rickster

For people who don't live near a club store, I saw this book at both Borders and Barnes & Noble in the Chicago area last weekend, even though it is not available on their online sites yet.

Maybe you should add more pectin and reboil?

Nancy Silverton was the baker on the Baking With Julia show referenced. I've made starter her way and from a simple flour/water mix and her way was not any better.

Instant yeast is not the same as rapid rise. Mainly, rapid rise has to be activated in lukewarm water before being added to a recipe. There is also some difference in the amount you need to add but I would suggest checking a conversion table. I know a few bread baking books have them.

I can't speak for this specific recipe, but some other potato bread recipes I've seen are pretty specific that the mashed potato should be plain, boiled, riced or mashed, without any additions. The added liquid in yours could contribute to the over hydration.

Interesting, if slightly disgusting article on the dangers of tasting raw fish in yesterday's NY Times Tale of the Tapeworm

I haven't been in a year and a half since I moved to Chicago, but unless they did a major renovation, there is no way they have 14 tables. The front half of the restaurant was a bar and seating area for people waiting for tables or take out orders. The back had a handful of tables. Of course things may have changed.

You forgot to mention that they only have 4-6 tables. I always thought of it as primarily a takeout place. The food is good though. I also like Asiana on Route 1 (Putnam Avenue near the Whole Foods), owned by the same people.

Actually, the traditional pate a choux recipes I have don't require a processor or mixer. They're beaten by hand.

The Travel Channel has been showing a lot of his shows recently; Floyd on Italy, Floyd on Spain, Floyd on Wine (French only) and I think a saw a couple of African shows. I hadn't seen him in many years. I thought the best of the current crop of shows was the wine series, in which he has a sidekick wine expert who plays the straight man and I thought the combo worked quite well.

Pretty much a rave review in this past weekend's Wall Street Journal by Raymond Sokolov, in the context of a comparison to the new Le Cirque.

FYI, the New Yorker article is about Will Goldfarb of Room 4 Dessert in NYC and a little on Buford's experience of trying to be a bartender at the restaurant. Worth reading, but not as in depth as his original article on Mario that inspired the book.

I'm pretty sure the book implies that Giada and her style of cooking is the future of the Food Network and Mario is the past. This is a great book. This started as an article in the New Yorker and I was interested to see the author has a new article about pastry chefs in this week's issue. Might be the basis for his next book.

David is a member of egullet. I've read a number of his posts. You could PM him - search for Lebovitz in the member directory

I saw Jacques Torres make hazelnut paste in a food processor on TV once but could never reproduce it either. I concluded he must have been using much fresher (higher moisture/oil content) nuts than I was able to pick up at Trader Joe's.

If you've been hitting places like Jean Louis and Henkelmann, you might want to try Rebecca's, which is sort of across the street from Wild Ginger. I thought the food was excellent, but the seating is not that comfortable and it can be very loud, which may not fit with your preferences.

My two cents if you intend to bake directly on the stone/brick is to get the largest and heaviest pizza stone you can find. While you could buy tiles and line the lowest rack of your oven, I think you run the risk of snagging the dough on the edges of the tiles if they are not perfectly aligned.

I lived in Greenwich for about 20 years until 2 years ago and still visit. I agree with all these suggestions, at least the ones I've tried. A few other ideas: Cheeses - The Darien Cheese shop in Goodwives Plaza in Darien Cakes/Pastries - St Moritz Bakery at the bottom of Greenwich Ave. in Greenwich Also, the Whole Foods Market in Greenwich, while not huge, skews more to gourmet foods than has been my experience with the chain out here in the Chicago area. Greenwich also has a pretty good farmers market, similar to the New Canaan one.

I tired the RLB recipe once a few years ago and my recollection was that it did turn out soggy, so a genoise-like layer might be a good idea.

Rose Levy Beranbaum's Pie & Pastry Bible offers a recipe for a Gascon apple pie which is somewhat similar in that it uses phyllo and an apple/walnut filling (no cake). The cake might be an addition to soak up the juices. The pie is full size, not individual tart sized The text in the book mentions that the recipe is an adaption of a traditional Gascon dessert made with a dough similar to strudel dough and she speculates it might have a North African origin

What about this? Pea Pomponette

Pretty sure I've seen ads for a new Kitchenaid oven that has a steam feature.

FWIW, I'm an amateur baker who's made a lot of buttercream in a stand mixer, and I've never done the turn on off technique or used the pyrex cup and I've rarely had a problem.

FWIW, there is a fromage blanc cheese cake with a cherry jam layer in the book.that got raves when I made it. I've also liked the joconde and french buttercream recipes as well.

I tried this several years ago and did not like the result. Not sure if it was the type of rice flour I used (something from whole foods as I recall), but the cake had a strange sort of crunchy texture. I baked it in a kugelhopf mold so can't help you on whether it works in a sheet pan