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From: Toronto, ON

Joined: October 19th, 2011


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March 14th, 2014

Silk Chocolate Cream Pie with Pecan Crust from The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook: Sweetness in Seattle

This is a showstopper of a pie with rather sophisticated flavours - intense chocolate filling with salty, crunchy crust. Can't say I cared much for the crust on its own but it was a great foil, both texturally... read more >


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20 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 20Sort by: Title | Date | Rating

Bouchon Bakery

By Thomas Keller, Sebastien Rouxel
Artisan - 2012

23rd November 2012

Basic Buttercream : page 375

Light, airy and silky, this versatile frosting has all of the qualities typical of a well-made Italian meringue buttercream.

One of my daughters, whose only experience is with American buttercream, wanted to try her hand at making this recipe so I left her alone with the book, a scale, a thermapen and a stand mixer. The directions are very thorough and clearly written so she had no trouble making the sugar syrup and the Italian meringue, and when the emulsion in the buttercream broke as the butter was added, she knew exactly how to fix the problem.

This is a base recipe that requires flavouring of some sort before it’s used. We flavoured the entire batch with peanut butter, used a portion for the better nutter cookies and the rest to decorate my son’s peanut butter birthday cake.

I gave the recipe only 4 stars as I think it’s too sweet, calling for over 80% more sugar than this recipe, which is the one I normally use.

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23rd November 2012

Better Nutters : page 36

Luxurious peanut butter buttercream sandwiched between crispy, chewy peanut butter oatmeal cookies with peanut chunks…these are a peanut lover’s dream cookie!

The cookie dough is easy to make but softens very quickly and needs to be refrigerated until firm before you can hope to roll it out. The cookies are then baked from a frozen state so there’s a fair bit of waiting time with this recipe. Because of the oatmeal and chopped nuts, the cookies don’t cut cleanly but they do spread during baking so the rough edges smooth out a little. I used a 2 ¼” cookie cutter so my cookies were much smaller and the yield higher than the recipe states – 18 sandwiches instead of 6.

The cookies are not very sweet but delicious enough to stand on their own; filling them definitely takes them to another level. They were filled with this basic buttercream flavoured with peanut butter.

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17th November 2012 (edited: 17th November 2012)

Bouchons : page 102

“Bouchon”, meaning “cork”……the characteristic shape of these little brownies if you happen to own this specialty pan, which I don’t. I baked these little chocolate cakes in a mini muffin tin instead.

The batter comes together quickly, but as with most of the recipes I’ve come across in this book, this is not a spur-of-the-moment brownie as the batter needs to rest for a few hours before baking. The upside is that it’s an excellent make-ahead recipe as the batter can be stored for a few days before using.

Given how detailed this book is, I’m surprised that internal temperatures aren’t provided as a determination of doneness of baked goods, especially with a small brownie where a minute or 2 too long in the oven is enough to change the texture dramatically. My brownies were smaller than the bouchons are – the recipe yielded 24 – so I kept my eye on them and relied on a clean toothpick to tell me when they were done (12 minutes).

These moist, rich, intensely chocolate-y little cakes are delicious but not to everyone’s taste as the flavour leans towards the bittersweet but I'll definitely be making these again.

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11th November 2012 (edited: 11th November 2012)

Bran Muffins : page 75

Taste and texture…excellent! Appearance…..not so much. These were so light, moist, and delicious, I forgot I was eating a bran muffin. However, every muffin had a crater in the centre.

I was meticulous in weighing all of the ingredients (including baking soda and powder) - and there are a lot of them - but I did make some substitutions: I used regular instead of toasted bran and germ, orange flower instead of clover honey, and fancy molasses instead of blackstrap. I also made 12 regular muffins instead of 6 jumbo. Craters are often a sign of over-leavening…..were the honey and molasses I used that much lower in acid content than the original ingredients that there was too much soda? Or was it the change in muffin size?

I liked these enough that I’ll make them again but I’ll have to find a substitute for the 28g of poached pear (~1/8 of a whole)….I included it this time as I had leftover from a dessert I made, but it’s not something I would normally have.

The authors recommend you start with something easy before progressing to more challenging recipes in this book…..if I can’t even make a muffin, then I’m in big trouble ;!

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29th November 2012 (edited: 3rd December 2012)

Brioche : page 313

This recipe for Bouchon’s “all-purpose” brioche dough produces a beautifully textured, buttery bread.

4 recipes are provided, each with a different yield, each intended for a specific baked item. All of them make very small amounts of dough, which my stand mixer doesn’t like very much; I chose to make the Nanterre (loaves) and the Tropézienne so combined the ingredient amounts.

The method is typical for making brioche with the butter incorporated gradually after the dough has been kneaded for some time. No sponge is required. After a period of fermentation at room temperature, the dough is refrigerated overnight.

As with the other recipes in this book, this one is written with much attention to detail. However, it’s also written for a KitchenAid Artisan mixer, which I don’t own, so I had to make some alterations to the kneading time/speed setting.

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2nd January 2013 (edited: 5th January 2013)

Caramel Jam : page 380

This caramel contains the usual ingredients of sugar, butter and cream but also calls for glucose, a product I’d never worked with before. Because of this ingredient, the method for making the caramel differs from the norm. The first step is to boil the glucose and add the sugar gradually. There were a few moments there when I thought I’d end up with a crystallized mess and have to start over but the sugar eventually dissolved. Once the butter and cream are added, the mixture must be brought to a temperature of 248F while being stirred constantly. The recipe stresses the importance of reaching this temperature and I know now that that’s to encourage the cook to keep at it because this step takes a loooong time. The “jam” is lightened with a little extra cream for use in the caramel nut tart.

The caramel ended up a beautiful dark amber colour but didn't have a deep, rich flavour to match. It tasted good, not as sweet as some, but I’ve made better and I didn’t care for the stick-to-your-teeth quality that I think was caused by the glucose.

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2nd January 2013 (edited: 2nd January 2013)

Caramel Nut Tart : page 140

I thought this would be a great recipe for using up small amounts of assorted nuts leftover from holiday baking. I used a combination of macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and almonds. I don’t have an 8” x ¾” tart ring, only a 9” tart pan so I scaled the recipe up to fit the larger pan (it’s ~26% larger).

Given the detailed nature of this book, it always surprises me when I come across what seems to me an obvious oversight. For this recipe, it’s the lack of direction on how to toast nuts! I did them one type at a time as I knew the toasting time would differ with each nut variety.

Assembly of the tart was quick once the elements were made: the toasted nuts were arranged in a prebaked pâte brisée tart shell and drizzled with some caramel jam.

I sliced the tart into 12 small pieces (with a chef’s knife with a heated blade that cut through the caramel easily) as I suspected it would be very rich. Everyone else was fine with it but I was done after 2 bites….it was just too much like eating candy. The nuts and the pastry shell prevented the tart from being too sweet and helped to reduce the stickiness of the caramel but most tasters thought it could use some chocolate. They gave it a rating of 4 stars but I won’t be making it again.

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9th January 2013

Caramel Popcorn : page 338

Being a newbie at candy making, though there was ample warning in the recipe, I still wasn’t prepared for the reality of how quickly things happen. The instructions have you prepare a mise en place which includes a hot, oiled bowl (in which to mix the hot caramel and popcorn), oiled spoons for mixing (which were actually quite ineffective….my gloved hands were far more efficient) and hot peanuts.

The caramel started to cool and harden as soon as it was removed from the heat. In the few seconds it took to stir in the soda and salt and add the roasted peanuts, it became too firm to pour over the popcorn. I returned the pot to the burner and the residual heat did soften it somewhat but by that time, the mixing bowl had cooled to room temperature, ~18C. The result of all this was popcorn that wasn’t evenly coated with the candy.

I’m not a fan of caramel corn but it was a huge hit with those that are…they particularly liked that the coating was a salted caramel.

Just a final note….weigh your ingredients! In making the recipes from this book, I’ve been comparing volume against weight measurements, using the weight as the final measurement where possible; I haven’t come across any major discrepancies until this recipe, which calls for a substantial amount of kosher salt. Clearly there are huge variations in crystal size among brands….had I gone with the volume listed in this recipe of the brand I use, I would have added twice the weight of salt required and this treat would have been inedible!

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18th November 2012

Cinnamon Honey Scones : page 70

Cinnamon bun flavour in a flaky, tender scone.

These fantastic pastries start with a batch of this plain scone dough. Small cubes of a cinnamon-honey-butter mixture are added just before the initial shaping of the dough.

As with the plain scones, this recipe needs to be made in advance; not only is there the refrigeration time of the dough and the freezing of the scones before baking, but the cinnamon-honey mixture needs to be frozen before it’s even added to the dough.

They’re definitely worth the wait…..finished with a honey-butter glaze, these made a delicious brunch treat. A half recipe makes 6 scones but they’re very rich so next time I’ll cut them smaller.

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25th January 2013

Croissant Dough : page 237

The instructions are excellent and the photographs provide a helpful visual of the process, and if all goes well, you’re rewarded with buttery pastries with crisp outer layers and light, tender interiors.

This recipe starts with a poolish preferment; it takes just a few minutes to put together but must rest for 12-15 hours – perfect timing for making it the night before and continuing with the dough the next morning.

The dough (détrempe) also comes together easily and uses the authors’ low and slow kneading technique ie kneading at the machine’s lowest power setting for a long period of time.

After the dough has fermented and chilled, the lamination process begins. I used a European-style butter with a higher fat content as recommended which seemed to be more malleable and less prone to cracking than my usual lower fat brand. Envelope folds and 3 turns are required before the dough is rolled and chilled for the last time before shaping. With only 20 minute rests in the freezer and just a few minutes needed to roll the dough each time, this can be done in less than 2 hours. However, if you need to stretch it out as I did when I had to step out unexpectedly, leaving it in the fridge for an hour instead of the freezer works well and you can pick up where you left off. My kitchen was very cool so I had ideal conditions for rolling the dough….everything remained cold so there was no sticking or risk of butter melting and the authors’ “fluffing” technique helped relax the gluten making it easier to roll.

Though the instructions expect you to continue with the shaping, proofing and baking on the same day, I didn’t want to be baking at midnight so I refrigerated the dough overnight after the 3rd turn and continued the next morning, making a half batch each of croissants and pains au chocolate.

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5th January 2013

Multigrain Bread : page 296

Excellent bread, excellent instructions (in the sections preceding the bread recipes).

I didn’t have all of the equipment called for in the recipe – no peels, definitely no hotel pan filled with river rocks and metal chain to create steam – but still managed to make this bread without much difficulty. It called for a soaker and a levain (sourdough starter) and had reasonable fermentation and proofing times and a short baking time. The bâtards were on the small side so next time I’ll make only 1 large.

This was a really fantastic bread…..nutty and wholesome but with a very light texture.

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29th November 2012

Nanterre : page 314

This is not so much a recipe as it is instructions for shaping and baking this brioche dough after it has been refrigerated overnight.

The dough is divided into small portions, rolled into balls and placed in greased loaf pans, 6 pieces per pan. As with other brioche doughs, it’s very easy to work with while still chilled from the fridge but it does soften and become slightly sticky as it warms up.

After a long proofing time and a relatively quick baking time, you are rewarded with 2 beautiful golden brown loaves. The bread is light and airy, yet buttery and rich tasting. I’ve decided that I prefer the less buttery Ottolenghi recipe but this is still an excellent loaf.

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25th January 2013

Pains au Chocolat : page 245

As with the croissants, the resulting pastry has crisp outer layers and a tender interior but this time they envelop a luscious chocolate filling. Also as with the croissants, this “recipe” just provides the instructions for shaping, proofing and baking this dough.

The recipe calls for cacao barry chocolate batons, 2 per pastry. I used Callebaut bittersweet chocolate callets that have slightly higher cacao content instead. I’m not sure if the batons are 3g or 5 g each but I used ~14-16 callets (~7-8g), which is the number that fit comfortably inside the dough; the ratio of chocolate to dough worked out well.

The finishing touch before proofing and again before baking is an egg wash that’s first put through a strainer. I hesitated but ended up doing this step…..what was another 2 minutes when I’d already spent 3 days making these ; )

These were a huge hit.

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3rd December 2012

Pastry Cream : page 373

This is a silky egg yolk-rich pastry cream with a lovely colour and good vanilla flavour.

The method is quite different from the standard in that all of the ingredients are combined at the start and heated together. The recipe calls for custard powder or flour as thickener; I went the flour route and it gave me a bit of difficulty….though my mixture looked well blended and smooth when it went into the pot, the flour did clump a little. Vigorous whisking eliminated most lumps and sieving the custard kept the final few out of the finished product.

The flavour and texture were good but not particularly different from other pastry cream recipes that don’t require a stand mixer and use cornstarch, which dissolves more easily than flour. I made this to fill the tropézienne.

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3rd February 2013

Pâte à Choux for Eclairs : page 168

This dough, once baked, has a beautiful golden crisp exterior with a perfect hollow interior that begs to be filled with something sweet and creamy.

The recipe is as easy to make as any other I’ve seen and though it calls for a stand mixer to beat in the eggs, this step could be done by hand (or food processor, which is my preference). The dough is a little stiffer with a slightly higher proportion of flour than most but that makes piping it to make these swans (or éclairs) that much easier.

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2nd January 2013 (edited: 2nd January 2013)

Pâte Brisée : page 130

This all-butter crust is made in the stand mixer with very basic pantry ingredients. It takes only a few minutes, starting with mixing the butter with some of the flour until well blended. The remaining flour is added and finally, the water. This is not a typical pie dough where visible streaks of fat are desirable….in fact, you’re instructed to mix it further if you find distinct pieces of butter in the dough.

The chilled dough is an absolute dream to work with…..it doesn’t stick at all even with only the lightest dusting of flour. You’re asked to roll it out to just under ¼” thickness, much thicker than I normally would do. As a result, the crust takes over an hour to bake.

The baked crust is buttery and melt-in-your-mouth tender, and is suitable for savoury as well as sweet tarts as there’s no sugar in the dough. I used it for the caramel nut tart.

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18th November 2012

Plain Scones : page 68

Buttery and lightly sweetened, these are one of the flakiest, most tender scones I’ve ever had/made.

Of course, these results don’t come without some time and effort, though most of it is merely waiting time and effort is minimal. The dough is quite standard but is made in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment which has the effect of flattening the butter pieces instead of cutting them up, ultimately creating layers in the baked pastry. After shaping, the dough is refrigerated until firm, then cut and frozen before baking.

I made them the day before they were needed and served them baked fresh in the morning. Half of the dough was used for these cinnamon honey scones.

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3rd February 2013

Swans : page 178

Cream puffs are one of my sister’s favourite treats so I decided to make a more special version of them for her birthday in lieu of a cake.

Using this pâte à choux recipe, the heads and bodies are piped and baked. The instructions for piping/shaping are clear but I did find drawing the swan’s beak out with a toothpick worked better for me. I used all of the tips mentioned (chilling the dough, misting piped dough with water) and followed the baking instructions and times given for a conventional oven and they worked perfectly – though I had a moment of panic when all of the head/necks deflated when I opened the oven door to turn them over (they did re-inflate) – resulting in crisp pastries with dry, hollow interiors…..perfect for filling.

The filling is a light, silky, ethereal blend of pastry cream and Italian meringue buttercream topped with lightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream…..I find the book’s versions of these recipes too complicated and/or sweet so used this vanilla pastry cream and this vanilla buttercream instead.

The recipe says it makes 8 swans but mentions that there will be leftover batter; it’s actually enough to make another 8 swans….so I did. There’s enough of the pastry cream/buttercream mixture to fill all 16 birds if you don’t mound it too high but I did need a double batch of the whipped cream.

My sister loved them, as did the rest of the family. Like most of the recipes in this book, they aren’t difficult to make but they’ve been relegated to very special occasions only as they are very time consuming.

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25th January 2013

Traditional Croissants : page 242

Crisp, flaky exterior layers that shatter and a light interior characterize these buttery pastries. This “recipe” actually just provides the instructions for shaping and baking the pastry made from this dough.

I had refrigerated the dough overnight after the 3rd turn so completed the rolling and chilling of it the following morning before proceeding with shaping the croissants. Though the dough making process benefitted from my cool kitchen, the proofing of the pastries didn’t…..even though I moved them to a warmer room, they were only ready for baking after 3 hours.

This was my first attempt at making croissants so was quite pleased with the results but attribute this success to the detailed instructions and photographs in the book.

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3rd December 2012

Tropézienne : page 206

This dessert will forever be remembered by family and friends not as la Tarte Tropézienne, but as the Ginormous Nutella Sandwich!

The bread portion is made by rolling this brioche dough into a thin circle and proofing, then baking it in a 9” cake ring – or in my case, the ring from a 9” springform pan. I made, shaped then froze the dough days in advance of baking it. The dough rose unevenly during proofing and ultimately baked up that way as well….not sure if it had something to do with the freezing or the way I rolled out the dough.

The filling, a blend of this pastry cream and nutella, tasted primarily of the spread but had the silky consistency of pastry cream and went very well with the brioche.

It was delicious but it was a lot of time and effort for what was, in essence, a nutella sandwich, even if it was the best one anyone had ever had! I think I’ll make the orange diplomat cream filling next time ; )

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