Ling

There's a great restaurant in Richmond called Sea Harbour, and I just heard they have a branch open in Seattle as well. Is this true?

OK Rebecca, I'll nix the tart idea. Yes, I usually add a touch of liquer to my desserts, so the pineapple was going to feature a bit of rum anyway. And for the cherries, I was going to steep them in lemon peel, orange peel, cinnamon, cloves, port wine, and perhaps star anise as well. I love your ideas, Fwed. I'm definitely keeping the pineapple/pineapple sage mousse I mentioned upthread, and the cherry jelly roll cake. Since this is only my second attempt at a jelly roll cake (I swear, I am so nervous--I don't like failing at anything! ) would it be more difficult to roll a cake that's filled with a thick layer of mousse? Somehow, a thin layer of cherry confit is less daunting as a filling. I think it was gfron who mentioned an oven-dried pineapple cup. I love that idea too. Perhaps I could serve cherry ice-cream in it.

^Yes, I would probably bake a thin sheet cake and cut circles to fit into the blindbaked tart so the cake has a chance to bake up perfectly flat.

OK, I've made two decisions. One is that I'm going to be making a pineapple (maybe pineapple and pineapple sage?) mousse instead of pastry cream, and the second will be to use slices of jelly roll filled with cherry filling as the top of my dessert. That way, I can mimic the look of the round pineapple rings with red cherries. (BTW--this presents another challenge for me. I've only attempted a jelly roll ONCE in my life, and that was many, many years ago...in my early teens. My roll cracked as I was rolling, so I gave up and haven't done another one since!) I found a recipe for the pineapple mousse in the Eurodelices pastry book I borrowed!

Oh come on! Those are plenty pretty to serve to anyone! Looks delicious.

Wow, so many great ideas! I don't even know how I'll be able to choose! I like both the cherry confit and homemade maraschino cherry idea. I was also thinking last night I could do cherry cardamom ice-cream. I am afraid of putting too many different flavours in the dessert, though...wouldn't want the flavours to be muddled.

No, I don't think so. So the brioche is not available at Sen5es anymore? North Van is a little far for me to drive for brioche.

^Thanks for the offer...I should plan a trip to Vancouver Island in the next few months. There are a bunch of great restaurants I want to visit!

^The mooncakes are indeed very good. The (HK) Maxim is very famous, and not to be confused with the Vancouver Maxim bakeries! Those were pretty expensive too...a box of 8 mini mooncakes (like 4 bites each) were about $25.

I had the idea for doing a pineapple tarte tartin as well tonight, but I couldn't figure out how to do the cherries in that dessert. It seems a little too easy just to substitute the apples for cherries and pineapple...do you think? ETA: I really would like to incorporate the "upside down" idea in some aspect of the dessert, but can't really think of anything. Well, one idea could be to line the bottom of the tart ring (right against the Silpat) with a really thin pineapple ring, and then put the tart crust on top and start building the tart that way...but no one's really going to see the pineapple ring on the bottom, so that's kind of a waste of time. Ideas?

Yeah, that's right. But it's easy to control the amount of sugar in a tart recipe I'm doing myself. I'll just cut the sugar down like I normally do. The cardamom idea is great!

Who makes the best brioche in the city? I love eating it and I'm more often than not too lazy to make it.

I live in Canada and I've never seen a pineapple upside down cake being sold in a bakery, so I have no idea if it's an American thing or not! The only experience I have with it is the one I made, like 10 years ago, from the Five Roses cookbook, and it had maraschino cherries. The pictures I remember seeing online usually have maraschino cherries as well--they go in the round circle in the middle of the pineapple ring. I just googled it and most of the pictures that came up look like this. So I guess cherry in some form or another will have to stay. Too bad cherry season is over though...I may have to use frozen ones. Thought about the challenge a bit more tonight and another idea could be to line a bowl with slices of jelly roll (with cherry or pineapple filling), then make a pineapple or cherry mousse for the center. Then I'd chill it until it was set, and unmold it so it becomes a pineapple cherry bombe. Then I'd serve it with a pinepple sage creme anglaise or something...

Great! Thank-you!

Has anyone seen either pineapple sage or pineapple mint at the markets?

I accept! (And might I say, very honoured to be tagged first! ) So...what I need to do is a modern take on the pineapple upside down cake. I guess I'll post my thought process so far. First, there are three components to the cake that I think I need to keep--the cherries, the pineapple, and the basic butter cake. Next, I thought of what interesting combinations or flavours paired with pineapple I've seen recently. My first thought was pineapple sage, which I had as part of a Mistral dessert. The second was pineapple mint, which I had infused in ganache and made into molded chocolates by EGer Fwed. So if I don't find pineapple mint or pineapple sage in the next few days, perhaps I will just use mint or sage in my pineapple cake. I would prefer sage though. My next idea was whether it would be possible to work the cake idea into tart form. I love doing tarts--they are beautiful in their simplicity, and the fillings are limited only by your imagination. I've eaten traditional fruit tart with a layer of jam and butter cake, topped with pastry cream and glazed fruits, and I think this form would lend itself readily to this particular challenge. The pineapple part...I haven't thought of anything particularly creative to do. Perhaps just pineapple carpaccio...I've seen a recipe for that somewhere. I think it's in the Flo Braker book. So here I have my first idea--a sage sable crust that's spread with a cherry filling, topped with a butter cake or sponge batter, then baked. Then I'll top it with pastry cream and bruleed pineapple carpaccio (as I need some caramelization flavour as this won't be baked upside down.) The second idea I have kicking around stemmed from the sage idea. When I think of sage in desserts, my first thought was to do a sage and semolina cake. I could fill the centers with cherry filling, but haven't thought of an interesting way to incorporate the pineapple yet.

^My mom says she got them from Empire, but you can get the HK Maxim iced pastry ones in many other Chinese supermarkets. She said they were about $25 for 8 mini mooncakes.

^Yeah...I was confused too, when you said you were going to 41st and Victoria. So you didn't notice the HK Maxim mooncakes at T&T? They came in a pastel coloured box. Anyway, mom will be home in an hour or so...we'll find out where the mooncakes came from then.

^I'll ask my parents when they get home where the HK Maxim mooncakes came from. They frequently go to Empire Supermarket so perhaps they got them there, but I'll double check and make sure.

This pastry, unlike the ones you unfortunately got, was great! They're not exactly ice-cream as they only need to be stored in the fridge as opposed to the freezer. Once they are out of the fridge, they soften up pretty quickly though.

BTW, the Keefer mooncakes used to be distributed to all the Chinese grocery stores, but for some reason, they're not there this year. My parents bought a box of lotus seed ones from Pine House this year. They were OK. I like the Keefer ones better. They also got a box of the HK Maxim "iced pastry" ones. They had coffee, strawberry, chestnut, and mango flavour. I liked the coffee one best, but they were all good. (For those who aren't familiar with this style of mooncake, the filling is more like a light ice-cream than the regular bean paste stuff.) Pics in this post: HK Maxim mooncakes

I brought a fig frangipane tart to a dinner party on Friday, and served it with stilton and honey ice-cream. I had leftover dough and filling to make some individual tarts too. (Had to taste it before subjecting the other diners!) Here's the big one... Our hostess served a lovely, lightly sparkling dessert wine with the tart. On Saturday, we had a bunch of sweet things. We had a potluck brunch, and of course I chose to serve a dessert-y item. We got cinnamon raisin brioche from Macrina bakery, and I made french toast out of it. I also made a really rich caramel sauce to serve on top. It contained goat milk, a ton of cream and butter, Belize rum, and baby bananas. I also received a package of dark chocolate Tim Tams from Shalmanese. They were really good...I ate a whole bunch of them with the leftover banana caramel. I also had some Australian chocolates...there was a honeycomb one I really liked. Yesterday, my parents bought a bunch of mooncakes. I had some regular lotus seed ones, and also tried every flavour from the HK Maxim "ice pastry mooncake" line. They had coffee, chestnut, mango, and strawberry. I liked the coffee flavour best.

I worked all day yesterday and was a bit behind at catching this, but what a fun idea! Look for Kerry's thread in the Pastry forum soon.... (And also, thanks for a wonderful blog. I really loved the chubby chocolate pig...so cute! )

^Grub, perhaps you could look at the EG demo on puff pastry. That's the recipe I use. If you want to make pie dough, I would suggest using pastry flour and working the dough a lot less. I barely touch the dough after I've incorporated the water--just a few tosses with the fork, and the dough isn't even holding together yet. Then I transfer the dough to a piece of plastic wrap, and wrap it up, squeezing it once to twice into a rough disc shape. I would not touch the dough with my hands as it warms the dough up a bit. You could also add a tiny bit of vinegar and baking soda to the dough to help with flakiness. (BTW, I brush the top of my pie crusts with egg white beaten with some water.)

$350? I don't know what the difference is between Oyama classes and Porcella (in Bellevue) charcuterie classes, but the Porcella classes are usually $55 and include a bunch of products for you to take home.