CanadianBakin'

Thanks for all your suggestions. I understand about just using the tip that seems best, however in this case I am using recipes from Flo Braker's Sweet Miniatures and I want to use the tips she suggests the first time as these are things I haven't made before and don't know how they are supposed to look. It's not just piping icing but batter, meringue, marshmallow, cookie dough, etc. Maybe I'm a bit anal but there you go. I don't have many tips yet so I have to go out and buy these so I thought I may as well buy the ones she suggests first. I have found a site that lists the dimensions of a few of the more popular Ateco tips so that will help. And I talked to the lady at one of the few stores that has a good selection of tips and she said if I bring my recipe book in that they should be able to figure out what I need from the Wilton line. After I've tried them as is I'll get more creative. I do really appreciate the help many of you have given me in numerous threads in thinking outside the box (and recipe).

2 frozen Chocolate Sparkle Cookies using Thomas Haas recipe on recipegullet. They are so good frozen!

They may be the same but I'm still a bit confused. See this quote from comeundone: See, my recipe books use the numbers she has in brackets, ie. open star #5 and yet on pastrysampler.com #5 is very small. How am I supposed to know that a #5 is actually #825. I'm sorry this is probably a total nubie question but if someone could explain it would really help. I'm not experienced with decorating tips yet and I don't decorate cakes really, I'm using them for mini's so I want to make sure I use the tips specified until I get more familiar. I also just checked the same site to see if there is a Wilton #5 or #825 open star, and there isn't. So maybe the numbers aren't the same...or not all of them. Please help.

Many of my recipe books suggest Ateco size tips and I can't seem to find them where I live. I know I can buy them online but the shipping makes them quite expensive. Does anyone have or know where I can find a cross reference chart between Ateco and Wilton tip sizes? I have looked online to no avail. Thanks for your help.

I bet you'll find out it's a recipe made with mayo or something.... or a cake mix she's beefed up.

I've never had it stick before. I use parchment and pan spray.

Candy, you're making me drool. What great flavour combos. I want to have a bite of all of them. I especially like the sound of coconut cake with mango buttercream. Mmmmm... I've got a simple question, what size tip did you use for piping?

Taryn, if you find a source can you please post it? I'd be interested in trying some too.

Here's the Kolachy thread from the Vancouver forum. There you will find Kolachy Keith so you can e-mail him.

Thanks everyone! I don't yet own Baking with Julia but I can easily get it out of the library. I'm not going to be doing it this weekend so it's not a huge rush. I would love a demo though if someone has time. As long as it's made with danish dough, I don't think they're particular as far as shape goes. My initial thought was to do what I think of as a traditional shape as shown in Wendy's blog. A rolled dough, sliced and topped with some kind of fruit.

I haven't made Danish before but after seeing the one's in Wendy's blog I've been dying to try some. My husband's family buys these awful ones at the grocery store as well as at one of the chain donut shops, they are just dripping with grease. There's got to be something better?! I was wondering if someone could please share their tried and true recipe? I noticed Wendy's looked like they had a filling rolled into them like cinnamon buns as well as a topping. I'd be interested in that version as well. I'm not a Danish connoiseur (sp?) which is why I'm looking for help. I know there's a catch to trying this though...I'm gonna wreck them for grocery store Danish.

I have found that you have to watch the protein content in store-brand flour. I tried using some for bread and it really didn't work well at all. In the US your all-purpose flour has lower protein to start so it might not be as much an issue. I just watch for sales on the 10 kg bags of brand-name flour. Costco has great prices on 20 kg bags if you've got room to store it. Chocolate chips are a funny thing. Like any other chocolate product I guess it's a personal preference. When looking for a brand that I would use consistently at a shop I baked for, I tried a number of different ones and ended up deciding on a no name brand. I was suprised! Chocolate liquor is the second ingredient with cocoa butter being the third. For me it seemed the higher chocolate liquor appeared on the list the better they tasted. So you may be able to "cheap out" at least for chocolate chips. Marg/butter...it really depends what you are cooking and who you are cooking for. For instance, I'm in the midst of baking a b'jillion cookies for middle school students. There is no way they're going to know the difference so marg is fine. I know it's not the best flavour but if butter isn't really a featured flavour in a recipe then you can get away with margarine without most people noticing. Obviously butter should be used in pastry, sugar cookies, shortbread etc. Here's hoping for a time when you can use the best ingredients again!

The original recipe called for a 375 degree oven, but you have a convection oven which should usually be set about 50 degrees lower. I'd definitely try it at 300 degrees and I'd also try baking the cookies from a frozen state. But really, they look so good. I wish I could jump through the computer screen and grab them! ← No, no, no. I also have a convection oven and use this same recipe at 375. The goal is to get the outside cooked enough to set the shape before there is too much spread, then just finish cooking through. Maybe there is not as much difference between standard and regular with a home convection oven vs. a commercial one. Lower the temp and you'll get too much spread. I'd prefer you to keep your temp and adjust your baking time if need be. Of course, every oven is different so you'll figure yours out. ← That was my first thought as well. When I was baking at a coffee house, I had problems with getting the temp right. Someone on a different thread suggested keeping the temp high and it definitely worked better than lowering it.

Kathyf, your cakes are gorgeous! And all so different. I would have liked to complimented you on one in particular but I couldn't choose. Thanks for sharing your work.

Thanks for posting this Ling! I've been meaning to for awhile but haven't had time and also don't have a digital camera so I'm glad you were able. I'm going to second Ling's vote for this cake being the best! It's so moist and dark and versatile. I've done 6"cake, 9"cakes, cupcakes, mini-cupcakes, 9x13... And even if I over bake it slightly, it's still moist.

Turns out this conversation has been timely. I just got 2 orders for chocolate chip cookies for a total of 450 - 2oz and 250 - 1oz. The first batch for this friday morning and the second for saturday morning. I have 3-year old twins and I will be working all day at my salaried job on thursday and friday so it's gonna be a bit tight for time but I'm sure I'll manage. I hate to say no when I'm just getting going. It's a good thing my girls still nap and go to bed at 7pm. Anyways, I'll be using AB's recipe but I've only made it on a small scale before. I think I'm going to use the "ice box" cookie idea for portioning. I don't think my wrist can handle 700 scoops in such a short period of time. I'm just wondering how long I should freeze the dough before cutting? Or is it a trial and error thing? It's about 3:30pm my time and I've just put 4 - 2" rolls in the freezer. Is 2 hours OK or should it be longer? Any advice on how to do this quickly would be much appreciated. I haven't yet located a commercial kitchen to rent (although I should hear back on one soon) so it will be in my home oven. I was thinking of baking 2 sheets at a time and rotating half way through. Is this ok or should I stick to one pan at a time.

I decided to do the freezing thing last night, since I wanted my "boys" to come home to a plate full of hot chocolate chip cookies after the football game (as it turned out, we lost 48-0), so if there was any time they needed cookies, it was then! My observations: Before I froze them, I flattened them a bit, knowing it would be hard to do so once frozen. I baked them at 375, straight out of the freezer. They turned out nice and round and thick, which was nice, and as I sort of expected, they hardly spread at all. The color was a bit splotchy, and I didn't get that nice attractive "crackle" appearance like I do when I bake from the refrigerator. They had a nice texture. I think if I bake from the freezer next time, I will flatten them a lot more, and may turn the oven up a notch. ← I was wondering if rolling the dough into a 2" log, chilling and then cutting pieces about 1/2" thick would work better than scooping? They'd still be uniform and flatter so they might cook more evenly and spread better. When I was waiting at a grocery store bakery counter one day, I noticed that the cookie dough they had came out of the box this way so I think I might give it a try. Of course I have no idea whether they bake from frozen or not but I'm thinking they probaly do.

I'm not an expert but that's how I make raspberry and strawberry puree so I can't see why it wouldn't work. The lychee nuts should already be soft from the canning process so it should work fine. Maybe save a bit of the liquid they are canned in so that if the lychees end up to thick to puree properly you could add a bit in.

My husband and I really enjoy bubble tea. He's more adventurous than I am though. My favourite is made with fresh strawberries. We had a great bubble tea place in Abbotsford called The Bubbo Tea Cafe but he closed a couple years ago and we haven't found any where else close. Does anyone know of a good shop a bit closer to the Fraser Valley?

Just bumping this up to let you know Organic Vanilla has bourbon beans up for auction now. I have been trying for a couple days to get either 20 beans or a 1/4lb for $7 USD + shipping with no success. Today I was given a "second chance" that wasn't on the e-bay site to buy the beans for the price I was bidding. I'm not sure if this is common with all sellers but I thought it was pretty nice of her. I'm looking forward to tasting the difference between the Tahitian and Bourbon.

I've now tried her plain and chocolate tart shells. The texture is great and it holds well. I guess they are a bit lumpy but I think as you say, that will get better with practice. My biggest complaint is the big dip in the bottom. You know when you get a bottle of juice or something and it looks like a lot but if you turn the bottle upside-down there is a huge dip in it to make it look like more product than it is?! That's the sort of effect I'm getting. If my customer noticed they might think I was trying to rip them off. I make sure that I fill them with as much filling as possible to make up for this. If anyone has ideas on how to prevent this I would be grateful. Is it as simple as freezing them first? She doesn't suggest this in her instructions. Peanut butter filling for the chocolate tarts...I've now tried 2. The first was cooked filling from Fine Cooking. It's very creamy but not quite the taste or texture I was looking for. The second one I tried is not cooked and is from a recipe book put out by one of our province's universities. It has whipped cream, cream cheese, butter, brown sugar, vanilla and a good amount of peanut butter. It whipped up nice and I was able to pipe it into the shells for a nice look. After chilling them I drizzled a mixture of 2 oz semisweet chocolate and 2 tbsp butter. They look really nice and went over well at my husband's staff meeting. I'm not sure if I'm totally satisfied with the recipe but it does taste good, texture is good, it pipes well, etc. The flavour might just need tweaking a bit.

Just a thought, but since molasses is a sweetener, maybe if you did it half and half with corn syrup that would lighten the taste. I've never seen "mild" molasses.

Thanks for starting this blog. I went looking for it the other day thinking it was about time. I'm so excited to see what you do and how you like the course as I am planning on taking it next year.

That was my first thought too.

I don't have a recipe but to confirm that good donuts come from Mennonites... I remember growing up one of my mom's Mennonite friends used to make amazing yeast donuts with mashed potatoes. If you come across a recipe like that in one of your books, it would be worth a try.