Ling

I've bought pear cactus before at GI, just because it was one of the craziest looking things I'd ever seen. Very bland (at least the one I ate. I took a bite and threw it out.)

That's so cute! When my 4 year old cousin's foot was asleep, she came up to me and said, "My foot feels spicy!"

Aside from good chocolate, which is a permanent obsession, right now I'm liking: 1. lemon, esp. in a tangy lemon curd (right now I'm sandwiching lemon cream in between shortbread) 2. molasses, ground ginger, cinnamon 3. salted caramel/dark chocolate 4. dark chocolate/ginger

This is what I do too! It's one of my baking secrets that I came up with. Damn, I thought I was SO SMART...haha! Thanks everyone for the tea towel trick. I'm going to have to try it out.

Patrick S posted that he thinks SB cocoa is very bad, worse than Hershey's. I like their chocolate, but I'm somewhat hesitant to try the cocoa since no one else seems to use it in the Baking forum. Badiane: I use Fry's sometimes too

All the recipes I've come across look about the same...here's one http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/1/A01129.shtml

^Well...taste is subjective. But now that I think about it, I think I've had a cake made with Cacao Berry cocoa and I didn't think it was very special. But perhaps that's more a reflection on the recipe? I remember the cake to be very light in colour.

-chocolate cake -frozen Pierre Herme lemon cream (tastes better frozen, imo. Reminds me of a really dense lemony ice-cream) My desserts are pretty repetitive. Tomorrow, I'm hitting up 2 bakeries and getting lemon tarts at both places (came recommended by local Egulleters!)

Of course, I'm not hinging everything on a taste test. If I prefer the Valrhona to the other cocoas, then I'll go back to it. But I'm still curious right now as to where I can find the other cocoas I've listed.

^I have the book, and I'm familiar with that recipe--thank-you! I've never tried it though b/c the cottage cheese and the Neufachatel weirded me out...isn't that healthy stuff? That would be sacrilege to me. Do you like the dessert? I assume it has a lighter mouthfeel than regular cheesecake? Might give it a try if you like it!

I usually grab the Valrhona cocoa from Meinhardt and use in for my baking, but I've never paid much attention to whether it was good or not. (I prefer recipes with chocolate, and usually just use cocoa in small amounts, like in my brownie recipe.) My new favourite chocolate cake recipe, however, calls for a substantial amount of cocoa, so now I need to find something that might be better than the stuff I'm using--apparently, Valrhona rated dead last in the CI taste test. I'm looking for these brands, which someone recommended in the Pastry forum. -Callebaut cocoa (I don't like the chocolate for baking, but apparently their cocoa came in at No. 1 in the CI tasting) -Cacao Berry Extra Brute -Droste -Pernigotti Thanks!

I don't have a Wiliams Sonoma up here. I wish I knew that they had Pernigotti (I haven't tried it) when I was in the WS in Seattle a few days ago! I haven't really branched out in terms of chocolate--in high school, I used Baker's and Lindt, and then I graduated to Callebaut. Now I'm using SB and Valrhona. I've used Cacao Berry but I don't like it as much as SB and Valrhona, but it's still a big step up from Callebaut, in my opinion. I haven't tried many different types of cocoa, so I'm going to look for the Callebaut cocoa and the Cacao Barry Extra Brute. Thanks for giving me some recommendations.

Anisette! That is probably a little too innovative for my friends. I will save that idea when I make dinner for a guy I'm dating...then he can't complain heh heh. I still need to try the Pichet Ong choux pastry recipe. I was thinking perhaps filling those with the caramel marscapone that sugarbuzz suggested, and then perhaps drizzling them with chocolate sauce? Sprinkle of fleur de sel? Badiane--I haven't poached pears in butter before...sounds delicious. Do you add anything to the butter (like cloves and cinnamon with it's done with red wine?)

Yes, please! Even if I don't use it this weekend, I definitely want to try it.

I'm bringing dessert to a party on the weekend, and as usual, I always ask my friends what they would like. They requested cheesecake, but I'm kind of tired of making cheesecakes. Instead, I thought I'd try to compose a dessert that I haven't done before that includes cream cheese as a compromise. What I'm picturing right now is a layered caramelized napoleon with some sort of whipped chocolate cream cheese "mousse" (?) sandwiched between the layers, and then I'm going to sprinkle the top of each slice with some fleur de sel. Homemade caramel sauce on the side. I'm open to suggestions, as long as the flavour combinations are not too "out there." (My friends are in their early/mid 20s.) I'm open to flavour suggestions too...the chocolate/caramel/sea salt thing isn't set in stone. And garnishes...I would love the opportunity to make a plated dessert, especially if the components are things I haven't done before. (Also, I don't like the look of wedge slices on the plate, which is why I'm considering the napoleons.) Thanks in advance!

^Yes, I do. I know the recipe calls for natural, but I prefer dutched cocoa. (I'm open to suggestions for good quality natural cocoas though...I think I remember some bakers here using Droste. I haven't seen that in Vancouver, but perhaps I'm not looking hard enough.)

^It's the Pichet Ong's choux pastry recipe.

My bolding! Sorry, but that's much more a reflection on your friend than on the food at Tojo's! ← The fact that he/she went to a fast food joint is not the point though. If I drop $200 on a fancy dinner I expect to be sated. Bottom line i should at the VERY LEAST be sated. ← Agreed. It's not even as if he has a huge appetite...there wasn't much open by the time he was driving home (around midnight). If I'm dropping $200 on dinner in Vancouver, I expect to be VERY satisfied with my meal--both in terms of the quality of the food, and the amount that they served.

^wow, can't believe they weren't allowed to keep the chocolates. makanmakan asked if anyone was interested in taking the Fine Pastry and Chocolate class on Oct. 14th and 25th at NW. I'm thinking about it. (It's kind of expensive for me...on top of the course fee, I have to cancel my Tues and Wed night students, so the course will actually "cost" me over $400 to take.)

Sorry, I wasn't clear...what I meant was I want to learn how to compose a dessert and plate it artistically, with garnishes (like those spiky chocolate things that look like they've been airbrushed with gold spray or something. And I've never used chocolate modeling paste...I've always wanted to play with that stuff!)

^Wow, that's high praise! (But most likely very well deserved. I just checked the Bouchon cookbook and I think the recipe needs an additional 1/4 cup lemon juice, with the sugar, butter, and egg amounts listed remaining the same.) 2nd dessert that caught my eye was the nougat and chocolate tart--anyone tried?

^I usually stew my meat (cubed probably 3/4" or so?) for 2 1/2 hrs. Is 1 1/2 hour enough? I like it the meat to just fall apart in my mouth. Oh, and I definitely don't think I'm nearly at the level to take an advanced pastry course. Maybe after a few more years of practice. I tried making quenelles today and they looked pretty bad. Maybe I'll sign up for that 2 day course and ask Chef Marco to teach me how to do those properly.

^Yeah, that did catch my eye. I've been on a lemon curd kick. I'm also thinking about going next door to C Restaurant to get that Valrhona pate with caramel and white chocolate/fleur de sel gelato. Like I said in another thread, MOUTHGASM.

*sigh* I've long finished my Fine Cooking lemon curd (every delicious bite of it! I must make more tonight) so I practiced doing quenelles out of the frozen Pierre Herme lemon cream, and then I ate those ugly quenelles. I also had a bar of dark chocolate with almonds, and a slice of the coffee cake I made (extra crumb topping, always! )

I'm going to try your recipe too. I like the fact that is has chocolate AND cocoa in it, as well as coffee and buttermilk. Love the pics! ← Yup, those were my reasons for trying it too! The best chocolate cakes, imo, always contain coffee and either buttermilk or sour cream. ETA: I don't know how to take nice pictures, and the lighting makes the cake look a lot lighter in colour than it actually is. The cake is really a very, very dark brown when it comes out of the oven--almost black. Nice and chocolatey.