Test Baking

UPDATE: I found the where I got the pear tat recipe. Here's the link: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/409177. And made a second one for the restaurant, pears not as ripe. Would have been better if I waited a couple days. My suggestions is to wait to the pears are really ripe, like "juice run down your arm if you bite into" ripe. It will totally be worth it.

Been testing a few things past few months when I can fit things into restaurant baking schedule. A few needs more testing, one winner on first try. I'm sure the people at work are happy with me testing as many recipes as I can. Got a few pictures to share.

Pear Tart [looks more like a cake]

Been wanting to try out this recipe for ages. Simple, with the minimum of ingredients and I had the perfectly ripen pears for it. The problem is I can't remember where I got this recipe. I'm trying my best to find because it was such a hit at work.

It's has 3 very ripe anjou pears cut into 8ths then smushed into this buttery batter. It takes a long time to bake (about an hour) and in the beginning I thought it was a disaster. Batter looked so soupy from all the juice of the pears, the batter wasn't rising and it wasn't browning. But then about 1/2 way into the baking time, the batter start enveloping the pears and the browning begins. The finish result is a cake-like tart with creamy, custardy, chucky pear center. So delicious.

French Macarons

I decide to try my hand at making these. I knew these would take a few tries to figure the consistance of the batter. So for my first try, I overmixed and underbake but the flavor was delicious. They are suppose to have "feet" but mine didn't I think because I overmixed the batter. WG loved them, even without the filling. Not sure if I would sell them at the restaurant but I would for sure make the as a dessert for a party or give them as gifts.

Here's a couple of site I used for my macarons:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/09/making-french-macarons/

http://www.syrupandtang.com/200712/la-macaronicite-1-an-introduction-to-the-macaron/

Coco Puffs

On our last visit to Hawaii, we got to taste these famous sweets from Liliha Bakery. (Thank you Janice!) On top of that, WG loves cream puffs. So when I found this Coco Puff recipe from JustJenn. I had to try them out. Not bad for my first attempt, need to work on the pate choux, more time in the oven. The chocolate pastry cream is so delicious. I could just eat that. I wasn't all that please with the chantilly cream. It didn't really set up for me but it did taste good. Well, I guess I need to try again. It has to be a day when I have a lot of time as it does take awhile and lots of eggs.