Sunday, August 27, 2006

ganache





In 2003, Peter Fong opened up Ganache Patisserie in Yaletown, Vancouver. Ganache is a modern patisserie, which offers a good and diverse selection of individual pastries and cakes. They range from the classics like crème brûlée, lemon tarts and napoleons to seasonally inspired creations. They also produce chocolates, bon bons, french macaroons and one of a kind wedding cakes. Ganache offers a level of creativity and risk taking that not many pastry shops in Vancouver offer and this is precisely the reason why I recommend it.

Ganache
1262 Homer Street
Vancouver, BC
604 899 1098

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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

biscotti





I was inspired to make biscotti from a friend who enjoys baking biscotti on his weekends. I have made biscotti many times, with many variations on flavour and consistency of the biscotti dough. For instance there are firm doughs, soft doughs and doughs that are so soft and airy that you need to pipe them through a piping bag. Anyways, for my experiment, I decided to pack as many ingredients and flavours into my biscotti that I had around the house. I did ended up with a biscotti that was jam packed fruits and nuts. I myself am personally a minimalist when it comes to flavours, but the biscotti seemed to hail good response from the party in which I brought these to. The high density of fruits and nuts make these biscotti a little finicky to cut. They are also not as crisp and crunchy as your regular biscotti as they have a higher ratio of filling to dough.

almond, pecan, pistachio, ginger, cranberry and orange biscotti

1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1/2 cup pistanchios
1/2 cup candied ginger finely cubed
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 Tbsp orange zest
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1. toast nuts and set aside
2. cream butter, sugar and orange zest
3. add eggs and vanilla
4. add dry ingredients
5. at the end, add in nuts, candied ginger and dried cranberries
6. roll into 2 logs and chill for approximately 1 hour
7. bake at 350°F for approximately 20 - 25 minutes or until done
8. let biscotti cool for 10 minutes before slicing
9. dry out biscotti for 5-10 minutes at 300°F on each side for your desired crunchiness.

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Thursday, August 17, 2006

simple summer fruit desserts

The last couple of weeks I have been so busy I have been absent from my computer and the blogosphere. The following are images of simple fruit desserts that I have made in the past couple of weeks, but I have not had time to write about.

Vanilla creme brulee with fresh raspberries

Rhubarb frangipane tart

Apricot frangipane tart

Cherries being pitted

Classic cherry clarfouti