rickster

I've heard of this too, but never tried it. I think it's in Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen recipe for tres leches cake using condensed goats milk.

Pictures of the finished product and how it is baked. Not at all like the German cake. Gateau a la broche

Isn't a gateau basque a cake that's sort of a cross between a pastry and a cake? a pate sucree sort of shell filled with pastry cream and or cherries? I think I've had the sort of cake you describe, but it came from a German deli somewhere in the shore area of NJ, maybe Toms River, so I always thought it was a German speciality.

I'd also point out that the La Patisserie book, befitting its status as a pro book, calls for the use of a number of ingredients that are difficult to obtain for the home cook. I know the Pierre Herme Desserts has a few adapted recipes from the La Patisserie book beyond the base dough recipes, like the Mozart cake and coconut domes. There may be a few others. The other issue with La Patisserie is that the recipes are not necessarily sized to make say, one cake or one tart, as are the recipes in cookbooks for home use.

I agree with all of mckay's points. Other factors are the dessert pricing relative to the rest of the menu and the size of your desserts relative to others at the same price that are not done by you (if any). As a consumer, another fator I would consider is that no mattter how well made/flavored, tiramisu is sort of a ho hum dessert. I would be much more willing to accept small portion sizes in a dessert that is more exotic or unique.

I seem to remember a recipe for rhubarb that involved bringing orange juice and/or sugar syrup to a boil, adding the rhubarb and then taking it off the heat and allowing it to steep for a few minutes. It softens the rhubarb and lets some flavor infuse without getting it too mushy. It still needs to be watched closely but you have more margin for error in timing since the rhubarb is not on the heat.

Don't count on it. My local store is very strict about the exemptions, as I discovered about a month ago.

My family traditionally makes a blackberry/apple pie, about 2/3 to 3/4 apples and the rest blackberries, with a little more sugar and thickener than normal.

I have the second bowl too. I think I agree, given the choice between the hand mixer and the bowl, I'd take the bowl. I know I use it more than the mixer.

As a consumer, I know I'd prefer the contrast in taste and texture between a custard layer and a fruit layer rather than having them mixed together.

Actually the only thing I use my hand mixer for these days is occasionally whipping cream and egg whites, which I have a tendency to overbeat in my stand mixer and I sometimes need in small quantities that are awkward to make in the Kitchenaid. Otherwise, everything goes in the Kitchenaid.

I've had a Krups hand mixer for years that I like a lot. It came with an extra set of spiral shaped beaters that I think are supposed to be for dough, but they're pretty useless. If you're going to do dough in a mixer, you need a stand mixer

Sorry, can't help you there. I've only used the prepared paste. I've tried making hazelnut paste in a processor in the past and not had much success, because I think the nuts you usually get at retail are not fresh enough (or I stored them in the freezer too long) and the moisture content is too low, so I turned to prepared hazelnut praline and then tried the pistachio one. The pistachio paste is very smooth without any chunks or pieces of nuts. I used it to make a pistachio-chocolate ganache to fill chocolates with, so the application is a bit different from what you want to use it for.

I kneaded the 00 dough about 6-7 minutes by machine and let it rise in the refrigerator for about 20 hours. It is also possible that I was trying to make too large a pizza.

As I mentioned on the other pizza dough thread, I too have had problems with low gluten flour and pizza crust. The high gluten crust is sometimes too bready for my taste, but I have never had a problem stretching a high gluten dough. The 00 dough just tears when I try to stretch it.

I was flipping through the Rogers/Gray The Cafe Cookbook last night and they use a pizza dough they say is from Chez Panisse which incorporates some rye flour. I think this is another way to lower the gluten content of the dough with a different flavor than using cake flour.

Icouldn't get the link to work, but if it's the round one with the rim that's on the site, I wouldn't recommend it. You want a bigger, preferably square or rectangular one with no lip.

Pistachio (and hazelnut) praline paste is available from the King Arthur Flour catalogue, if you find making it yourself too challenging. They could have used a commercial paste, which is very smooth, but blended in some chopped/crushed nuts for texture.

Interesting. A little off topic, but William Grimes today in the NY Times reviews an Argentine steakhouse and points out that imports of Argentine beef into the US are banned due to hoof and mouth disease. The NY restaurant was serving "Argentine style" grass fed beef from Australia. I'm pretty sure the Wall Street Journal had an article a few months ago that said all the so called Argentine beef sold in the US comes from Australia and maybe passes through Buenos Aires on a ship, if its lucky.

Steam, dry in a towel, chop and add to ricotta for a filling in homemade ravioli or manicotti. or use as a filling in a Provencal swiss chard tart.

Chocolate puff pastry incorporates cocoa powder in the butter "packet" to make a chocolate colored and flavored dough. I think the issue in baking is just that you can't tell by sight when its done. There's a recipe in Pierre Herme's Chocolate Dessert book. I've also seen a recipe for rough or quick chocolate puff pastry in Healy and Bugat's French Cookie Book

I hope Rebecca's is not moving out of Glenville, but I could see where they might consider it. It's a great place. I've been to Valbella twice and it's pretty good, but in my opinion not head and shoulders above other Italian places in the area.

I own Michel Roux's Finest Desserts. It was the first book that I bought that I would call truly inspirational, that you would open and say wow, I really want to learn to make THAT!

About 75, approximately 50% baking, 50% "all other"

Just to help out, the Willett House is in Portchester, one block off Route 1. The steaks are pretty good.