Panaderia Canadiense

+1 for Turkey Chili. I also like to make turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce empanadas in plantain dough. ETA - I don't know how you United-Statesians do it, though. I couldn't handle two major turkey-oriented feast days so close together.

I think there's also a huge difference between "leave the onion off my hamburger" and "remove all of the mushrooms from my lasagne" - the first is a reasonable and easy to accomodate request, whereas the second is pure asshattery. The difference between being a good restauranteur is knowing where that line is, and never ever letting customers cross it. As a catering baker, I have no problem doing certain substitutions ("leave the cheese off my quinua bagels", for example, is something I'll do without blinking. Ditto to "please make the cake with stevia instead of sugar.") However, I do draw a line - usually it's somewhere around "I'd like a carrot cake, but without the carrots in it." ETA - I should mention that every request used in this example is one I've actually had made to me. I think I told the no mushrooms guy that if he really hated them that much, he should either order something else or just pick them out himself and shut the hell up about it.

Yeah, but the spoilage date is so far off into the future that it's negligible. I'll continue to maintain that they're perfect jungle food. Even Army Ants won't touch a Twinkie.

I also collect these things, and I have yet to get one here in Ecuador that is less than 4-colour on glossy. Then again, I can get A5 glossy two-sides in 4-colour for about 0.15 US each on offset runs of 1000. For my seasonal menus and holiday specials, I always do this - it's more than worth it.

Radtek: Jaymes is often kidding, and definitely is in this case. After all, Twinkies are the perfect jungle food: they never rot, and the bugs won't eat them....

Turkey sauteed in mango chutney, on a bed of cheesy mashed potatoes.

So, I finally got around to filtering and mixing the stuff I put on, oh, what was that? Nearly a year ago? No matter - the long extraction process doesn't seem to have hurt it any, and the peels in the jar have gone to a blah-beige colour, which was unexpected. Here's my finished product: (please ignore the mountain of dishes I haven't put away yet...) And here's my question: most of y'all show off cloudy, sunshiney Limoncellos. What's the trick? Did I need to add the simple syrup while it was still warm?

Strange. Now I'm wondering if they're not extracting or refining further than they should - that will also contribute to a loss of that bouquet. There's no way to sniff the piloncillo before you buy it, is there?

I use a blend of 75% and 95% which evens out to 85% overall in my icing ganaches... I add no sugar whatsoever, apart from a teensy bit of corn syrup (15 mL) to help with the emulsion. I'd play around a bit - maybe try making ganaches (small batches) with just the 85% and just the 75%, comparing the flavours, and then try blending after that. The bigger key is to use a small amount of butter to improve the final texture - there isn't a whole lot of fat in the high-solids chocolates, and adding just a hint of butter goes a very long way. If you like, my formula is in the recent Ganache thread.

Absolutely, there are different grades and types. The best will come from drought-season cane; those are the blocks with that wonderful aroma you're missing. Wet-season cane produces much more volume, but has much less concentrated flavour. Gauge by colour - the darker, the better.

Then just boil it longer. I use the same recipe as Ruth does, and I've found that (at my altitude at least) an extra 10-15 minutes of cooking after the sugar stage, until the sauce coats a metal spoon and sheets reluctantly (it should be crazy sticky) gives me a gel that will set up perfectly.

I'm very fond of Repe Negro, which allows the flavour of the beans to shine: 2 green plantains 500g fresh black beans (or the same weight of dried, soaked, rinsed, and drained. I've never used canned.) 4 largeish potatoes Water to cover Salt and pepper to taste 1 clove of garlic 250 mL cream (I use the heaviest cream I can get my paws on) about 500g fresh cheese (Queso Fresco is my default; this is also quite tasty with drained cottage cheese or Ricotta.) Cilantro to garnish Avocado halves Peel the plantains and break into chunks. Peel the potatoes and cut into chunks. Clean the beans. Place all that in a pot with water to cover, the garlic, and a dash of salt, and boil until the plantains and beans are tender (at this point, the potatoes will be cooked), skimming any scum that forms. Transfer this (edit: the veggies and their liquid) to the blender and pulse until creamy and relatively lump-free. It may take a couple of batches to liquify it all. Return the now liquified soup to the pot and stir in the cream. If the soup seems too cool, warm over low heat. Crumble in the cheese and stir again*. Serve with half an avocado floating in the bowl, and sprinkle with cilantro. * you may also choose to add about half the cheese at the blender stage. This makes the repe seem richer.

Maybe try using less, or else add it to melted butter, solidify that, and use the flavoured butter in place of adding the oils neat.

Not off the top of my head - I haven't made herbal ice creams in some time. IIRC, though, what I was doing was infusing cream with fresh lavender blossoms and then making ice cream according to my favourite vanilla recipe and simply omitting the vanilla. I see no reason that this wouldn't work with the dried lavender or with the essential oil, although I'd try a small batch of both to check - I'd expect the essential oil to produce a much stronger flavour than the dried herb.

I'd want a very mild sherbet, like Rose, Passionflower, or perhaps Lavender to cleanse the palate and allow for a deeper appreciation of the chocolate, myself....

I was taught that true Marzipan has the flavours of the almond paste used in it, and a mild flavour of rosewater, and that no other flavouring agents are added (no almond oil, no vanilla, etc.) The minute other flavours are added or the rosewater subtracted, you're no longer dealing with the original Arabic recipes.

I'm similar in that I'd prefer my cream with just cream ... What is nata? I couldn't find much with a Google search. Nata is the thickest part of separated whole cream, when your whole cream has a fat content of over 35%. It's roughly equivalent to North American double cream.

How strongly scented are they? If they're particularly perfumey, you might want to consider making rosewater with them first, and then using that to flavour the baking (apart from rose-infused cream, which sounds like a divine center for dark chocolate....) With rosewater, you can start to consider things like proper Marzipan and Turkish Delight as well.

I have always, and probably will always, prefer the flavour and texture of cream that rises fresh to the top of whole milk. For me, carrageenan changes something fundamental about the texture in a way that I don't like even a little bit - it seems almost slimy in my mouth, which is one of the few textures I can't abide. There's also a big, big difference in the flavours of NorAm cream as opposed to what I get here in Ecuador, which has less to do with the cream itself and more to do with the diet of the cows and the breeds used (apart from the various additives, of course). Down here, as I've mentioned in other threads, I barter with a farmer who has Guernsey cattle for my cream, which means it's whole and unpasteurized and a whole lot fattier and fuller of flavour than even comparably-handled cream from Holstein or Jersey cows. Returning to carrageenan, I'm also a big fan of the way that cream separates into crema and nata - I have specific uses for both parts of cream, and with commercial, stabilized creams I never get the nata. It's really not that much trouble at all to stir the two layers back together if I want whole cream. If you're not adverse to the texture that carrageenan gives to cream, then by all means don't worry about it. It's there to prevent the separation.

Shel, are you buying shelf-stable UHT cream, or is it in the dairy case? Shelf-stable UHT creams contain carrageenan as a stabilizer and emulsifier; dairy-case creams may contain it to extend their shelf lives and prevent the cream from separating unduly into crema and nata. (This is rarely the case with refrigerated cream in markets here, but in NorAm it was horrid - very difficult to find dairy-case creams without any additives.)

OK, how did I miss this thread the first time round? I'll weigh in from very earthquake-prone Ecuador (I was woken up the other day by a little one, just a 3.6, and I live in a city that has been absolutely leveled by earthquakes twice in its history. I'm less concerned when the volcano is active, but when it's quiet we get rumblers.) I have an earthquake bag at the ready; it contains (for my family of 3): water in non-reactive Nalgene type bottles, 4L thereof, which I change weekly, a rainwater catchment system with purifying carbon-filters four large bags of peanuts, an assortment of chocolate, rolls of gauze bandages a bottle of overproof rum (this is a disinfectant as well as a good remedy for shock) four complete sets of warm clothing (jackets, socks, sweaters etc.), Alpaca wool blankets (4), a folding shovel, my folding machete, strike-anywhere wooden matches a roll of twine, large needles, and a 3x3 m piece of rainproofed canvas. The whole schmoo weighs about 15 lbs and is close to the door for easy grabbing just in case. I am fortunate in that where I live, 4L of water will be sufficient until I can get to the spring, about 10 blocks from me, or the clean rivers, about 20 blocks. It also rains at least once a day during 90% of the year, which means that the catchment system can provide me with safe water for up to 3 months. I'm also a naturalist guide level III, which means I know exactly which of the boulevard plants in my area are edible or have edible parts (most of them - Ambato is big on edible greenscapes) and which ones have medicinal uses. Earthquake response here is such that if I don't get flattened under my house when a big one hits (unlikely - I choose houses with an eye to their resistance to seismic events; the one I'm currently in has 8" thick walls and triple bamboo reinforcement in place of rebar for more flex in large lateral quakes), I'll be found before I run out of anything. ETA: fuel is not on my list, because a) I have no car, b) I have no generator, and c) if the earthquake is bad enough that I need to use the kit, the roads are useless to anything but foot traffic, so it's illogical to store inflammibles with or near my food.

Can you get your hands on a whole Dorado (Mahi Mahi)? They're very unusual looking creatures and would respond well to that kind of plating. The other ideas I have are both expensive and difficult to source in Canada - whole piranha, steamed in banana leaf with garlic and taro root, is particularly delicious and a conversation starter; Arrowana is also extremely decorative and tasty, but I think you'd have to source it at pet stores.

This is pretty much a 100% inversion of what I do - I'm very nervous about adding a water-based ingredient (corn syrup) or liquor to a ganache in fear of breaking it. Do you slowly drizzle it in or dump all at once? I sometimes make a syrup of the liquor if I'm using a great deal by reducing it with the sweeteners. I've never, ever heard of mother of chocolate before, but I'll try and find some on your recommendation. I feel marginally less embarrassed of my ignorance on the basis that Google hasn't heard of it either. However, the big problem of the day seems to be that I'm using store-bought whipping cream, which I suspect is on the shallow side of 30%. How should I seek the good stuff? Also, infinite Internet kudos to anyone who can tell me how to add citrus oils (a la Boyajian) without breaking the ganache. I've never had a problem with cracking when I add glucose or corn syrup at that point - it gets drizzled in while stirring, just as the booze would. Both are water-based, but since they're added slowly and near the end of the process I've never ever had any issues. I have found, though, that my ganaches crack when I start with sweetened cream. Perhaps it's an altitude thing? Other than the corn syrup, I add no sweetening to my ganaches; they've got a complex bitter and fruity flavour from the Mother that I hate to hide. Mother of Chocolate is my direct, literal translation of a product I buy at the market (called Madre de Chocolate); it's pailettes of first-refining bitter chocolate with no sweetening and very little cocoa butter in it. It's used down here as a basis for making sweeter grades of chocolate and for making Ambato-style hot chocolate. I'll take a picture of some later today so that you know what you're looking for - it's incredibly bitter and very dry, and it's the main reason I add butter to the ganache preparation. The closest you'll find in North America is probably Mexican drinking chocolate tablets, unless you're very lucky and have an Ecuadorian market in your area (at which point, look for Chocolate Ambateño or Chocolate de Judith - those are the two most common export brands, both of which are produced in the city where I live). If you've still got no luck, pm me and we'll arrange something. I have absolutely no advice for you on how to find heavier cream. I buy mine directly from a farmer, and half the time it's a barter transaction. Citrus oils (and indeed any other aromatic oils) should be added at the same stage that you would butter - ie after the chocolate has emulsified. Then the overall temperature of the ganache will be low enough to prevent changing the flavour of the oils, and since they're oils they won't cause any problems vis a vis cracking.

I've never ever made ganache with a power tool before. What's your texture like? Particularly with dark chocolate, I'm always concerned about bruising it and the resulting separation and graininess that causes. Here's what I do: 18 oz (by measure) nata - the NorAm equivalent to this is, I believe, double cream 5 oz (by weight) 75% cocoa solids dark chocolate, chopped 5 oz (by weight) 99% cocoa solids mother of chocolate, chopped 0.5 oz (by measure) corn syrup 2 oz (by weight) sweet butter 2 oz (by measure) liquor. I'm very fond of Solera Reserva brandies, but both Rum and Kahlua are also quite pleasant, and on one memorable occasion I made B-52 (it didn't even last long enough to fill the chocolates I was working on! .) Scald the cream (at my altitude, that's about 200 F on the thermometer; I expect it's a higher temperature at sea level). Remove from the heat and add all of the chocolate, all at once. Stir gently with a sturdy hand whisk until the chocolate has completely melted into the cream, then add the corn syrup and butter and continue whisking gently until that's also well blended. Finally, add the liquor and whisk until just incorporated. This is a slightly softer ganache due to the presence of the liquor; if you omit it, the ganache will set a great deal harder. However, the flavour is heavenly and the texutre is silky and smooth.

And thank you all for coming along with me! Believe me, I'd like nothing better than to just keep travelling up the Ruta del Sol and eating seafood until I hit the city of Esmeraldas, but my bakery clients would all have heart attacks and suffer from severe cookie withdrawal symptoms if I did that.... As always, if you've got any questions about anything I ate, please feel free to ask, and if those of you who are saying you'd like to come see me are serious, the whales return to Puerto López in August and I'd be more than happy to show you around!