Panaderia Canadiense

As a French and Spanish speaker, I've always pronounced it ab-SANt(h) with the th sound pronounced more towards t than th.

I'd go with 20 minutes as well, and reduce the leavening just a tad (maybe 1/8 tsp) to prevent overflowing if it's normally a high cake. Dark metal muffin tins are deceptive and muffins cook much much faster than you think. Also it kind of goes without saying that you should toss your chopped nuts in a bit of flour before incorporating them into the batter, to keep them from all sinking to the bottom.

Awesome. Do you put the chocolate syrup on the glass before or after you build the drink? Before, then carefully pour from the shaker into the center of the glass. Done properly, the syrup stays put on the edges for quite some time, but still lends its flavour to the drink without causing clouds or muddiness.

I am unashamedy a fan of a drink called the Electric Tiger. This is white rum, orange juice, and Cointreau, and the glass is rimmed in chocolate syrup to provide the stripes. I'm also quite happy to drink Barley Sandwiches (black beer with a shot of scotch, boilermaker style).

Here in Ambato, there are a staggering three places that do it right: Oasis, Sebastian, and Il Fornace, although the baked goods at Fornace tend to be flan (if you're into that kind of thing, then spiffy.) I'm a catering baker, and I supply some of the things available at Sebastian; Oasis is the only one that bakes on-site. Unfortunately for me, Oasis does better coffee.....

I'd be looking at your chocolate as well - since you've switched you'll be seeing a different percentage of cocoa fats to solids, and this greatly affects the final behavior of anything made with the chocolate, but especially ganaches. The higher the cocoa fats, the more elastic the chocolate is at heart (that's why you can pour paper-thin coatings with milk or white chocolate and have them not crack, but when you try this with bittersweet or dark chocolates they fail miserably). Also, with the Callebaut, is that their couberture chocolate? Are you tempering it? If not, you might try that before adding it to your cream mixture. With the couberture chocolate types, tempering greatly improves performance and ensures a more even distribution of cocoa fats within the chocolate. This is an especially good idea when you mix two or more types of chocolate together, as you're doing with the Callebaut and Chocoa. This said, the ganache recipe I use has NEVER cracked on me, and I bake and glaze in what is substantially a desert. I've used this over caramel, over neat floured and flourless cakes, as a dip for decorative elements. It has never failed me. 10 oz black chocolate (I use a mixture of Superior 75% and Mother of Chocolate, which is something like 95% cacao solids - both of these are local, non-export products, unfortunately.) 3 tbsp butter 250 mL cream of the cream (nata; I guess that would be heavy cream in North America) Melt and temper the chocolate. Bring the cream to its scald point, then add the chocolate all at once and whisk until completely blended. Then add the butter in smallish lumps and whisk until incorporated. I normally add a bit of brandy to mine when glazing my chocolate cakes, and leave it neat for other uses.

Yucca-Cheese Bread and Yogurt. When the craving hits me I just have to head out to the nearest Yucca 'n' Yogurt outlet (names have been changed to protect the franchises) and eat far far too many of those tasty little bunlets, and wash it down with fresh-blendered peach yogurt. I always regret it, and often quite quickly since consuming that much Yucca makes one incredibly logy....

In Ecuador, no self-respecting chef will serve white Arepas - interesting to see the change as you cross the Andes! Here, we use gold precooked cornmeal (Harina de Arepas, literally "Arepa Flour" or Masarepa - the most popular brand is called Doñarepa) and allow it a 2-hour rest before forming small patties stuffed with queso fresco and diced green onions. This is fried in very little oil on large copper pans. Arepas done this way are one of my all-time favourite street foods, and I eat them every chance I get (although I'm usually too lazy to make my own!) Fedelst, here's hoping this doesn't come too late. You can make your own Queso de Mano (or Queso Fresco) quite easily if you're not averse to a little work. The best recipe I've made calls for 1 pint of heavy cream (nata) in 1 gallon of whole milk. This is scalded and then removed from the heat, and white vinegar is added by the tablespoonfull until curds start to form. The curds are drained, salted fairly heavily, and pressed into a cheese form, where they're allowed to drip for another hour or so. Hecho!

I'd add to this (since I've been investigating the history of bread in Ambato, where I live and have my bakery) that Ambato bread is generally considered to be superior for its finer texture and richer flavour, when compared to the breads of other cities. Speaking to the elderly bakers in the area reveals that Ambato was the first city to impose a fairly strict 3-rise process for wheat breads, which greatly improved their texture given the extreme altitude of the city. This rule continues to this day, which is why the bread here is still considered to be the best in the country. Having done my own experiments with yeast-leavened breads here (and I live at probably the highest possible altitude in the city, roughly 10,000 feet), I can tell you that the processes that work well in Quito (two rises, increased quantities of yeast) either fall absolutely flat here or produce bread that is so bubbly as to have little substance and poor texture. Equally, the single and double-rise processes I learned in Canada (near sea level) produce horrible results. However, the addition of an egg to the dough, slightly less yeast, and a longer process in rising coupled with an extra rise and punching, produces fine-textured, evenly and properly rising breads that are a pleasure to bake and eat - and regardless of the flour mix I choose to use! This makes sense given the general knowledge about altitude's effects on baked goods.... --- I've also got something to add about fine-textured indigenous white breads with chicha ferment leavening. These are generally made using a mixture of finely-ground white corn, yucca, and quinua flours (at least, according to my adopted abuela Delfina, who taught me her recipe and method) and when done properly have a flavour and texture on par with fine French wheat breads.

Canadian Bakin', what is your batter consistency like? If it's stiff enough to play with it a bit before you put the molds in the oven, you can try pushing it towards the edges of the molds - this seems to help me when I've got something that tends to dome (some of my cake recipes are terrible for doming, and I end up having to cut the tops off the cake before I can layer them... Meh, it's another story entirely.) The other thing you can try is reducing your leavening a bit and then filling the molds a bit more than you currently are, say 2/3 - this will slow your rise and should help eliminate doming. If you're seeing uneven rising, it might be as a result of your oven. Or, it might be the pan you're using to support your molds (I'm assuming you use a cookie sheet or something similar). If your oven rack permits, try doing away with the base pan - if it's part of the problem, it's because it's causing an uneven distribution of heat across the silicone - which would make sense if you're seeing the most warp in the edges of the mold.