Dorie Greenspan

As Patrick mentioned, and as you thought, a cookie can go flat when the dough is too warm. Having just 1 hour of chilling time could cause your cookies to lose their shape in the oven -- 2 hours is really the advised minimum chill-time for a sable dough. And, if your butter was really warm, then the dough would have really needed this extra time in the refrigerator. Other reasons that cookies flatten include putting them on warm baking sheets or baking them in ovens that are not hot enough -- but neither of these situations seem to apply to your cookies. It's troubling and I'm not sure why this happened to you, but it has happened to me as well -- when it did I think it was because I was in a rush and hadn't chilled the dough long enough and, also, I wanted to get a bigger yield, so I cut the cookies thinner. However, even when the cookies were flat, they were fabulously delicious. Hope that was true of your cookies, too.

Sebastian Gaudard's chocolates at Delicabar really are wonderful and they are all available "to go" -- the bonbons, great chocolate bars and the fun patatartiner, a chocolate and nut (almond or hazelnut) spread pushed into what looks like a toothpaste tube and terrific on anything from bread to cookies to fingers. My suggestion -- go to Delicabar for lunch or "un snack chic" because the place is so fabulous looking (the terrace is great) and the food and desserts are swell, then buy a bunch of chocolate treats to have later. You'll have the best of both worlds.

Deflate the dough and cover it well, then chill it. Looking forward to hearing about it after you've had the first slice.

Forgot something -- I think you should try the Ispahan. You can try it as a macaroon, but I'd advise you get a little Ispahan complete with raspberries, litchis and a fresh rose petal. The Ispahan is PH's bestselling pastry and it's what started rose fever in Paris. It's a delicious pastry and after he created it he went on to create several variations on the theme, making it a cornerstone of his current work.

Lucky you, Thornado, you're in for a treat. Actually, many treats and, here's good news: You can get all those treats in English. The staff at PH speaks bunches of languages and I think most of the staff speaks English. If you happen to get a person who doesn't, the point and smile method always works. Here's more good news: Almost everything in PH comes in single-servings, so you can taste several things without overdoing it and spoiling the prospect of dinner. My suggestion would be to try the things you've baked -- it will be a kick -- but after that go with anything (and everything?) that looks good to you. The spring/summer collection will be in the boutique and there are some wonderful goodies in it, including little cakes on a stick called Mister H -- you can walk and eat at the same time and instead of looking gauche you'll look like the luckiest person in Paris. If it's hot, try one of PH's Miss Gla-Gla, elegant ice cream sandwiches -- the "sandwichers" are macaroons! As for the prices -- I think single servings will cost between 4 and 6 Euros/per. Some will be less, but I don't think any will be more. (Actually, I'm not sure any will be 6E -- wish I could remember, sorry.) Bon appetit!

It's been a while since I looked at the thread and wow -- so much has happened. Ruth, your croissants look fabulous! As you've discovered, patience is really the key. Making croissants is a finicky -- ok, fussy -- process that requires lots of intermittent adjustments, as you found it. You have to keep looking at the dough and making decisions about whether to continue or to stop the process for a chill. When we invited Esther McManus to participate in the show and book, she called me and said she didn't want to just send me the recipe, she wanted to come to my apartment and show me how to make croissants. I was thrilled and it turned out to be a great experience. Her croissants were spectacular and I was so excited about what I'd learned that the minute she left, I started my own batch. I was so disappointed in what I turned out -- a few hours earlier, I would have thought they were swell, if I hadn't just seen and tasted Esther's. I think it takes experience to get a feel for the dough -- and, depending on your personality -- to gain some confidence in making and working it. Like puff pastry, the first turn does look rough -- although Ruth, yours looked very good -- then, as the butter gets worked into the dough, it starts to look a lot better. The cutting and shaping is also something that takes practice to perfect. But I found that from the first batch on, I was so pleased with the results -- even if they often took me hours longer to achieve than I'd expected. As Ruth found out -- chilling is the solution to almost all the problems you might come up against with croissants. Patience, too. Ruth, you're right about the instructions for folding the dough over the butter package -- they're not very good. Sorry. Of course, I never realized the problem until you pointed it out, but the directions don't make clear what to do with the sides of the dough after you've folded the top and bottom over. I know this is ridiculous, but I'm in Connecticut and don't have a copy of BwJ with me -- so I can't read thru the recipe -- but I'm remembering that the butter packet should be enclosed on all four sides to form a rectangle, the way you would do it if you were making puff pastry. One last thing, the croissant dough does freeze, but the best thing to do is to shape the dough into croissants, freeze the croissants on a lined baking sheet, then pack them when they're frozen. Defrost the croissants, still wrapped, overnight in the freezer, then give them a rise and a bake in the morning. Again, bravo Ruth.

Welcome Ruth -- your pinwheels and bagels look really good. I wouldn't worry about getting the bagels even. I think the artisanal look is part of their appeal.

I don't know the chocolate-raspberry tart you're referring to and I don't have the Patisserie book here with me, but I've subbed corn syrup for glucose in Herme recipes without a problem. As for the pectin -- sorry, I don't know the ingredient he is calling for.

Patrick -- a treat, as always.

chez les anges must be chez you -- you're an ange for doing such a wonderful job of reviewing -- merci

Thornado -- can you find glucose? I haven't worked with glucose, but it is what the French pastry chefs often use for caramel and other candy work. You can make a 1:1 substitution, glucose for corn syrup, if you can find it.

Monica, it's great to read your blog and so much fun to see your pictures -- the islands and the food and, most especially, your son. Thanks so much for sharing your life with us.

As usual, your desserts look marvelous, Patrick. And I like the way the sticks look standing guard at the cake's border. I also like that you can eat the cake and save the sticks as an extra little nibble. Very nice.

Elie, looking at the picture doesn't give a clue about what you may have done wrong. No need to confess -- the cake looks great!

Seth, you've done a great job describing what needs to be done with the matzo. And I agree with you about the pasta machine. I'd add just one thing -- because the matzo are rolled out by hand and unfurled onto a baking sheet, they are not (at least they're not chez moi) perfectly even and, to me, that's one of the recipe's charms. I love the way the stack of matzo looks when its edges are all higgledy-piggledy.

Welcome AEM -- you're right about the reason your sugar didn't sparkle much. Regular sugar gets a little lost, although it still tastes good. If you find some decorating sugar, also called sanding, sparkle or dazzle sugar, you'll get the look you're after.

CaliPoutine -- sorry, only just got on line. I've made the ice cream with powdered skim milk and it's been fine. That's the only substitution I've ever made on the recipe, but cornstarch doesn't sound like such a good idea. I think before I'd use cornstarch, I'd just omit the powdered milk. Wish I could be more certain, but, as I said, powdered skim is as daring a variation as I've attempted.

Oli -- The reason the Nancy Silverton/BwJ buns are so great is that they're made from brioche feuilletee, or brioche dough that is treated like puff pastry. Of course, you can make sticky buns that won't take as much time and will taste good, but they won't be the same. (I think there's a sticky bun recipe in the King Arthur Baking Book -- I don't have it with me, so I can't check -- that is made with a less rich non-brioche non-laminated dough and which, as I remember, was delicious). With a plain, sweet-dough recipe, you'll gain time, but it's only with time -- and butter -- that you can get the spectacular texture and taste of the BwJ sticky buns. Why not try making them in stages when you've got ahead-of-time time? Make the brioche dough one day and do the butter-turns and filling the next. At this point the logs of dough can be frozen and then baked off when you've got time and a bunch of sticky-bun lovers.

I can't comment on the rice pudding, because all these proportions are making me dizzy. When I get back to my kitchen, which won't be until next week, I'll try to work this out -- although I think by that time someone else will have nailed it. As for the shelf-life of cocoa powder. I was just at a pastry chef retreat at the CIA/Greystone where someone used 20-year old cocoa powder and it was fine. I think that if the powder has been kept in a cool, dark, dry place, it should last and last and last.

an epi is a wheat stalk -- when a long baguette-ish bread is cut in several places and the cut pieces are pulled alternately to the left and right, the finished bread resembles a stalk of wheat and is called a pain d'epi (although, isn't epi also the word for a sword? I'm nowhere near any kinds of books, so can't look it up)

Elie -- thanks so much for experimenting. I don't have anything with me now -- still traveling (and just getting an internet connection) -- but what if you went back to the original recipe and tried less rice? Can't remember the recipe, but four times the amount of liquid to rice are the usual proportions for pudding. I did make the recipe as written -- after it was published and we discovered the problem -- and it was really firm. When Pierre made the recipe in Paris, it was very soupy and then it set-up nicely. Really creamy, but not, in the end, soupy.

I am so touched by your responses -- thank you. I really appreciate your support and, as I've said before, it's been a thrill for me to the see the recipes come to lilfe here and to see you enjoying them so. Encore, merci!

First -- congratulations Thornado -- what a spread! I bet all your guests are begging for an invitation to your next party. Doc -- I'm sorry. I'm not sure what went wrong and I haven't had time since your disaster to make the pudding and figure it out. Unfortunately I'm off to California at the crack of dawn tomorrow and won't be near my own kitchen for a couple of weeks. As soon as I can -- I'll make the pudding and post a good recipe. Why should something this simple (and delicious) be so hard? That's a question to me, not to you. The normal proportions for rice pudding are usually something like 1 part rice to 4 parts milk. And, with the chocolate, which firms when cooled, that should work. AARRGH. I really am sorry. I know how frustrated I am when I put time -- and money -- into a recipe and it doesn't work. That this happened to you makes me feel bad; that it was my recipe makes me feel really, really, really bad. Again, apologies.

Wendy -- thanks for the giggle. Docsconz -- I don't know if there are other mistakes in the book. There might be -- gremlins have a way of sneaking in and changing perfect recipes when you're not looking -- but I haven't found or been told of others.

Thornado -- welcome. What an ambitious menu -- it's bound to be a great party. About getting the Dome out of the mold. Is your mold completely round on the bottom? If so, all you should need is a sink with hot water and some courage. Dunk the mold into the hot water for only about 20 seconds max, then place a hand on the bottom of the cake and gently ease the cake out of the mold and onto a cardboard round or a plate. Of course the surface of the mousse will melt slightly, but you can smooth it with a spatula. Besides, you'll be covering it with glaze. Good luck and happy birthday. Can't wait to see you pictures.