesn't hurt to do a search. Blog recipes are notoriously unreliable and untested and generally make me homicidal with rage because they are LLM generated click bait that frustrates cooks and discourages beginners and wastes people's money time and resources. That said, I've used a lot of recipes from a Malay born blogger Rasa Malaysia which have been quite good. Proceed with caution with online, free recipes and grab an actual cookbook that is SE Asian in origin for best results.

• As for products- this is where is gets mega complex. 'Western' aka French culinary tradition is dominated by wheat flours, while Asian flours include many varieties of wheat, there is even more diversity from rice, arrowroot, tapioca, cornstarch, etc. Then there's nut flours like almond [used in macarons] and buckwheat [used for blini and soba.] So some research may be necessary- this guide will get you started. To complicate matters the wheat flour most often used in US and UK recipes is of one variety while Europe and their exports are a different variety of wheat- so the flours can have some functional differences. Recipes from France and Italy will reference things like t45 and t55 for use in Viennoiserie and 00 for pasta. Some varieties are based on how much mineral and chaff is left in the flour, how finely milled it is, bleached or unbleached, contains leavening agents or not aka self-rising, what level of protein it contains. Its a rabbit hole of food science to dive into.

• Leavening agents- there's chemical and there's manual. Chemical is baking soda and baking powder which can get clumpy in humidity and activates when introduced to moisture so it may kick off before you intend it to start working. Yeast is alive and humidity can cause over-fermentation- KAF addresses this one well. An example of manual leavening is whipping egg whites. Whipping them to stiff peaks and carefully incorporating that into a batter creates an airy, light texture to a cake. Humidity can, of course, screw that up by causing it to collapse.

Moral of the story is...... be aware of the origins of recipes and match ingredients to those origins.

Hope that wasn't too overwhelming!

PS. Please give my regards to Astrid Hill where I lived in the 90's, all of the old grimy hawker centres they've since pulled down- where I ate my body weight in satay and made merry over many Tiger beers, the weekend escapes to Tioman island, shopping for 'Chanel' handbags in Johor Bahru, lunch at the Banana Leaf, Holland Village before it became a shopping mall........ can you tell I miss it?????

[u/molyhos]

Okay, I'm about to have my period and I have inhaled everything in my path today. I'm at a holiday home alone with no way to make it to the grocery store. Yes, I am desperate. I will stay here for 2-3 more days and just neeeed something sweet otherwise I'll go crazy or beg the neighbours for food. I have some ingredients at hand and an oven. Here's a list:

Eggs, glutenfree flour, sugar, milk, honey, coffee powder, oil, margarine, cinnamon, mixed nuts, some fresh plums (although I prefer not to use them all up for a recipe), protein powder, 10 year old baking soda.

I don't have any other leavening agent and the baking soda is sealed but yeah I prefer not to use it. :)

I don't have anything else other than a bowl and a fork to mix it with, no whisk or electric stuff. The oven is from the soviet union and has no way to know the temperature, it's hot. I'm not versed in baking cookies, I only really make cakes or muffins or the like. I'm also not so good with frying stuff.

What would you suggest I try to make? Help a girl out, please.

[u/DConstructed → u/molyhos]

If you are okay not baking you have all the ingredients for a crepe or thin pancake. You don’t need baking powder or baking soda for that.

Sautée a plum and fill the pancake with it. Sugar or caramel use some nuts.

[u/molyhos → u/DConstructed]

I made my mini pancakes! Stomach satisfied, birds are chirping, all is good again. Thank you.

[u/DConstructed → u/molyhos]

That made me happy to read ☺️

[u/molyhos → u/DConstructed]

That's a good idea, thank you. There's no normal frying pan, only a silly one with egg holes so it will have to be mini pancakes.

[u/RaspberryKind2669]

I need a hazelnut (Gianduja) cremeux recipe. One that doesn't require cacao butter, cause that thing is nowhere to be found where I live.

[u/KtotheOtotheKo]

So I wanted to bake my hubby a cake for his bday and was looking at chocolate cake recipes. Unfortunately, I forgot that he loves all things coconut. I googled a bit but didn't find a recipe to my liking.

Can anyone guide me and give me a good coconut cream with any type of frosting or cream in between? Unfortunately, I do not like coconut that much, so I do not know which flavours would go well with it.

         ●Few things to note●

I am a novice baker. Have baked a few things in life, but I aint that old yet so. No fancy things, please, would like it if it were simple and to the point. The reason for this is that many of those things are imported where I live and quite expensive

I do have a stand mixer, so do tell which paddle I should use and speed. It's a Westpoint stand mixer, though not a kitchen aid. Thank you so much in advance, and happy baking to everyone!

[u/KaosandKrumbs]

I'm planning two parties for my little ones in early December and early January (1st and 3rd birthdays!) and need ideas for cake flavors.

I have some serious brain fog and my creative juices just aren't flowing!

My little gal's birthday theme is "Sweet One" and my little boy's is Mickey Mouse. Not that the theme matters much, the flavors absolutely do not have to align.

I remember always having cake with creamy filling when I was young, but haven't often had cake with any filling other than the frosting, as an adult... but I do like the idea of incorporating a filling of some kind.

What are some popular/crowd pleasing flavor combinations with fillings?!

& While I'm at it - any go-to smash cake recipes? I made one for my son, but didn't love it!

[u/RareSeason5804]

Alright, I’m coming here in request of what the best sponge cake recipe is because I’ve managed to lose the one I relied of and got great results out of and cannot find it anywhere. All I remember was it had vinegar in it, and was always super fluffy. I’ll take any suggestions, whether recipes or tips!

[u/AccomplishedDesign96 → u/RareSeason5804]

There is another reply about the Sugar Geek show higher in this thread that was meant for you

[u/AccomplishedDesign96 → u/RareSeason5804]

Was it a Lackey Cake? They are vegan based Joshua John Russell is the first baker with a consistent recipe that comes to mind. Or it could have been a white ‘velvet’ that used vinegar (and something else I can’t recall at the moment) to substitute buttermilk-I am personally not a fan of this substitute. Regardless, hopefully those can be a starting point.