butterscotch

i have to add a new fave here Madelines on 23rd street (tween 6= 7th). The specialize in macarons, which are beautiful and go over well very light- many exotic flavors, etc etc. But the basic pastries are just wonderful fruit tartes, croissants plain or with chocolate or chocolate-almond or pistachio, shortbreads, merangues, tiny finacier cakes... All very very fresh and all well made, I believe, on sight. I am addicted to the madelines- the orange and coffee walnut or lemon- are sublime. I also buy the mini pain au chocolate or croisants often too. They also have a bit of seating and a lovely selection of teas as well. I would say they are up there with the best mentioned in this thread. Yum.

Maricel is a woman. And both of her places are wonderful. ....snip.... And try brunch at his smaller restaurant Zafra a block away, which seems to ←

you would have to bake them on top of a metal bowl, i think. either that our cut out little concave shaped long Vee shapes all around the periminter of a flat disk. otherwise you'd have pleats.

Generally the way it works with people who live in Manhattan is the more expensive the rent the more married they are to the idea that travelling is "not worth it". Native New Yorkers and those I know with reasonable rents are much more open to the idea of enjoying themselves off the island as well. Maybe because they've been in NY longer they have nothing to prove anymore, maybe just because they can more easily afford to.

They did NOT! You were apparently lied to. Look here: Vanilla Swiss Almond ← sadly, they did.... it was chocolate swiss almond- a chocolate ice cream version. been gone a very long time. still not quite over it

I just got 28.49lbs of Benton's Bacon to do this infusion. wow, it's not just for breakfast anymore. is that going to be on the menu soon?

Doh! So they are judging live in front of an audience filled with their friends and family! I think they tried very hard to edit the comments so they sound equally likely to win. thay all had some good and bad comments. I have no clue who's going to win.

I cannot figure this out... Padma is live in Chicago- but the cooks are in Aspen- in DAYLIGHT? It's not still bright out in Colorado is it? *confused* Until a few minuyes ago, I thought they were flyng to Chicago to feed Marcel....?

.... so Hung's menu is focused on being as Asian as he can make it.... This is why he seems to have no soul- he is formulaic and reactive- stressing technique like a robot. He lacks a point of view, No one know's what his food is except for "well excecuted". He's too young to realize method isn't everything -you have to be focused on something other than winning. He'd be cooking Chimp Buttocks if Tom told him to. Seriously.

I always thought the biggest part of organic philosophy was that it was better for the earth. And a good thing for everyone, mostly as an extension of that. You know, less pesticides everywhere. If people are going to by processed foods, I'm happier if the way they are made doesn't include lots more nitrogen running off into our rivers and the gulf. It would be nice if we wre less chemically dependent in our methods of food production. Also, what pases for food can be downright scary. I was reading how the biggest maker of "cheese food" was using a sustance similar to melamine to make their "food" but it wasn't on the USDA's list of "food" at all and they were continuing to use it because the FDA did nothing more than send them a letter. Ironic that their cheese food was neither cheese nor food! So I can see favoring organic for my cheese products, at least with shady things like that going on. On the other hand, if they came out with organic Munchos, I would buy them (by the case) but if they were tasty-- I wouldn't kid myself that I was eating healthy.

and before i forget, here's an interesting link to a search for cc cookie perfection....and it links back to.... well, egullet of course. it's a mobious strip, or a mystery inside an enigma, this cookie thing. as well as a noble quest. http://wordstoeatby.blogspot.com/2004/12/b...ip-cookies.html

sadly, she will not give it up.... a chef friend who has had them thinks- shockingly- that the secret is margarine, but i know i can do it with butter. ...i am thinking maybe a wetter dough than usual. they reming me of the textured of a packaged mix i used to make when i was a kid- and you added one egg and a tablespoon of water and the dough did not form into balls, but thick peaks. i always always layout a nice coating of SALTED butter when i bake anything. never unsalted. LOL. if it needs to be floured too, like for cakes or brownies, i use cocoa or even better a bit of my dry mix instead of just flour... a salty sweet crust is just divine. okay, i'll have to work on these this month. going to get some ingredients now.... Oh Butterscotch - those sound heavenly. I do love the infamous NM cookie recipe as well. Oh please do try again to get that recipe and share. I could taste it through your description. Salt is so very important to me - it is by far my favorite spice. ←

i am super excited about this. my fave choc chip cookie is made by a neighbor who will not give out the recipe. there's a bit of oatmeal in thee with the usual ingredients, and salty- buttery bottom that is almost lacy. It has the perfect texture- lumpy and chewy in just the middle and a nice salty crisp edge. i'm hopeful the secret will be discvered on this thread. It's promsing everyone so far has called out the salt as important. I think we're already on the right track. Yum.

omigosh, i almost forgot The Sand Bar, Jersey City... it's a harbour seting, nautical, but nice. Very casual, has parking and ferry service nearby to NY.

the bar on the pier in Point Pleasant Beach leave's you right at the ocean's edge. i was there one day after a storm and the waves were so high we got splashed... plus you can say hi to your friends at the office by waving to them on the Tiki Cam! www.tikibar.com

after reading the CB meeting coverage at Eater..... i find it way disturbing that an owner would admittedly harass the tenant upstairs by contacting his employers- hoping to cause him the loss of work. That is so sleazy- my jaw dropped. To a certain extent these rulings are heavily influenced by whether the players involved are believed to be acting in good faith. By harassing the tenant in that manner, they gave him the upper hand. Foolish and creepy. What a shame, it was a cute place.

hey you are in luck- pepperidge farm has a new cocunut cookie that's quite good(the name escapes me know, but I beleive it also sounds tropical) ... no chocolate, but otherwise it may well be that cookie we both remember! do you recall another coconut cookie they had without chocolate- it was ONLY available in the large mixed boxes (never earned it's own bag) Like you, i bought entire boxes just for a few of these- they had an almost bubbly airy look to them- like there must have been egg whites, but they were not as fine tesxtured as merangues... they were very light and crisp with a heady coconut aroma... I have been looking for years to find a recipe for a similar textured cookie. to no avail.

Medieval Times? The meads on me... I'm so sorry I don't have a suggestion for you- sneak down 1+ 9 to Elizabeth for some righteous BBQ. Good luck!

Mine is just cooling now, but I believe I can answer you this- I parbaked just 6-7 minutes- just enough to dry out the dough, not give it any color, and it's burnt after just a half hour. I think this filling gets super extra hot, maybe it's the sugar in the crust too? The pie itself looks great, and I was thinking, like you, and the directions from Dufours that I could parbake just a little bit, , but this crust is burnt. Burnt butter crust and burnt butter pecan pie. At least it's thematic. :shrug:

Okay, it is FINALLY in the oven. I settled on a hybrid recipe based on the brown butter one on pg 1 of this thread. but since I was concerned my brown sugar was a bit hard and dry and couldn't get together 2 cups to pack, I added some Lyles (maybe 2oz)) and a bit more tha a TB of molasses. Well the brown sugar melted well although a good deal of the butter stayed separate , I tempered the eggs using that butter,and they combined smoothly. As someone suggested I used a combo of vanilla AND bourbon. In the meantime I ruined one Dufour's pate brisse crust- It shrank and the bottom made a disk while the sides came apart as a cylinder. I followed their directions to the letter and it came out very shrunken and uneven....so - I decided to do a shorter (6 minutes) par bake on my extra crust and at first when i took it out, it started to stick to the top layer of pie pan (they come sandwiched between two foil pans which you keep on it to parbake) Then I realized the crust is 8" and the recipe- and the pie crust shield I have are for 9" pies. So I eyeballed it, filled it to within 3/8- 1/2" of the edge of the pie pan, and used a safety pin to shorten the silicone shield Whew! And I'm guessing 1/2 hour in stead of 40 min now.... Now I'm going to use the discarded bits of crust #1 layered with leftover filling and nuts and make a few in pyrex ramekins. I will mix in a few walnuts as someone else upthread suggested, and see how that goes. I figure, I have to do something with this filling. My first pie should be out of the oven in about 15 minutes, and it's smelling very good already! I will try and get some pics to post for you all. Thanks so much for all the ideas!

not too late- i was hijacked into making brownies instead, and am baking this weekend instead! I'm going to try the combo, thanks...... as far as the corn syrupaphobia goes: well, maybe i am wrong, but i associate it with the gloppy flavorless qualities in most common pecan pie fillings. it seems to me to be more flavorless than even white sugar! LOL. i prefer brown sugars, caramelly flavor and i know i can acheive that by scorching white sugar (i love candied nuts and brittles) , but white corn syrup? I bought Lyle's golden, Barley syrup, and molasses all in an attempt to avoid it! LOL. I'm liking this browned butter idea from the combined thread! Very much. I will try and post pics and will certainly report back. Don;t tell anyone, it;s my first pie since high school!

Hal Mon Welsh Smoked salt....Lovely on chocolate. may i suggest melting the chocolate on a piece of toast sprinkled with walnut oil and then the Hale Mon crystals. Idea stolen from Fernan Adria, who used Olive Oil.

I got pretty much all the ingredients, not the muscavado which I have to find out what it is first!!, but...i do have the fabulous Dufours pate sucre crust and a huge shipment of Georgia pecans...... but I'm hoping to make something a tad less gooey and one dimensional than the typical corn syrup version... this thinking brought me to this no corn syrup version which has the unusual additions of a little flour and milk: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pecan-Pie-V/Detail.aspx except for the fact it's an ugly pie, it did get raves, but again, it's darned ugly. Ayone ever have this? Sounds a bit cookie/ blondieish.... So I looked some more and found this bloggers final version which has butter and brown sugar and a bit less corn syrup than usual and looks just gorgeous: http://appetitivebehavior.blogspot.com/200...ii-we-have.html then I saw it's just a souped up gooey classic so I looked at that bloggers earlier attempts and saw how she tried a really interesting version by Thomas Keller with molasses and bourbon and muscavado sugar (?!) which she botched (sounds undercooked) but sounds tasty all right.... http://nymag.com/restaurants/articles/recipes/pecanpie.htm So for my fist attempt, do I add a little flour and milk to the Thomas Keller version- and maybe use Lyles Golden or Barley sugar syrup instead of the dreaded Karo? (Confession: I have been hoarding anything but Karo syrups for just this occasion) I also have Turbinado, can I sub this for the muscavado sugar? Can I just put in less filling to get less goo? And the blindbaking the crust, the jury it seems is still out on that one, any suggestions? I also saw some toffee and butterscoth versions but nothing that seemed really tasty although of course, I love that idea! C'mon gulleteers! These pecans are burning a hole in my cupboard and I'm scared!

my waffle secret to rich but light- buy mix with no fat in it so you can use butter- (peperidge farm is my fave) and then, cut in the butter cold, makes it very rich but still light! ...... i usually do the whole box at once and freeze it. i also always separate the eggs and fold in an extra white or so..... my fave add in : fresh grated orange peel and pecans, or lemon peel and walnuts. if you add a little bit of sugar to the recipe, you dont need but a drop of syrup. yum! i'm going to have to try the yeast raised now......