Panaderia Canadiense

Time to resurrect this thread again! I've got one that would make Julia Child either spin in her grave or give me a big hug. I present: Chicken Cordon Bleu Empanadas. They're in Challah dough; in place of rolled breast they're made with minced chicken and tiny cubes of ham suspended in a mushroom cream sauce, and the cheese is a mixture of mozzarella and sharp white cheddar (as proper Swiss is hard to come by here). They are delicious.

I've been so busy that I've been remiss in posting. So, something really sinful after those yummy looking bran muffins: Death By Chocolate Cheesecake.

Emmalish, what did you use to get that pattern on the tops of the peanut butter cookies? Meat tenderizing hammer?

JAZ, just out of curiosity, where are you? Your altitude may also be playing a factor in falling cakes.

I have an assortment of metal loaf pans, in lead-free tinned steel, non-stick coated aluminium, and black steel (these last are my great gran's). And I'm with everybody else - $20 is way too much to spend on them. I generally won't lay out more than $3 unless I'm having one custom made for some specific purpose. I have never had an issue with leavened bread sticking to any of them - the trick in everything but nonstick is baker's grease (a paste mixture of butter and flour) and in the non-sticks it's simply butter. For fruitcakes and fruit breads I line with parchment regardless of the pan type.

Did you treat it at all before it went into the pressure cooker? It sounds like what you've got is choclomote, which is typically soaked in a bit of lye water for about 2-3 hours before rinsing and pressure-cooking. It's meant to be chewy but also a bit fluffy.

I'm about to embark upon an odyssey of discovery with Achokcha. I'd appreciate any pointers any of you might have; my first impression is that I ought to stuff some with spicy ground beef and top with cheese, and broil them.

I've tried diluting - I have about 500 mL of it at 40% by volume, and it still kicks like a mule. Diluting doesn't do the flavour any favours either, which is why I'm keeping the rest at a higher proof.

Here's a question (this thread is fascinating reading!) I've got a couple of litres of high-proof vodka (80% by volume) infused with coffee from very nice medium-roast single plantation beans. At the moment drinking it neat, it's like being hit on the head with an espresso sledgehammer. I've been experimenting with it; thus far the best of the blends has about 1% vanilla by volume and about 100g/L of sugar via a concentrated medium-gold panela syrup. It's still like being hit on the head, but this time by a Cuban coffee sledgehammer. Any suggestions? It's got a round, complex, bitter profile on its own (enough to make me want to play around with a bit of it and maybe some herbs to create a coffee-centric bitters), and the panela syrup improves it but there's still something missing. I'm seriously toying with the idea of infusing some dark chocolate into it to see if I can get a mochaccino effect, but I'm having a really hard time balancing the bitterness.

I use 100% grain alcohol (so what's that, about 190 proof?) and stuff it more than right full with lemon zest, and I always get a clear result. However, I allow much longer for infusion than most (2-3 months is normal) before triple-filtering and adjusting. I am on my 20th or so batch now (my friends can't get enough of the stuff!) and all have been clear. The almighty internets have an answer for us! - from http://ask.metafilter.com/182844/I-wanna-come-down-from-this-cloudThis makes sense - I keep my limoncello around 50% alcohol, so the terpenes never precipitate out. Now I'm really tempted to try a "light" batch, adding water and simple until I do get clouding.

I've got one that cuts beautifully with very little crumb disturbance. Made the way I do, with panela (raw sugar) it's a pleasant browny-beige colour, but I suspect that if one were to use white sugar it would be considerably lighter.... Let me go find the recipe. Edit - found it! It was even on here in an excess applesauce thread. Here you go. This is great-great gran's recipe, and the only liquid in it is the applesauce (which accounts for its full apply flavour as well as its moisture.) This scale of the recipe makes either two small cakes (about 18 cm each) for layering or one 27 cm diameter honker. The recipes scales extremely well. 1.5 C sweet butter, no other 1.5 C brown sugar / panela 1.5 C applesauce 3 eggs 3 C AP flour 1 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 0.5 tsp sea salt 3 tsp cinnamon 0.75 tsp nutmeg 1.5 tsp ginger 0.75 C raisins 0.75 C chopped walnuts -- Preheat your oven to medium (350 F / 180 C) 1. Cream together butter and sugar; once fluffy, add applesauce and beat to mix. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well. 2. Combine flour, leavens, salt, and spices. Sift into wet. 3. Stir until just combined. The batter should be fairly stiff. 4. Fold in nuts and raisins. 5. Drop into a prepared (waxed/greased/floured) cake pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until an inserted pick comes out clean - your times may be longer due to lower altitudes. I like to ice this with thick Manjar de Leche, and if you've made two cakes for layering the filling is definitely Manjar with some extra chopped walnuts sprinkled on top.

I'm wondering why I should rush out and buy a set of expensive squirt bottles, when the (identical other than the branding graphics) ones I've got cost 50 cents each? Linda - have you tried a strip of t-tape (found in the plumbing section of the hardware store) to fix the poor cap fit? It works better than plastic wrap.

I don't care what anybody says, that looks delicious. I'd eat it.

I'm going to go with Supersized everything. I don't need enough food to feed a small army when what I'm after is a snack.

Huiray: the asian flavour influence in Peruvian cuisine varies with the dish. There are some things that taste almost Thai, while other things are more Punjabi, there are some meat dishes that would be entirely at home in Turkey, and yet others are Japanese in influence. I'd say that gfweb was being completely accurate.

It should. If you use fairly large pieces of garlic, you shouldn't need to strain the oil at all (just pick them out) but you'll still get the effect you're after. Barring this, I'd try a sunlight extraction of garlic cloves into the oil, which in my experience produces a really pleasant, subtle garlic note.

I've never actually followed a recipe for margarita pie..... Generally, I was taught that a margarita has, in the nipple of the glass, a bit of grenadine or maraschino which can be stirred into the drink for those who prefer a sweeter cocktail. When I make margarita pies, I generally remove about 1/4 of the filling mixture and add a shot (1 oz) of grenadine to it, then put this into the shell first, and float the remainder of the filling on top. This simulates both the look and the flavour of the cocktail as I was taught to mix it. Edited because for some reason it posted before I was done.....

As in, one stroke away from yourself, one stroke towards? I can do that, but it's not as comfortable.

I peel away from myself and love the OXO-syle straight peeler for this. However, for making chifles and other chips, I've got a nice wide Y-peeler. For this application, the Y-shape can't be beat. Now here's a thought. Both styles of peeler are available quite cheaply, often at dollar stores. You could easily buy one of each in the cheapo types to find out which one you prefer, then make the outlay for OXO or Rosle once you know.

If you thicken some of it down, you can use it in place of grenadine in the red layer of a margarita pie. It's a different twist on that flavour, one that should marry well with the others.

I've heard of sarsaparilla in rum - it adds a really neat note in spiced rum, often something that can't be immediately identified by the taster. I don't recognize the sticks, but there may be some reaction when they're steeped in alcohol that you don't perceive when simply chewing them. I'd try extracting one into neutral spirit (like Everclear) and then tasting that to see what the flavour effect is.

Also free of fun?

Another vote for marbled white chocolate ganache. If you make a thick enough ganache, it behaves exactly the way you're describing when it gets cold.

I'm hesitant to make a recommendation on this thread, because I doubt that what I buy here is even available outside of Ecuador, but on the off chance: I use primarily a fragrant, high-fat content cocoa powder produced by Kallari, which is a non-alkalized and which is a gorgeous red-black colour. If you do come across it, it's worth whatever price is being charged.

Yet another coconut chiffon cake (this one family! I swear....) Above was my grumpy friend Tuny's grumpy cake. This is his grandfather, who is a rabid fan of the Barcelona football team. I'm not sure that it's all that visible in the photo, but his head is photoshopped onto the yellow-jerseyed player's body. Edited because the photo didn't want to show up for some reason....