Lisa2k

Thanks so much for the advice, Amrita. I'll definitely be heeding it. Having said that..I couldn't agree more about a good portion of the pistachio pastes you can purchase. None of them are anywhere near as good as when you make it yourself (well, that's the old culinary adage). As for the coarse bits..this is why my wrist and forearm are currently sore. I wouldn't stop until I crushed every one of those bits into a silky powder before adding anything else. Ouch, but worth it. Finally, I checked out your Flickr page, and your macarons (and pretty much everything else you create) are incredible. The flavor combos you come up with are so creative and mouth watering, not to mention, they look gorgeous! I wanted to grab the lime macarons, with the lime gelee, right out of the photo!

I just realized, the above question about adding pistachio paste to the actual macaron cookie wasn't worded correctly. What I want to know is, since I've only used ground pistachios, almonds and castor sugar in my macarons, is it possible to use pistachio paste along with the almond-castor sugar meal and , and if so, can it be added to a more stable swiss or italian meringue during beating, or just the egg whites as I add the sugar? OR, would it be better to add some pistachio paste to the almond-castor sugar meal, and give it a whiz in the robocoupe, then fold in as usual? I'm sorry for the persistance, but I really want to incorporate this wonderful paste into the actual cookie, and not just the filling. I spent almost an hour with the mortar and pestle getting a perfectly, slightly sweet (simple syrup), smooth paste, and it's so incredibly flavorful, as all the oils just exploded out of those nuts.

I read somewhere that the chick who won the cookie challenge, is a cookie expert who's written several cookbooks about them which you can buy on Amazon. Apparently, some fans (I know..strange indeed) of the show were pretty pissed off about it. Bottom line..this show fits right in with what the Food Network has become the past several years, a bunch of entertainment mishmash, with the focus being more on the host(s) and the crappy food he/she/they prepare(s) playing second banana. OK, maybe that's a good thing . Personally, I can barely stomach it, and get my cooking show 'fix' on PBS and local access channels. Having said all that..Guy FieTTTTTi (what's up with the faux 'italian' accent?) and RR need to be sent somewhere FAR, FAR, FAR away, where TV cameras are rare or not in existance (wishful thinking).

OR, you can make them yourself. I think I've either cracked, or came close to cracking the recipes for their Chocolate Chip Walnut and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter chip cookies. **Lisa's Levain Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (**Yields 1 dozen cookies) Ingredients 2 sticks 'cold and cubed' unsalted butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups AP flour (feel the dough, it should be moist, kind of like cold cookie dough in a tube.. but not super sticky, so you can portion the cookies with your hands) 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt 3/4-1 teaspoon baking powder ( I don't fill the tsp fully, hence the 3/4 tsp) 1/4 tsp baking soda 2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (I used half semisweet and half milk chocolate) 1 cup walnuts (I used macadamia since I was out of walnuts) Toast the nuts for more flavor, if desired. Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time.. and beat until well incorporated, then add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chips or chunks and nuts. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions, **about 4 oz each.. Place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven 16-23 minutes depending on how gooey and raw'ish you like the middles (I bake mine at 375 for 18-20 minutes, as I prefer a less raw interior), until very lightly browned, taking care not to overbake. Let cool on rack and store what you don't immediately eat, in an airtight container. To freshen them after a few days (if they last that long), give them a quick nuke in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. ***Lisa's Levain Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut butter Chip Cookies (**Yields 1 dozen cookies) Ingredients 2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1/4 to 1/2 cup good quality dark cocoa powder (I use Dutch Process) 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp Kosher salt 3/4 to 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks 2 cups peanut butter chips Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugar until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well-incorporated, then beat in cocoa powder. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder until just combined. Gently fold in peanut butter chips and chocolate chips or chunks. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions, **about 4 oz each, and place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven 16-20 minutes depending on how gooey and raw'ish you like the middles (I bake mine at 375 for 18 minutes, as I prefer a less raw'ish' interior), taking care not to overbake. . Let cool on a rack and store what you don't immediately eat, in an airtight container. To freshen them after a few days (if they last that long), give them a quick nuke in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. Note - The Levain Bakery doesn't use vanilla extract in their cookies, as they feel it's unecessary. However, some feel you need it. You can add 1 tsp to each recipe if desired. Just add it after each egg is incorporated. ** Note - The Levain Bakery uses 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie.. If you want 12 cookies out of the above recipes, a little over 4 oz per cookie (4.1 to 4.2 oz. Use a kitchen scale) will get you that. If you want to use 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie, you'll probably get only 6-8 cookies. However, a little over 4 oz makes a cookie just as thick and huge, so you don't even notice the difference. *** Note - Regarding the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies. I used Dutch-process cocoa. If you use basic, natural unsweetened cocoa (you know, your basic Hershey's in the brown can or whatever), add 1/4 tsp baking soda to the dry ingredients. Also, if they're too 'chocolatey' and rich for you, use only 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and add 1/4 cup extra flour. **** Note - If you want a more caramel'y' CC cookie, increase the brown sugar while decreasing the white sugar in the recipe, so you still have a total of 1 1/2 cups sugar. Levain Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut cookie Levain Copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Interior Levain Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip cookie Levain Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Interior

Lisa's Copycat recipe for Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter chip cookies Serves 12 as Dessert. After a few attempts, I think I finally cracked, or came close to cracking the Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Walnut and Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter chip cookies. Mind you, I doubt I nailed their exact measurements, and maybe they use a flour other than AP (cake, pastry, or combos of flours), but they sure look, taste and 'feel' just like them. Enjoy! Lisa's Levain Bakery copycat Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies (**Yields 1 dozen cookies) <center> <img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1206886386/gallery_59301_5864_40960.jpg"> </center> Ingredients 2 sticks 'cold and cubed' unsalted butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups AP flour (feel the dough, it should be moist, kind of like cold cookie dough in a tube.. but not super sticky, so you can portion the cookies with your hands) 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt 3/4-1 teaspoon baking powder ( I don't fill the tsp fully, hence the 3/4 tsp) 1/4 tsp baking soda 2 cups good quality semisweet chocolate chips or chunks (I used half semisweet and half milk chocolate) 1 cup walnuts (I used macadamia since I was out of walnuts) Toast the nuts for more flavor, if desired. Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugars until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time.. and beat until well incorporated, then add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Gently fold in chocolate chunks and nuts. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions, **about 4 oz each.. Place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper and bake in the preheated oven 16-23 minutes depending on how gooey and raw'ish you like the middles (I bake mine at 375 for 18-20 minutes, as I prefer a less raw interior), until very lightly browned, taking care not to overbake. Let cool on rack and store what you don't immediately eat, in an airtight container. To freshen them after a few days (if they last that long), give them a quick nuke in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. ***Lisa's Levain Copycat Dark Chocolate Peanut butter Chip Cookies (**Yields 1 dozen cookies) <center> <img src="http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/1206903687/gallery_59301_5864_14712.jpg"> </center> Ingredients 2 sticks cold and cubed unsalted butter 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1/4 to 1/2 cup good quality dark cocoa powder 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp Kosher salt 3/4 to 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 cups peanut butter chips Directions Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle, cream together butter and sugar until well blended and fluffy. Add eggs and beat until well-incorporated, then beat in cocoa powder. Mix in flour, salt and baking powder until just combined. Gently fold in remaining ingredients. Transfer dough to clean work surface and gently mix dough by hand to ensure even distribution of ingredients. Divide into 12 equal portions, **about 4 oz each, and place each on sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake in the preheated oven 16-20 minutes depending on how gooey and raw'ish you like the middles (I bake mine at 375 for 18 minutes, as I prefer a less raw'ish' interior), taking care not to overbake. . Let cool on a rack and store what you don't immediately eat, in an airtight container. To freshen them after a few days (if they last that long), give them a quick nuke in the microwave for 5-10 seconds. ** - The Levain Bakery uses 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie.. If you want 12 cookies out of the above recipes, a little over 4 oz per cookie (4.1 to 4.2 oz. Use a kitchen scale) will get you that. If you want to use 6 oz of cookie dough per cookie, you'll probably get only 6-8 cookies. However, a little over 4 oz makes a cookie just as thick and huge, so you don't even notice the difference. *** - Regarding the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies. I used Dutch-process cocoa. If you use basic, natural unsweetened cocoa (you know, your basic Hershey's in the brown can or whatever), add 1/4 tsp baking soda to the dry ingredients. Also, if they're too 'chocolatey' and rich for you, use only 1/4 cup cocoa powder, and add 1/4 cup extra flour. Note1 - The Levain Bakery doesn't use vanilla extract in their cookies, as they feel it's unecessary. However, some feel you need it. You can add 1 tsp to each recipe if desired. Just add it after each egg is incorporated. Note2 - If you like a more 'brown sugary' chocolate chip cookie, increase the brown sugar and decrease the white sugar, so you still have a total of 1 1/2 cups sugar total. Keywords: Dessert, Cookie, Easy, American, Chocolate, Snack ( RG2116 )

First off, I just want to start by saying I'm a newbie, and this is my first post. I've been reading the messages here on and off for several years, and finally decided to join in, since, in my opinion.. egullet is the best 'all things culinary' message forum on the net. That said..Jeff, the flavor combo of your macarons sound spectacular, not to mention they look beautiful. I was thinking of doing a colorful array of macarons for a party, starting with a bright green pistachio, possibly filled with a whipped white chocolate ganache. I would love to incorporate some great pistachio paste I made into the meringue, and was wondering if it would be better to whip it in with a swiss meringue, since it's more stable or just egg whites and sugar?

Korean BBQ pork buns (like the ones they sell at the Korean bakeries) Serves 10 as Main Dish. To start off, these pork buns are very similar to Chinese pork buns (Char Siu Bao), but they're baked instead of steamed Korean Bakeries have always been a favorite of mine. The delicous buns, filled with sweet or savory fillings are so hard to resist. For the longest time, I've been trying to figure out how to achieve that soft, perfectly textured 'baked' bun dough they use, but I never had much luck. I tried many soft bun and dinner roll recipes, but it was never like the bun dough at those bakeries. The top would crisp a little too much, (even when I tried baking them at lower temperature or for less time), or the flavor and/or texture just wasn't right. I can't tell you how many times I practically begged for their secrets, but just got responses along the lines of "Not sure", or "It's just bread dough". 'Just bread dough??' Umm, yes,I know, but what do you put in it besides yeast, liquid (milk? water?) and flour? LOL One day, I received an issue of Relish Magazine in the mail. In it was a recipe for soft dinner rolls. Not even thinking about the Korean buns, it was simply a dinner roll I wanted to try. After tweaking it a tiny bit (I prefer whole milk to low fat in all recipes, unless I feel it's absolutely necessary to use low fat, after testing/tasting it), and baking/tasting the rolls, I knew instantly that this one could be IT, and I just HAD to pair this dough with the Char Siu like pork in Korean BBQ sauce, to see if I could come any closer to recreating those lovely, soft, flavorful buns. Lo and behold, I nailed it. That said, when it comes to portioning the dough and how much filling to use, I kind of just eyeball it, but I'll do my best to be as precise as I can with the instructions, based on estimations. You don't want to use too much dough for each bun, as they need to rise, and you would end up with a bun that's too 'bready' when opposed to the BBQ pork filling. On the flip side, you don't want too little bun dough, and too much pork filling, as it would probably split open upon rising and/or baking. For the BBQ pork, I referred to a recipe for Chinese pork buns by Wayne Hu, but once again, tweaked it a bit to my own taste. Bun dough Ingredients (I halved the original recipe) 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup whole milk (room temperature) 2 1/4 cups bread flour 1/4 ounce active dry yeast 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons sugar 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1 egg 1 egg, beaten Instructions 1. Mix milk, flour, yeast, salt, sugar, butter and eggs using a dough hook at low speed. Increase speed to medium, and mix until dough, when stretched, forms a fine membrane or window (about 15 minutes). 2. Transfer dough to an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 1 hour. In the mean time, prepare BBQ pork filling. Roast Pork Ingredients 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1/4 cup ketchup 2 tablespoons soy sauce 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce 1 tablespoon dry sherry 1 garlic clove -- minced 1 tsp toasted sesame oil 1 1/2 pounds boneless pork chops or steaks (1/2 inch thick) Directions 1. Preheat oven to 375F. Line a sheet pan with foil or parchment paper. 2. In a blender container or food processor bowl with metal blade, combine all roast pork ingredients except pork; blend until smooth. 3. Generously brush both sides of the pork chops or steaks, reserving remaining basting sauce. Place pork steaks on lined pan and bake at 375F for 30 minutes. Remove pork from oven. Brush both sides of steaks or chops with remaining basting sauce. Bake an additional 10 to 20 minutes or until no longer pink in the center. Remove from oven, let cool. 4. When cool, chop the pork into small cubes, and place in the refrigerator until ready to combine with the sauce. Sauce Ingredients 1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 tablespoon dry sherry 1 tablespoon peanut oil 1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped water chestnuts 1 large clove of garlic, minced 1 tablespoon soy sauce 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil 1/2 cup chicken stock or broth Directions 1. In small bowl or cup, combine the 1 Tbsp of cornstarch and 1 Tbsp sherry. Blend well. 2. Heat oil in wok or large skillet over high heat. Add onion and water chestnuts, cook and stir 2 to 3 minutes or until onion begins to soften and turn slightly golden. Add garlic, and cook for another minute (be careful it doesn't burn). Add the 1 Tbsp soy sauce and 1 Tbsp hoisin sauce to the pan and stir to coat. Add broth and toasted sesame oil and stir until combined. Let cook for about 1 more minute. 3. Stir in cornstarch mixture, and cook while stirring until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat, and stir in the chopped pork. Transfer to a bowl, and let cool, then refrigerate until ready to fill the buns. Method/Directions for filling and baking buns 1. Line a large sheet pan (about 12 x 17) with parchment paper. 2. Gently deflate risen dough, and portion it into about 10-12 2 or 3 oz pieces. Roll each into a ball, and cover with plastic wrap and a towel, let rest for about 5-10 minutes. 3. Taking out one ball at a time, (keeping the others covered until ready to roll) on a lightly floured board, roll it into a 4 to 5-inch circle. Place about 1/4 cup, or a little more (or less -- like I said, I eyeball this part) of the cooled pork filling into the center of the circle, and gather up the edges, twisting and pinching to seal tightly. Place on parchment lined sheet, and repeat with the rest of the cooled pork filling and dough balls, until you have 10-12 buns on the sheet. 4. Cover with plastic wrap sprayed with a little vegetable oil, and let the buns rise about 30 to 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350F. 5. Brush rolls with beaten egg. Bake anywhere from 12 to 18 minutes until golden brown. Let cool a little on a wire rack, then enjoy! Note - You can use any kind of filling you want with this fabulous bun dough -- like the ones the Korean bakeries use, such as red bean paste, curried beef, custard (thick pastry cream), chicken filling, ham and cheese etc.., or any kind of filling that suits your fancy, as long as it isn't too loose or runny. - Keywords: Pork, Bread, Intermediate, Korean, Snack, Lunch ( RG2122 )