Ling

another vote for "yes"

^Hey man...I'm a hard worker! I work full-time hours just like the rest of you.... I can't wait to see your apple pie! Today, however, was my day off. I had an extraordinary amount of goodies...I have photos too! Photos will be uploaded tomorrow...I've gotta waddle off to bed now. I had the fortune of going to Thomas Haas' chocolate factory/retail location in North Vancouver today. Here's the website: Thomas Haas I "shared" (I use that term loosely...I think I hogged most of the following items ) -twice-baked almond croissant (filled with almond paste, topped with sliced almonds...this was one of the tastiest, flakiest croissants I'd ever had!) -chocolate mousse mini bombe with poached pear -an incredibly light-tasting tiramisu that contained almond paste -Sacher torte (quite dry...but I gather this is authentic?). This was the least favourite by far. It also had a shortcrust base, which I found unusual. -a selection of chocolates, my favourites being the salted caramel with fleur de sel, and the cardamon whiskey (Thomas also gave me a free sample of the Grand Marnier and the dark chocolate with coffee during our tour of the kitchen) -chocolate Sparkle cookie (that surprising didn't taste as...Valrhona-y (?) as the ones I've made at home...although the texture was smoother. I must grind my almonds finer next time I make them. They definitely did taste of almond though.) -a double chocolate cookie (again, not as spectacular as I hoped it to be...) The chocolates and the twice-baked almond croissant were the standouts. Then I went with my friend to a Filipino bakery and we ate these meringue cakes filled with sweet cream and ground cashews. They were pretty good. After dinner at Diva at the Met, I had two desserts, and tasted my friend's dessert too. I had the stilton cheesecake with rhubarb compote, followed by cranberry beignets with hot chocolate, and vanilla gelato. The gelato was good, but not as rich and custardy as I would've liked. I can tell they use Valrhona in the hot chocolate. The beignets were disappointing--very bready. The stilton cheesecake had a bruleed topping, and it was wonderful. It had a shortcrust bottom, as opposed to the almond sable you find when you buy the same dessert from Sen5es. My friend had the chocolate souffle with chantilly cream...the souffle was very dense (for a souffle, I mean...) It was almost like a soft chocolate cake. It was delicious. (Oh yeah...I had a piece of blueberry cake for breakfast that someone bought last night, and two of the peanut butter cookie sandwiches pictured above.) I think that's all. What a day. (Oh yeah, my dress was unzipping itself when I was in the safety of my car. Luckily, I have a long black jacket to conceal my food baby.)

Thanks for the interest...the recipe can be now found here: PB cookies

Ling's peanut butter cookies I've combined elements of my former favourite peanut butter cookie recipe with parts of Karen Barnaby's recipe found in The Passionate Cook to come up with what I think are the best peanut butter cookies ever. These cookies are full of peanut-buttery goodness, yet tender. The extra egg and bit of additional AP flour adds structure to a cookie that I initially found too crumbly. 3/4 c unsalted butter, softened 1/2 c granulated sugar 1 c brown sugar 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp sea salt 2 eggs 1 c AP flour 1/2 c cornstarch 1 c homogenized peanut butter (i.e. not natural PB) Sift dry ingredients together. In another bowl, cream together butter with white sugar and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in two eggs, then beat in the peanut butter. Stir in the dry ingredients by hand. Cover and put in the fridge until firm, about 1/2 hour. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes on a Silpat-lined baking sheet. The cookies will still be quite soft. Let the cookies firm up and cool before eating. Keywords: Easy, Cookie, Dessert, American ( RG1586 )

I would seat them together and just tell them that because you have a "no large tables" policy, they might not be served at the same time, though the server(s) will do their best. I'm pretty sure there will be some complaining if you seat them in separate areas of the restaurant...not that it's any fault on your behalf...

^I've taught you how to cook a sunny-side up egg so many times already, DaFonz!!! I thought you were supposed to be a smart guy! I think it is the grayish-brown moat around the spinach that makes it look especially unappealing.

I get the Grade B stuff from Costco (100% pure).

THANKS FOR THE PASTRY PICS! (Cream horns are one of my favourites. My mom used to make puff pastry from scratch for that particular pastry and I used to eat sooooooo many of them. They are one of my fondest food memories!)

^Only 3/4 cups of butter and just under 2 cups of peanut butter...that's not so bad, is it? Peanut butter is good for you! Oh yeah, and maybe 1/4 cup of butter in the ganache too. But dark chocolate is good for you too! There are two good-for-you ingredients in these cookies; thus, they are practically health food.

I modified the PB cookie recipe from Karen's book and I think these are the best PB cookies I've ever tasted. (The Valrhona ganache and the chopped honey roasted peanuts didn't hurt either. )

I modified yesterday's PB cookie recipe, and then sandwiched the cookies with Valrhona ganache and rolled them in chopped honey roasted peanuts. They are super good! I think This is the PB cookie recipe I'll be using from now on! After a huge Filipino lunch today, we had casava cake, sticky black rice with caramelized sugar, and a coconut milk dessert with sweet potato, jackfruit, and mochi. The sticky black rice was my favourite of the desserts.

I had an awesome lunch at a Filipino restaurant with some other Vancouver Egulleters, Abra, and her husband! We had a huge variety of dishes..there were long beans, a noodle dish with lots of egg sauce and dried shrimp, a huge pork hock that was deep-fried, a few types of stews (my favourite was a pork stew rich with gelatinous skin and fat, and slightly vinegary), a dried fish that was deep-fried, mung bean and lentils in a soup, fish with tamarind in a soup, lumpia... For dessert, we had casava cake, black sticky rice with caramelized sugar, and a coconut milk based dessert with jackfruit, sweet potato, mochi balls...oh, and a Calamansi soda. Yum!

I got this in my email today!! This is the English translation of a menu in China. (For some reason, steak is listed under "Pick Types" and "Sand" is actually "salads") Put me down for an order of "Butter many privates", please, followed by some "the bureau swallows to follow the fish idea powder."

^Wow, thanks Irishgirl! My friend bought me a bunch of plates for Christmas (in addition to the Feenie's cookbook), and I thought the cookies would look cute all lined up on that plate. I got a picture when the sun appeared for a bit today, so the picture isn't as dark as usual.

My friend was at Nu tonight for dinner, and their DOV has started already! Parkside is extending their DOV.

^well, the cakes that have less sour cream could be made into rum balls!

I always use rolled oats in mine. And lots of cinnamon, and a bit of nutmeg.

peanut butter cookies!

^Ohh...I haven't done that yet, but I have tried lodging chocolate chunks around the torn-up pieces of croissant, before carefully pouring the custard over top...so same thing, right? I tried Karen's recipe for peanut butter cookies today. The large amount of cornstarch (1:2) with AP flour yields a remarkably tender and fragile cookie that almost dissolves in your mouth. I compared it to my old favourite peanut butter cookie recipe, and they are quite similar. Karen's has more brown sugar to white sugar (2:1) while my other recipe has a 1:1 ratio of sugars and more egg, and less flour. I love both recipes. My old PB recipe makes really thick, almost fudge-like PB cookies, but Karen's have a nicer texture and are still peanut-buttery. I think the two recipes combined would make, in my opinion, the very best PB cookies ever!!

mizducky: May I request an excursion to your very favourite patisserie? PLEASE?

I think I would invert the pan no matter what the recipe says, just to be safe. I've made hundreds of chiffon cakes (maybe a thousand over the years? ) and I've only left ONE to cool right-side-up, just to see what would happen. The cake did not fall too much (less than an inch) and it was a bit denser...so I always invert.

YAY! I love your posts, mizducky! So happy to see you blogging this week! I look forward to seeing your home-cooked meals.

I've posted my version of Karen's cake HERE, and the original recipe is posted in THIS THREAD, as per Egullet recipe guidelines (i.e. directions are paraphrased.) Of course, I would still recommend this cookbook to anyone thinking about getting it! The "Oatmeal Raisin cake with broiled Coconut Cashew Icing" on page 235 looks like a great dessert for a rainy day, and I just know that the "Chocolate, Croissant and Almond Bread Pudding with Bourbon Whipped Cream" on page 274 will be good too! (I make ALL my bread puddings with croissants, yolks only, and half-and-half or heavy cream, so this is my kind of recipe! )

^Thanks, Jmahl and avocado! I've done it. I've eaten the whole gingerbread cake. It was lunch too, so I don't feel too bad. I'm going to post the recipe in HERE, and you can find my version of Karen's recipe HERE.

My last student for today had to re-schedule, so I'm off work two hours early! Here's Karen's recipe, directions paraphrased as per Egullet guidelines. I had forgotten to mention that another thing that drew me to her recipe is that it contains whole wheat pastry flour, which imparts a subtle nuttiness to the cake. It also gives the cake a bit of a chewy texture! Fresh Ginger and Buttermilk cake 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 cup molasses 3 tbsp finely chopped crystallized ginger 3 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger 1 cup AP flour 1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour 2 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp sea salt 1 tsp ground dried ginger 1 cup buttermilk or yogurt *** I also added 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. five-spice powder. I also increased the amount of fresh ginger to 4 tbsp. I also find the molasses flavour perhaps just a little bit too strong...so next time, I will cut it down to 3/4 cup molasses, and use 1/4 cup corn syrup to make up the difference. Grease a 10 inch springform pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs into the mixture one at a time, and then add the molasses, and both the fresh and crystallized ginger. In a separate bowl, blend the flours, baking soda, salt, and dried ginger (and additional spices, if using) together, and add to the butter/sugar alternating with the buttermilk. Bake on the center rack for about 50 minutes. My version of Karen's recipe can be found HERE