RDW

The recipe appeared in a magazine in the early 70's - Australian Cherry Coconut Pie. A double crust of sweet pastry with 2 layers inside: - Bottom layer of cherry - canned cherries, juice boiled and thickened with cornstarch - Top layer of coconut - eggs (or eggwhite), sugar, unsweetened coconut flakes, possibly almond extract All encased in a bottom and top pastry crust. Would be ever thankful if someone has a recipe. Thanks!!

Here's one I've made before, really good. By way of Gail Gand. But you make caramel rather than use premade caramels: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-ga...cipe/index.html

Bread just came out of the oven. Baked it in a Le Creuset 5 qt at 450. No damage to the lid and no sticking (for those who were concerned). Smells wonderful, love the crackling sound as it cools. Easiest bread I've ever made. Photo taken with cell phone so not as professional looking as everyone else's. Will post again after I taste it.

I've prepped a batch of sables. If I freeze them to bake later, do they need to be defrosted prior to slicing and baking? Advice please. Thanks.

Oh, too bad. All my tasters thought the cake part was delicious - light, not too sweet and a perfect foil for the cream and berries. Chacun son gout.

There's one in the current issue of Cook's Illustrated that is absolutely to die for. A brilliant Strawberry Cream cake. Here's a link to the recipe, someone posted it on their blog: http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/0018..._cream_cake.php I've made it twice. People went nuts over it.

Pick A Pita on West 38th. A hole in the wall but the most amazing, well seasoned felafel! Can't be beat. Side note - Humus Place (at 99 MacDougal and on Waverly) can't be beat for humus!

Thanks so much for your explanation. I flipped through Sherry Yard's book and she described soft, medium and hard ganaches with varying proportions of cream and chocolate.

For years I've been making a dacquoise with a whipped ganache filling. The recipe for this ganache is 2 cups heavy cream to 8 oz chocolate. It whips beautifully and has a great flavor and texture. I'm about to attempt a new Martha Stewart recipe for Devil's Food Cake. It's a two layer cake with ganache filling and chocolate icing. The filling/icing calls for a ganache made of 4 cups heavy cream, 2 lbs chocolate and 1/4 c. corn syrup. Half of the mixture js whipped for filling between 2 cake layers and for a thin crumb coating. The other half remains liquid and is poured over the frosted cake. So, adapting my ganache recipe to Martha's, I'd use 1 lb of chocolate for 4 cups of heavy cream, rather than Martha's 2 lbs! Here's a link to the cake recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?ty...A&layout=martha My questions: 1. My old ganache recipe for the whipped ganache has worked perfectly with half the quantity of chocolate. What happens when you double the chocolate to 1 lb as per Martha's recipe? 2. Will the ganache whip as nicely with corn syrup? 3. Any opinions on icing the cake with liquid ganache made of 1 pound chocolate, 2 cups heavy cream and 1/8 c. corn syrup. Do those proportions seem correct? Right now I'm thinking I'll stick with my old ganache recipe for the whipped ganache but use Martha's with the corn syrup added for the icing. Am anxious to hear opinions of forum members. Thanks!

Hello and Welcome, RDW!! How did those macaroons turn out? I bought the book just to see if I could even remotely replicate the ones I had in Paris. What did you think? ← Macaroons turned out great. I did a hybrid of Mastering the Art of French Pastry and Pierre Herme's. Someone earlier in the thread recommended letting them sit out for about 30 minutes prior to baking, I agree, even though that is not completely referenced in the recipe (only in the recipe intro). On the topic of macaroons, what filling do you typically use? I use ganache but whip it a bit to give it a fluffier texture, like that found in Laduree's version. Do other people do that too?

I'm incredibly late to this thread, just recently joined eGullet. I've had both Herme books for a couple of years and had only tried the macaroons. But was inspired by this thread to pull the books out again and actually use them. I made the hazelnut chocolate sables. They're fabulous, look like the photo, but I had breakage issues - the almond crust came apart from the chocolate center of about 25% of the cookies during handling (after they were baked). Did anyone else encounter this problem? I used the egg wash to affix the two doughs. Is this just something to be expected from this type of recipe? Next on to the pave! Thanks for all the inspiration.

- Anything by Maida Heatter. She is the goddess of desserts. Every recipe is a treasure. Doesn't have a great TV personality and thus never got a show of her own, but is a national treasure. - King Arthur's Baking Book and Cookie Book - Francois Payard's Simply Sensational Desserts - Bruce Healy/Paul Bugat's Mastering the Art of French Pastry, Art of the Cake - The desserts in any of the Barefoot Contessa books. Always easy and always delicious

Neither of the recipes posted above use baking soda. I've made peanut brittle with baking soda. What are the advantages of adding the soda and can you add it to any toffee recipe? Thanks.

Martha Stewart features a recipe for Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake - http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?ty...=TV&site=living I remember seeing her make it on TV. Will definitely try this out. Woohoo!! My first post at egullet!!