Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

17-7: Brioches

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 24, 2025April 24, 2025all-purpose flour, baked goods, breakfast, brushed, buns, butter, cut in, dough, egg wash, eggs, fairly easy, French, granulated sugar, inexpensive, kneaded, new book, pastry cutter, proofed, rolls, salt, snacks, untested, vegetarian, yeast

I’ve fallen behind a little on posting once a week, but I haven’t (yet) fallen behind on making one of these recipes once a week. One step at a time. Next up, I offer you 17-7: Brioches, which is a NEW BOOK recipe.

Simply Delicious claims that the ball on top is common–I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen that. I feel like usually you see brioche buns in more of a standard hamburger bun style, maybe with a slice or two on top. I should have gone with that instead of trying to do the ball on top.

16-6: Tosca Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 30, 2025March 30, 2025all-purpose flour, almond extract, almonds, baked goods, boiled, breakfast, brunch, butter, cake pan, cakes, chopped, creamed, dessert, Easter, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, flavorings, glazed, granulated sugar, melted, milk, Mother's Day, nuts, party food, pecans, peeled, Scandinavian, sliced, spring, stand mixer, Swedish, toffee, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, walnuts

Happy Sunday! Spring has sprung here, so I present to you a lovely, light cake option, 16-6: Tosca Cake. They even used tulips in the picture!

Tosca cake (or toscakaka) is a well-known thing, essentially a Swedish almond cake. There’s a million other recipes out there for it, but we’re here to talk about this one, so let’s do that.

Lots of brunch occasions in the springtime…this could be a great dish to bring with you or to serve at your own table if you have any upcoming plans. You can even play with flavor extracts if you want to give it that extra something.

14-1: Chocolate Fondue

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 27, 2025March 27, 20251970s, apples, bananas, black cherries, blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries, cherries, cherry liqueur, chilled, chocolate, chopped, cognac, dark chocolate, dessert, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, favorites, fondue, fruit, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, hot desserts, kiwis, liqueur, mangoes, melted, nectarines, orange liqueur, papaya, party food, peaches, pears, peeled, pineapple, plantains, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, semisweet, sliced, strawberries, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

As promised, I did keep up at least for another week–here’s this week’s dessert, 14-1: Chocolate Fondue.

Alas, there was no party to serve it at–it was a random Thursday (tonight actually) and just the two of us. But with a mini electric fondue pot and a pre-prepared fruit bowl from the market, any day can be fondue day. This, my friends, is the future.

15-46: Mousse Casablanca

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 24, 2025March 26, 2025biscotti, chilled, chocolate, chocolate curls, chopped, cold desserts, creamed, crème anglaise, crushed, custard, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, expensive, fairly easy, garnish, gelatin, granulated sugar, half-and-half, maraschino cherries, meringue, mousse, nuts, party food, semisweet, soaked, stiff peaks, untested, walnuts, whipped, whipping cream

We’re closing in on the 11th anniversary of this project, and if I ever have hopes of finishing it (which I still do), I need to figure out a strategy. I’ve spent enough time in my real life learning how to “professionally” manage projects, so I’ll apply some of that here and aim to knock out at least one recipe a week until I finish everything non-meat-related. Then I might just dump the rest online and call it a day.

You don’t care about any of this–you’re here to read about 15-46: Mousse Casablanca, right? Everyone wants to “jump to the recipe” already.

Blah blah something about how this is fancy and 80s.

Here’s the thing with this recipe–it seems too “kiddy” to be an adult dessert recipe, but is also something you most likely wouldn’t serve to kids (unless you grew up as a quasi-adult like I did). I’m not sure who this is supposed to be for?

16-22: Apricot Swirl Cheesecake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods July 14, 2024December 26, 2024all-purpose flour, almond meal, almonds, apricots, cheesecake, china caps, Christmas, cold desserts, cream cheese, creamed, dessert, dried fruit, dusted, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, garnish, granulated sugar, grated, grind, jam/jelly/preserves, lemon peel, lemons, marbled, nuts, purée, sieves, simmered, springform pan, strained, strainers, summer, toasted, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream, XMAS 23, zested

In an attempt to finish off last year’s Christmas dishes (XMAS 23) before this year’s Christmas gets here, here’s 16-22: Apricot Swirl Cheesecake. Probably more of a summer recipe, but whatever, cheesecake is good any time of year. I made this together with 16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake, because you need both a chocolate dessert AND a fruit dessert.

Fun fact: this may look okay-ish in the picture, but trust me, this does not go well. Jump behind the cut for the details (and mistakes).

16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods July 13, 2024July 13, 2024almond paste, almonds, cake pan, cakes, chilled, china caps, chocolate, Christmas, Cointreau, cold desserts, dessert, double boiler, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, food processor, frozen, fruit sauce, gluten-free, Grand Marnier, granulated sugar, grated, grind, liqueur, mousse, orange liqueur, orange peel, powdered sugar, raspberries, raspberry liqueur, raspberry sauce, semisweet, stiff peaks, vegetarian, wax paper, whipped, whipping cream, XMAS 23, zested

I had high hopes of catching up on this thing in a timely fashion, but let’s face it–we’re all surprised I’m even still updating it all at this point. The 10-year anniversary came and went a few months ago without much (or any) fanfare, but I AM still here–just not as attentive as I used to be. Let’s face it–a LOT has changed over the last 10 years. No plans to completely let it die yet, but I would be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it.

Anyway, here’s 16-20: Chocolate Mousse Cake, which was one of two desserts I served for Christmas 2023 (XMAS 23).

Seemed Christmas-appropriate, plus it’s gluten-free! That doesn’t matter to anyone that’s in this house, but someone out there might care about something like that.

14-37: Chocolate Soufflé

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 21, 2024April 21, 2024all-purpose flour, butter, chocolate, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, favorites, granulated sugar, hot desserts, meringue, milk, paper collar, party food, soufflés, stiff peaks, temper, TGV 2022, Thanksgiving, unsweetened, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

I debated about doing two desserts back-to-back, but I think it makes more sense to just do all the TGV 2022 recipes together and be done with it already. Plus, this one came out really well and I want to tell you about it. So, with that in mind, here is 14-37: Chocolate Soufflé, the Thanksgiving 2022 companion dessert to 16-21: Apple Pie with Crumb Topping.

The blurb here reminds me of one of my favorite tropes: the endangered soufflé, otherwise known as soufflé humor. Whatever happened to that?

16-21: Apple Pie with Crumb Topping

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 20, 2024April 21, 2024all-purpose flour, apples, autumn, blender, brown sugar, butter, cut in, dessert, easy, egg-free, fall, filling, food processor, fruit, granulated sugar, grated, hazelnuts, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemon peel, lemons, peeled, pies, raisins, sliced, streusel, tart pan, TGV 2022, Thanksgiving, untested, vegetarian, whole wheat flour, zested

Still working on Thanksgiving 2022 (TGV 2022) entries. I made two desserts that year–one of which was this one, 16-21: Apple Pie with Crumb Topping. Gotta have some type of apple dessert for Thanksgiving. The other was 14-37: Chocolate Soufflé, which I posted right after this one.

FYI, by “crumb topping”, they essentially mean a streusel. Not sure why they didn’t name it that instead, but there you go.

17-8: Tasty Dinner Rolls

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 6, 2024March 4, 2024all-purpose flour, baked goods, bread lame, butter, dinner, dough, egg-free, fairly easy, inexpensive, kneaded, milk, new book, proofed, rolls, salt, side dish, slashed, TGV 2022, Thanksgiving, untested, vegetarian, white bread, whole wheat bread, whole wheat flour, yeast

So, it’s probably weird to write about what you made for Thanksgiving when it’s March. It’s probably even weirder to write about what you made for Thanksgiving 2022 in March 2024. But, here we are, and here’s 17-8: Tasty Dinner Rolls. Which I made for Thanksgiving…in 2022 (TGV 2022).

It’s taking me a minute to catch up on some of these, what can I say.

There’s not much more to say about rolls than what they said above. Trust me, I wrote this a few times and then realized each version was essentially a rehash of what they already wrote. Since I’m not trying to hit a word count for a school report here, let’s move on.

16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 21, 2024February 19, 2024almond paste, almonds, blackberries, blueberries, cakes, chilled, dairy-free, dessert, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flavorings, fruit, fruit salad, garnish, gelatin, gift ideas, glazed, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, mandarin oranges, nuts, party food, springform pan, strawberries, summer, untested

I grew up in Southern California, and lived there up until about 10 years ago. At one of my last jobs before I left, I was often gifted with a Porto’s Bakery fruit tart, which was (and I’m sure still is) delectable. 16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake reminds me of those fruit tarts, and makes me excited for warmer weather days ahead (check with me again about that when we’re in the middle of summer).

Glazed fruit tarts aren’t unique to just Porto’s or Simply Delicious, and there’s even different options for glazing your fruit tarts, depending on what you’re going for.

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