Ling

Alana: We'd both be happy to cook for you anytime you decide to visit! The baking soda tip I learned on EG...I forget which poster wrote about it, but I think it was mentioned in a cookbook. I used about 1/4 tsp for the amount of dough needed for one double-crusted pie, and there is 1/2 tsp. of vinegar in the dough to activate it. I wish I could find a source for leaf lard in my city! I have gone to a few butchers in Richmond and they don't carry leaf lard. I could probably find some in Seattle...in fact, I know you can get it at a farmer's market down there. So for now, I'm using Tenderflake. I have not seen this in Seattle (looked for it when I wanted to make a pie) but it's acceptable, non-hydrogenated lard. Honeycrisps are my favourite eating apple too! I started seeing them in Richmond perhaps two years ago, but the stuff they were selling was really expensive and had bruises. A few days ago, I found them at a market and they looked good, so I bought one to try and it was so tasty I had to go back and get some for the pie. The Honeycrisps were actually very juicy in the pie. The filling is actually a little runnier than I expected it to be. I cooked the filling until medium-firm on the stovetop (7-8 minutes) and reduced the sauce with tapioca starch (which I haven't used before) and I guess I didn't use enough tapioca starch. I think I'll go back to using cornstarch as pie thickener.

Oh my. One of my favourite dessert pics yet, gfron! That's gorgeous! I made apple pie today...experimented with using a tiny bit of baking soda in with my pie crust recipe (which contains a tiny bit of vinegar). And I always use lard in my pie crusts. Filling is made with Honeycrisp apples and Granny Smith.

Best bread, in my humble opinion, is at Columbia City, but it's kind of a drive. You can get it when you go to Union though, so that's a good excuse to drop in and try some of their great $8 Happy Hour items. Here's my rough ranking based on their baguettes only: 1. Columbia City Bakery (great crust, perfect airy, slightly moist crumb, perfect amount of salt in the dough) 2. Essential Baking Co. 3. Le Panier (crust is thinner and a bit softer and more delicate, but still crisp...so this is our preferred bread for sandwiches) 4. Grand Central (a little undersalted, but a nice crust...still a great baguette) Henry really likes Tall Grass baguettes, but I'm not really a fan. He also loves the potato bread at Macrina, but nothing tops Columbia City!

...and also when your name has been repeatedly used as a verb on the site.

Geez, don't these restaurant realize that the LAST course is the most important? Waiting for Ling to weigh in with her recommendations... ← I kept quiet because Diva has already been mentioned. That would be my pick as well. West also does some nice desserts. The most memorable dessert I've had in Vancouver in the last few months was the wasabi cheesecake and matcha ice-cream at Blue Water Cafe.

^What kind of bread have you been getting? I'm curious to hear about what you think of Seattle artisinal bread vs. what you were getting in your town. What is the sauce on the potato salad?

As stupid as it sounds, I never thought of using a spoon to scoop out a soft-boiled egg. All these years I've been trying to pick off clinging shell, cursing and breaking many a yolk in the process. Great eggs, Parmhero. I'm making soft-boiled eggs tomorrow.

This recipe looks decent. All Nanaimo bar recipes are about the same. Some use 2 oz. of semisweet chocolate (melted) in the base) instead of cocoa, but the proportions are roughly the same across the board. You could easily reduce the amount of icing sugar in the middle layer from 2 cups to 1 cup if you prefer, as Nanaimo bars are very sweet. I'd recommend a good bittersweet chocolate in the top layer as well.

Yes, on the menu it says "turnip cake" but it's actually the flaky pastry with the shredded daikon and bits of meat inside. Soooo good. Shanghai Wind is in Richmond (suburb of Vancouver.) Let me know when you're in town!

^Me too. I find spice cakes very forgiving...you could fiddle with the amount of spices as you wish, until the batter tastes good to you. Be sure to check the cake as it's baking as all ovens (and loaf pans) are different! Today I had... -a banana ice-cream bar -a melon ice-cream bar (we had both in the freezer, why choose one flavour when you can have both?) -a caramel Reese's cup (so sweet it made my throat itch) -a Max 5 bar (it has pretzels, peanut butter, chocolate, and nuts. Sounds better than it tasted.) -the last red bean pastry ...and...too much brownie batter.

^Teepee, everything looks wonderful. I read about your trials in the Pastry forum. You are such a good friend!

I have, for a few months now, been eating at Top Shanghai instead of Shanghai Wind but stopped by SW a few days ago as I remember enjoying their xiao long bao very much. It seems that the quality has gone down significantly--the broth was more fat than broth (like 70% clear fat, 30% broth...a little too heavy, even for me) and the meat was overly fatty and gristly. It was a step below SR and Top Shanghai for sure. To date, my favourite xlb is at Top Shanghai, with SR coming in second. SW's xlb is probably better than most, but not in competition with the other two. However, their turnip cake (a flaky pastry similar to this, but filled with grated daikon and bits of meat) was delicious. I remember Keith describing this dish many months ago, and am glad to echo his praise. The five-spice beef was also very good.

^Ehhh....not as good as your fruit and nut breads, with all those costly ingredients and length process.

David Lebovitz also has a great recipe for ginger cake on his site!

That is amazing. I didn't even know instant mashed potato flakes existed until my ex-bf made some for dinner a few years ago. I had a bite. Feh.

The recipe for the spice cake is here, Ann. I can't wait to start making the season's first apple pies after seeing your pie! Lovely cakes Megan and Kim.

I ground the pepper with the pepper mill. I'm pretty sure, like 90% sure, that the baking time is correct, although I started the timer at 35 minutes and then kept adding time on as it wasn't done yet. I think I took it out around the 55 minute mark, but obviously check the cake periodically as it may be done quicker. (Psstt....I love Vietnamese cinnamon and my measures for cinnamon are always very generous. )

HEY! I do the same thing!

Yesterday, I tried making a Chinese pastry called Thousand Layer pastry. It is filled with red bean paste. They're also referred to as spiral pastries. I followed a recipe off the internet but the proportions seemed a bit off (one dough was too dry, and the oil dough was too wet.) So I fiddled around with it a bit and they turned out OK, but more tweaking needs to be done.

I love the taste of honey, and wonder honey contributes more to the texture of the cake than sugar does..I could be wrong! I usually cut the sugar down in a cake recipe with no ill effects, so perhaps I could just reduce the amount of sugar in the cake, and in the fruit puree, and leave the cremeux and bavaroise as is. Thank-you!

Yes, I ate all the components in each bite. It is actually one of the sweeter desserts I had in recent memory, though most of the desserts I eat are from home and made according to my taste. If I were to cut the sugar, which parts of the recipe should I do it? In each and every part? Or in one or two parts? TIA, I do love the cake very much and can't wait to make it soon!

^Great job! I really enjoyed this cake when I had it, and think the combination of flavours are incredible. However, I did find it too sweet and would like to scale back on the sugar when I make it, if possible. Does anyone foresee any problems if I scaled back the sugar by 1/4 or 1/3 the amount?

I am not sure who you're referring to, Apico, but the recipe was from a baker who works at a Chinese bakery. Perhaps my friend copied down the measurements incorrectly--I think this is very likely. Furthermore, I find your uppity attitude very offputting and fail to see how it relates to the discussion of making sou pei. There are, believe it or not, "passionate amateur" bakers who can produce reasonable laminated doughs. However, the fact remains that I don't appreciate being associated--or rather, repeatedly attributed--to a recipe that does not work, especially if you throw in the words "red herring" in your assessment of said recipe. If you've read the Pastry forum on this website, I do often try to help other bakers who have trouble with their recipes, and also have helped many pastry students and home bakers who PM me for assistance. So to suggest that I'm intentionally posting a recipe with a red herring is rather offensive to me. I was excited to share the recipe though I wasn't sure if the proportions were correct because that was based on my own judgment and wanted to see if other (perhaps more knowledgable) bakers felt the same way.

Sorry, it's actually $1.50. Yes, it's in the parking lot that tsquare mentioned.

^To add to the excellent suggestions above, you could also do something with grapefruit and fennel.