Bakery Review: Jin's Bakery

Jin's Bakery - visited July 19, 2013

I tried another local bakery a week or so ago.  In the yelp reviews for Paris Baguette, Jin's Bakery came up in comparison so I decided to do my own research.  For bakeries, it's best to go in the morning when the offerings are more likely to be freshly stocked as opposed to late in the day when you not only have to make do with whatever's left but it's been a longer time since it was taken out of the oven.  Considering I view a chocolate chip cookie more than 10 minutes out of the oven as starting to go stale, you can imagine how picky I am about freshness.

Jin's Bakery was smaller than I expected based on how the outside looked.  The shot above is about 2/3 of the store (not counting the kitchen area) with the remaining 1/3 being a display case with refrigerated baked goods.  But it was bright and clean and that's pretty much what you want from any bakery.

There weren't a lot of labels on the trays of baked goods so I didn't always know what I was choosing from.  Some of the things that were labeled were custard buns and sweet breads filled with red bean or sesame or taro, none of which I eat so I passed.  I ended up selecting what looked like cinnamon sugar doughnut twists, a mocha chiffon roll and a castella.  The castella was so I could have something to compare to Paris Baguette.

What I thought were cinnamon sugar twists weren't quite it.  The coating was not cinnamon sugar.  In fact, it wasn't really sweet at all.  It was almost like a cheese powder in texture but without really being cheesy in flavor.  The twist itself, at first taste, reminded me of Pillsbury biscuit dough that had been fried instead of baked - it had that kind of flavor and texture although the outside coating wasn't crisp.  It wasn't bad but it was no Stan's doughnut.  I think it took awhile to wrap my head around it because my eyes expected one taste and texture but my taste buds were sending a different signal to my brain so I experienced some cognitive dissonance on this one. I also think it's a matter of what you're used to.  I'm used to twisty "doughnuts" being sweet.  For people who don't like sweets, this would be a good option for them.

I did better with the mocha chiffon roll.  As a rule, I don't go out of my way for a chiffon cake.  Nothing wrong with it but the spongy texture doesn't win out over a pound cake or a cakey cake for me.  However, this one was pretty good: lightly flavored with mocha and not too much (barely any) frosting, which is what I like.  A hallmark of Asian bakeries is most of their offerings aren't very sweet.  I don't hold it against them but I do know what to expect.  Of the three things I bought, the chiffon roll was the best.

The castella was a bit more moist than the one from Paris Baguette but not quite in a good way.  One thing I know from my previous years of consuming mamon from Goldilocks Bakery is when a mamon is more than a day old, it starts to moisten and you can tell the sponge isn't as fresh.  What makes me leery about when it gets to that stage is it's really easy for mold to set in.  Fortunately, mold isn't hard to spot in a yellow sponge cake and I'm diligently paranoid to always check before I consume one.

The outer layer of this had the moistness that signaled this might not have been made hours before I bought it but perhaps the day before and the inner sponge was starting to have a dry mouthfeel.  It was still fine but I give the nod to the castella from Paris Baguette over this one just because the one from PB was more fresh.

The lady who rang up my order was very nice and the bakery is worth trying.  Not sure anything really compels me to return to try anything else but I'm glad I went and discovered what it's like for myself. Oh and it was also a little more expensive than Paris Baguette but by less than a dollar.  My 3 purchases at Paris Baguette had totaled to $5.60.  The three things I bought from Jin's Bakery came to $6.25.  Not enough to break the bank.

M&M Cookies

M&M Cookies - made dough July 18, 2013 from Picky Palate

I made this cookie dough from start (taking the butter out of the fridge) to finish (scooping out the dough balls and putting them in the freezer to chill) in 15 minutes.  The only reason I know it took 15 minutes is I timed it because I made these before work and I didn't want to be late to the office. Normally I don't have time to bake or mix up cookie dough in the morning because that's when I work out.  But I was feeling too low-energy to workout that morning, probably because I stayed up late the night before reading a book (nerd alert).  Since I was awake anyway (because I have an annoying habit of waking up before my alarm goes off) but I didn't feel like exercising, I lay in bed an extra 30 minutes (telling myself every 5 minutes that I really should get up) then spent the rest of my normal exercise time making cookie dough.  I'm not sure that was the right calorie trade off to make but whatevs, right? (Although I did run 4 miles later that day to prep for the taste test cookie.)

As you can guess, 15 minutes doesn't allow for letting butter come to room temperature but since I hardly ever do that anyway, I had no problem dumping cold butter into my Kitchen Aid stand mixer and letting the mixer do the work of softening it up.  When working with cold butter, you want to beat it just enough to get the lumps out but not so much that you incorporate a lot of air into it and warm up the butter too much.  I typically beat it about a minute or so and even if it's still lumpy, I add the sugars and beat it another minute or two until the mixture is incorporated and there are no butter lumps.  Then proceed with adding the rest of the ingredients.

This was fairly good but rather typical of a chunky chocolate chip cookie with M&Ms in it.  It's more of a brown sugar cookie than a butter or sugar cookie.  Careful not to overbake it.  I did my usual baking time for the first batch and took it out as soon as the middle didn't look raw but once the cookies had cooled, it seemed like they had baked just a trifle too long.  Meaning they were baked but not underbaked which is how I like my cookies.  So for the next batch, I deliberately underbaked them and that was much better.

1 stick or 1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1-1 1/2 cups mini M&M’s

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet with a silpat liner or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl ,cream butter and sugars until well combined. Add egg and vanilla, mixing to combine. Add flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt, stirring to combine. Add chocolate chips and M&Ms, stirring to combine.
3. With a medium cookie scoop, place dough 1 inch apart from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden and the middles no longer look raw or doughy. Let cool on cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Bakery Review: Pink Elephant Bakery

Pink Elephant Bakery - visited July 15, 2013

My coworkers and I are forming an official bakery exploration group, embarking on lunchtime field trips to try out different bakeries around the office.  And since most of them are marketing people, they were creative enough to come up with the name "Sugar Rush" to call our we'll-eat-sweets-anywhere-anytime group (thanks, Julie, for the name, lol).  Our first outing was to Frost and our second was to Pink Elephant, a Mexican bakery or panaderia.

I found Pink Elephant on yelp simply by searching for the highest rated bakery in the area.  They had a 4.5-star rating based on 103 reviews so it seemed like a good option to try.  We piled into 2 cars and, armed with GPS and google maps, made the quick drive over.  Although it wasn't that far, I'd never been to Pink Elephant before. It seemed to be in an older part of town and the bars on the windows gave me a bit of pause since you don't usually see that on a bakery.

Tres Leches cakes in the middle shelf: Cookies 'n Creme, Caramel & Original

Inside, the bakery itself was a large room with display cases full of colorful baked goods lining 3 of the 4 walls. The place was very neat and there were two nice ladies working behind the counter who were patient (and probably quietly amused) with this group of 7 women who came to ooh and ahh over the colorful, eye-candy displays.  According to yelp, Pink Elephant was known for their Tres Leches cake and there were 4 kinds in the display case; Cookies and Creme, Caramel, Mocha and Original which had strawberry jam in the middle.  I'm not a fan of jam so I went with the Caramel Tres Leches.

The cookies looked nice but looked like they were "fully baked" rather than the underbaked look I prefer so I passed on those.

Several types of pan dulce

Another common type of baked good in Mexican bakeries is pan dulce so I did get one of those to try.  When we got back to the office, I tried the pan dulce first.  The bread was a bit dense and rather, well, bread-y.  After the first bite, I warmed it up in the microwave for 10 seconds and much preferred the warmer texture than the room temp one.  It wasn't bad and somewhat reminiscent of a Filipino ensaimada but more dry and less sweet, despite the cinnamon sugar coating.  But it was filling so I didn't have room for the Tres Leches or the apple tart I also got until later that night.

Pan Dulce

Pan Dulce - tasted better warm

I haven't had Tres Leches very often and I've only made it once but I've had good tres leches cake before and I know what it tastes like.  The reviews were right in that Pink Elephant does make a good tres leches cake.  I don't know that I would make a special trip there just to buy this cake but it was delicious.  The layers were moist (of course) and the caramel flavor was superb. I scraped off most of the frosting only because I'm not a frosting person but I liked the cake itself.

Top view of Caramel Tres Leches Cake

Caramel Tres Leches Cake

The third thing I got at Pink Elephant was a slice of apple tart. I was trying to find something similar to what I'd gotten at Paris Baguette so I could do somewhat of an apples to apples (haha) comparison of the two bakeries.  I have to admit that unfortunately, the apple tart at Pink Elephant was not enjoyable.  I expected a flaky pastry and it definitely had layers but whereas a typical flaky pastry should be soft-crisp and buttery, the pastry on this apple tart was rubbery and dry, like it was lacking butter or even shortening.  I tried the first bite at room temperature but it was tough as leather so I warmed it up a little to see if the texture would improve.  It didn't.  Still tough when warm.  Pastry only gets this hard if it's too old or it was overworked and hard in the first place.  I ended up throwing it away after only two bites as the calories weren't worth it.

Apple Pastry

All in all, I'm not sure I understand that 4.5-star rating unless it was just on the Tres Leches cake alone.  And once again, my coworkers had the same feedback on the baked goods they bought so we're all pretty consistent on our taste preferences and it's not just me being overly picky.  I'm glad we went and tried it out though as we all agree the field trip itself with all of us laughing and having fun was better than all the baked goods we've tried.  And no one's enthusiasm seems to have dampened from trying out more bakeries so "Sugar Rush" will continue its field trips.  Stay tuned.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cream Cheese Pound Cake - made July 13, 2013 from Rosie's All-Butter, Fresh Cream, Sugar-Packed, No-Holds-Barred Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg

Don't let the modest appearance of this cake fool you.  If you like tender, almost melt-in-your-mouth cakes, this delivers.  Despite cream cheese being a headliner in the title, you can't really taste the tang of the cream cheese very much.  Instead, the cream cheese contributes to the soft texture of the cake.  Interestingly, this cake rose pretty high in the pan despite not having any chemical leavening.  Instead, the air incorporated from beating all the ingredients together really contributed to both the height and tender crumb.  The cake did deflate a bit once I took it out of the oven but it doesn't fall like a souffle.  It simply isn't as high as anymore once it stops baking.

It did form a bit of a crust on the outside due to the eggs being beaten so thoroughly once they're mixed into the batter, almost like the crispness of a meringue.  That made it a little tricky to get out of the pan cleanly, hence the humble outside of the cake.  I could've dressed it up or covered it with a little glaze but I liked this cake plain.  The art of a good recipe and a good cake is when it doesn't need anything to fancy it up but simply tastes good on its own.  This would be one of those cakes.  If you absolutely want to dress it up in some way, I'd suggest serving with fresh summer berries, both for color and flavor.

3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature, or warmed lightly in microwave
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs, at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Lightly grease a 10-inch tube pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Sift the cake flour into a small bowl and set aside.
3. Cream the butter, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla in a medium-size mixing bowl with the mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy about 2 minutes.  Stop the mixer once or twice to scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter mixture and mix on medium speed after each addition until blended, about 10 seconds.  Scrape the bowl each time.  When all the eggs are added, mix 30 seconds more.
5. Stir the flour gently into the batter with a rubber spatula.  Then mix on low speed for 5 seconds, scrape the bowl, and blend until the batter is smooth and even, 5 to 10 seconds.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake the cake on the center oven rack until golden and firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 35 minutes.
7. Let cake cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before inverting and unmolding gently.  Let cool completely.

Bakery Review: Icing on the Cake

Icing on the Cake - visited July 13, 2013

One of the questions I'm often asked as a baker, third only to "what's your favorite dessert?" and "what's your favorite thing to make?", is "what's your favorite bakery?"  I usually hem and haw because it's hard to pick ONE favorite place where I like everything they make as opposed to one bakery that makes one thing fabulously well and another bakery that makes something else worthy of homage.  But there is one bakery in Los Gatos, CA that comes close and that would be Icing on the Cake.  I was first introduced to it at a former company when my group ordered a banana cake from there for one of my coworkers for his birthday.  Something came up where we couldn't have the cake on the day we picked it up so it went into the fridge and we had to celebrate the following day.  What stuck in my memory was, even after an extra day in the refrigerator, the slice of banana cake I had was delicious.  Moist, flavorful and with an awesome fluffy texture.  Usually I don't even like refrigerating cakes because that dries them out.  But the banana cake from Icing on the Cake not only survived the overnight chilling but it was probably better on its second day than many bakery cakes I've had on their first day.

Inside Icing on the Cake

Ever since that fateful day, I've become a fan.  At first it was just because of their banana cake; in fact, there was a time when I obsessed about trying to recreate it.  I could get the taste down but not the fluffy texture.  My obsession was such that I even considered applying to work there part-time (on top of my 60-70 hours-a-week full-time day job at the time) just so I could learn how to make it.  Yes, I was that obsessed.  AND that's probably the highest compliment I as a baker could pay to any bakery :).  I finally accepted that I couldn't make a banana cake as good as Icing on the Cake, it wasn't practical to give up sleeping to take on a second job to learn how to make it and I would have to content myself with making the long-ish drive to Los Gatos to get some banana cake.  Now, it's become my tradition around my birthday to make the drive there and buy myself a piece of banana cake.

There are several things I love about Icing on the Cake.  First, they are a small business started by Lynn Magnoli that has become successful and grown because they put out quality products.  They didn't grow and flourish because of fancy marketing or glitzy outreaches.  They grew because they tasted good.  There's a "homemade goodness" to their baked goods that I haven't experienced in any other bakery I've tried.  By that I mean almost everything I've tried is something a good baker can make in his or her own kitchen (their banana cake being my personal exception!).  And the reason I like that is because it's not decorated super fancy but it's quality made with fresh ingredients.  Which is what any baker strives to do and why people make their own homemade baked goods.  Icing on the Cake has managed to capture that homey taste and I always associate that homemade goodness with their products.

Second and on a more practical note, I like them because, in addition to whole cakes, you can buy individual-sized portions of everything.  Not just cupcakes or big, thick cookies but also brownies, bar cookies and cake slices.  You can imagine how important that is when I want a slice of banana cake but not a whole cake...because I would probably eat the whole thing and end up feeling sick afterwards.  To contribute to the homey-ness factor, the individual cakes and bar cookies are wrapped in plastic wrap similar to how I wrap up baked goods and give them away in goodie bags.  No fancy packaging - just simply showcased, delicious products.

The third reason I'm such a fan is they have a wonderful variety of baked goods to offer.  Since they're a bit far for me to drive just for a piece of banana cake, I make a point of buying a couple of other things to try each time I go, just to taste test, of course.  Their cakes are my favorite and I can personally recommend the lemon, the German chocolate cake and the marble cake.  Probably the only thing I haven't liked - and it's more of a personal preference than anything wrong with the cake itself - is their carrot cake.  As I've blogged before regarding my favorite carrot cake recipe, I like my carrot cakes to just have carrots in it, not all the other extras like nuts, pineapple and raisins.  Icing on the Cake's Super Chunky Carrot Cake lives up to its name in that it has so much other "stuff" in it, it actually crumbles (although the cake is moist) as there's barely enough cake to hold all the raisins, nuts, etc together.  But that's just one cake out of dozens of baked goods that are surefire winners so I can't complain.

The banana cake of my obsession

See that fluffy texture?  That's what I can't replicate, no matter how many times I've tried.  And I've tried....and tried...and tried some more.

For this year's trial taste test(s), I chose a slice of their coconut pound cake.  I love the moistness and texture of this cake as well as the coconut.  The only thing that gave me pause is I think they used coconut or almond extract or both in this and I'm not a fan of the taste of either of those extracts - it's just too artificial-tasting to me.  Extract taste aside, I did appreciate that while there was a healthy amount of frosting on the cake, it wasn't drowning in it and I only had to scrape off a minimal amount to go with my cake.

I love the homemade-goodness look of their coconut pound cake.

The third thing I tried was a cookie.  I forgot what they called this in the bakery display but it's basically an Orange Cookie with frosting.  The sales person who waited on me put the cookie in the bag with only the thin paper liner on the bottom along with the wrapped slices of cake so it got a little smushed when I tried taking it out.  Regardless though, this was a nice, moist cookie, perfectly flavored with fresh orange.  It's the type of cookie I could make myself (and have) but still, it was good.  Sometimes you don't want to go to the trouble of whipping up a batch of cookies and you just want one, perfectly yummy cookie.  Icing on the Cake is there for you.

Now the only drawback there might be for Icing on the Cake is they can be a little pricey in comparison to other bakeries but they're not too outside the norm.  The 3 things I bought came to $10.75 which might seem a little expensive for 2 slices of cake and a cookie.  I don't think it's outrageous considering cupcake places like Sprinkles charge $3.25 a cupcake and many other bakeries charge $4-$5 for a slice of cake or an individual-size dessert.  Plus, let's face it, even if it was costly, I'd rather pay a little more to get the best instead of saving a couple of bucks for something mediocre.  And I consider this bakery one of the best.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of the bakeries I've blogged about or will blog about in the future.  These are my own honest observations. :)

New York Cheesecake Brownies

New York Cheesecake Brownies - made July 13, 2013 from Rosie's Chocolate-Packed, Jam-Filled, Butter-Rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book by Judy Rosenberg

This may be the closest thing you'll see to a cheesecake on my blog - on a brownie.  I don't like cheesecake so I don't make it.  The closest I come to it is in a brownie like this one.  And I probably wouldn't have made this one except I had a Costco block of cream cheese to use up.  I added the mini chocolate chips to the cheesecake layer to give it more chocolate and dress it up a little so it wouldn't just be a plain two-tone bar.

Considering I don't make cheesecake, I think this one turned out pretty well from a "technical bake" standpoint.  The key to baking cheesecakes is to bake at a low temperature to cook the cheesecake layer slowly and properly to keep the creamy texture it's supposed to have.  If it puffs and cracks, it might be overdone.  I admit, mine did puff up towards the end and had a big crack near the middle but when I took it out and let it cool, the puffiness deflated and the crack subsided so you couldn't really see it in the top layer anymore.  This wasn't very sweet but it was rich as cheesecakes tend to be.  I recommend cutting into small pieces.

Brownie
3 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate (I used 4 ounces)
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Cheesecake
1 pound cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, optional

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Line a 9-inch square pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Prepare the brownie: Melt the chocolate and butter together in the top of a double boiler placed over simmering water.  Whisk until smooth and combined. Let mixture cool for 5 minutes.
3. Place the sugar and eggs in a mixing bowl and beat on medium-high speed until pale yellow, 2 minutes.  Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula.
4. Add the flour on low speed and mix for 5 seconds.  Scrape the bowl.
5. Add the cooled chocolate mixture on low speed and blend until mixed, 15 seconds, stopping the mixer once to scrape the bowl.  Do not overmix.
6. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and place the pan in the freezer for 10 minutes. Do not skip this step. 
7. Meanwhile, prepare the cheesecake topping: Place all the cheesecake ingredients except mini chocolate chips in a food processor and process until smooth, 1 minute.  Stop the machine once during the process to scrape the bowl.  Add mini chocolate chips, if using.
8. Remove the pan from the freezer.  Carefully spoon the cheesecake mixture over the brownie layer, and, using a spatula, spread it over the brownie in an even layer, being careful not to mix the two layers together.
9. Bake on the center rack of the oven until the top is set and the center is just about level with the edges, 1 hour and 5 to 10 minutes.
10. Cool the brownies in the pan for 30 minutes. Lift out of the pan using the foil ends.  Let cool completely before cutting into squares with a sharp knife.  Wipe the knife between cuts with a damp paper towel.  If not consuming immediately, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze.

Healthy(ish) Orange Chicken

Healthy Orange Chicken - made July 13, 2013 from Eat Well Living Thin

Okay, first, let me say this is an easy recipe to make.  Second, despite that, I still screwed it up.  Sigh.  Look at the directions.  Honestly, how hard could it be?  The answer is not hard at all....unless you don't use enough orange juice, don't have enough liquid for the sauce and adding cornstarch doesn't thicken the little sauce you have so much as makes it clumpy.  Seriously, it's not false modesty that makes me say I can't really cook.  It's just honesty.

Regardless of my screw up (note to self: 1 orange doesn't make 3/4 cup of orange juice, no matter how big or juicy the orange is), this dish was pretty tasty.  It just could've used more sauce.  Or I didn't need to use as much chicken as I did. Or both.  And since I'm admitting my failings, let me also throw in that I didn't have the patience to coat all of the chicken pieces in cornstarch. I gave up halfway through and just tossed in the rest of the chicken and stir-fried them. Yes, I have the patience to sift through a bag of M&Ms to find all the red and blue ones and line them up to make a flag decoration but I didn't have the patience to coat some chicken pieces in cornstarch.  Oh well.  I think that means I deserve to eat what I cook.

Marinade:
1/2 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame seed oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pound chicken breast tenders, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2 cup cornstarch

Sauce:
3/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
5 teaspoons Splenda granular
4 teaspoons sugar-free OR regular honey OR Agave
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
Pinch red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons cornstarch
Kosher salt
Sliced green onions
Sesame seeds, optional

1. Marinade: In a medium bowl combine orange juice, orange zest, soy sauce, sesame oil, and salt. Add chicken tenders and stir to coat. Allow to marinate for 25-30 minutes.
2. Sauce: In a small saucepan combine orange juice, orange zest, chicken broth, Splenda, honey, soy sauce, oil, garlic, and apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil; lower heat to a simmer and cook until liquid is reduced by 1/4. Season with salt to taste. Stir the 2 teaspoons cornstarch with a small amount of cold water and add to the sauce. Bring back to a boil and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until thickened. Set aside, but keep warm.
3. In a large bowl or ziploc bag add the 1/2 cup of cornstarch. Drain the chicken and toss with the cornstarch, shaking off excess. In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil over medium-high. Add chicken and cook until golden and meat is cooked through. Gently toss cooked chicken with the sauce and sesame seeds, if using, and serve. Makes 4 servings.  (About 1/2 cup each.)

Bakery Review: Paris Baguette

Paris Baguette - July 12, 2013

I'm continuing my mini quest to try all the local, small business bakeries I can go to and assess their offerings. Next in the lineup is Paris Baguette.  They're not as small business as the mom-and-pop places I try to patronize; in the US, they have 15-22 locations in California, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania and they're actually a subdivision of a much larger food and food services company based in Korea.  But they were nearby and they got good reviews on yelp so I decided to throw them on the list.

Like many Asian bakeries, they're set up in a self-service style where you take a tray and a pair of long-handled tongs and walk through the bakeshop which has trays of individual-sized baked goods lining the shelves and atop the table in the middle of the shop.  You choose which ones you want and place them on your tray, using the tongs (please don't use your fingers to fondle the baked goods) then you end up at the cashier where you pay for your purchases and the cashier bags them for you. Ironically, the first time I was exposed to that type of setup was at a Chinese bakery in Melbourne, Australia.  Yes, I had to travel halfway across the world to experience a layout that was in every Asian bakery within walking and easy driving distance of my home.  Go figure.

Also like many Asian bakeries, Paris Baguette is pretty cheap.  I got an apple pastry, a castella and a cannele - all for $5.60.  The castella was the most expensive at $2; the other two were $1.80 each.  First up on the taste test was the apple pastry since that's what I felt like having for breakfast that day.  It was really good, the pastry was flaky and the apples weren't too tart or too sweet.  They could've used a few more apple slices in there and I would've preferred it without raisins but for what it was, it was very good.  Certainly not something I'd go to the trouble of making myself when I can get a delicious one for $1.80. Not to mention laminated doughs are not my strength.

Apple Pastry - pretty good

Cannele - overbaked

The cannele was my post-lunch snack and that was the disappointment of the three things I bought.  I had some reservations about it based on how it looked because the bottom was burnt.  Canneles are supposed to be dark but this was beyond that to burnt.  I had to take a picture of the bottom so you can see what I mean.  Given that, it wasn't surprising that the cannele itself was overcooked.  The middle part had the right texture albeit a little too firm but the outer shell of the canele was hard.  I'd first had caneles from La Boulange bakery in San Francisco, based on a friend's recommendation, so I know what a good cannele tastes like.  It should be like a firm (but not too firm) custard that isn't too eggy-tasting or too sweet.  If you could have a dry custard verging on a dense cake, that's what this overcooked cannele was like.  The taste itself, minus the slight burnt aftertaste, was good but the texture was too hard for a cannele.

Fortunately, the taste test ended on a good note with the castella.  It was almost exactly like mamon (French sponge cake) that I've bought from Goldilocks, a Filipino bakery chain known for its mamon.  The castella was similar in taste and texture, very light and fluffy, lightly sweetened - think of it like a yellow chiffon cake.  It was only slightly more dense than a mamon which tends to be more chiffon-like but it wasn't a heavy denseness, just that there was less airiness and more cake fluff, if that makes sense.  In any case, I enjoyed it.  Of the three, I'd have to give the nod to the apple pastry as the winner though.

All in all, the things I tried were decent.  I'd go back to Paris Baguette to try more of their offerings.  They do a lot of croissants, both plain and filled, cream-filled custard buns and pastries filled with more Asian flavors like red bean, sesame, tapioca, etc.  If you don't want anything too exotic, they also have pain au chocolat and almond croissants.  Ironically, I forgot to look for baguettes.  Since it's in their name, I would assume they make a good one but I would need to try it to test that assumption.

Rolo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Rolo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies - made July 5, 2013, recipe adapted from Mon Cheri Cooking School

Since the Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies turned out so well, I thought I'd try another chocolate chip cookie recipe and stuffing that too, this time with caramel and Rolos.  Sometimes when I have a chocolate chip cookie recipe I want to try, I make it as is and other times I dress it up a bit.  This recipe seemed so normal and typical of chocolate chip cookies that I decided it needed to be dressed up.  Hence the caramel stuffing.

By now I've become a cookie-stuffing expert.  Mini chocolate chips to make it easier to work with the dough, chilling the caramel and Rolos, and sealing the cookie dough tightly around the caramel so nothing leaks out during baking.  Except things didn't go as planned and the caramel leaked out anyway in most of the cookies, probably because they weren't as tightly sealed as I thought.  Not to be daunted, I cut around the cookies while they were still warm and peeled off the leaked, melted caramel.  That made the cookies a bit more presentable.  I brought these into work and people seemed to like them but I didn't get a chance to try them until a day later.  Normally I don't wait that long to taste test a cookie but I just didn't get a chance to eat this on the day I made it, probably because of the time of day/evening I baked them and I wasn't hungry then.  In any case, I wasn't impressed by these cookies.  They were okay but nothing out of the ordinary, even with their Rolo-caramel stuffing.  So these don't oust the Alton Brown recipe or the Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies in my recipe hall of fame.

1 cup light brown sugar, solidly packed

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup vegetable shortening, such as Crisco

½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

1. Using the paddle attachment of an electric mixer, beat both sugars with the shortening and butter until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs and vanilla extract.  Mix flour, soda, and salt in a large bowl.  Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix until blended.  Stir in the mini chocolate chips by hand.
2. Flatten 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough in the palm of your hand and drop a dollop of caramel in the middle.  Add a Rolo in the center and wrap the cookie dough around the filling, sealing the edges tightly.  Patch any "holes" with a bit of cookie dough.  Chill or freeze until firm.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place chilled dough balls onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.  Bake until golden brown, about 12 minutes until edges are brown and the middle is just barely no longer raw looking or doughy.  Keep cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes before transferring cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.  If any caramel has leaked out during baking, cut neatly around the cookie with a small sharp knife while still warm.

Bakery Review: Frost Cupcake Factory

Frost Cupcake Factory - visited July 1, 2013

I've been writing my blog for several years now - unbelievably, it'll be 4 years this September; my, how time flies when you're baking.  I feel like I've been doing much the same thing for awhile lately: try a new recipe, taste it, take a picture, write it up and post.  Nothing wrong with that but I feel the need to mix things up a bit.  So, with that in mind, I'm going to do a series of "bakery reviews" in the upcoming months.  I want to try local bakeries and eateries and do an honest assessment of what I think of them and how I find their products.  I've pretty much started that with my write up of Stan's Donut Shop and, to a lesser extent, Tartine.  I'm just formalizing it into my summer project. Which could also bleed into fall, winter and spring because I'm fortunate enough to live in a food mecca and it's hard to run out of new places to try.  The only theme I'm going to try focusing on is patronizing and writing about small businesses as much as possible, not just to help promote them but to encourage everyone to try out the small businesses in their own local area - you never know what hidden gems you'll find in your neighborhood.

Remember Cookie Palooza and the dozens of baked goods I made for my coworkers for our volunteer event last month?  After we volunteered at RAFT, we did a team lunch at an Indian buffet restaurant nearby.  Although there were 16 of us who made it to the lunch, we got seated at 3 different tables.  At my table of 6, we discovered an affinity for good food and sweets; recommendations of places to try started flying around the conversation.  Which morphed into "hey we should take a field trip to some of these places and check them out."  See why I like my coworkers?

Our first field trip was to Frost Cupcake Factory. Since I have a tendency to watch Cupcake Wars like a sugar-starved maniac in a candy store, I knew Frost had been a winner on Cupcake Wars (the Space Shuttle Endeavor episode) and I'd always wanted to try them.  So a few of us packed ourselves into my car during lunch one day and set out. Frost is located in a cute little shop in downtown Campbell and the first thing that strikes you when you walk into the cupcake shop is it smells divine.  Like I almost didn't need to eat a cupcake because my olfactory senses were so fulfilled.  Fortunately, almost is the operative word here.

Left to right, top to bottom: Banana, Salt 'n Sweet, Rose Velvet, Coffee Toffee Crunch

We were fortunate that we happened to go in on a Monday because it turns out that on Mondays, you can buy mini cupcakes 3 for $5.  Regular-size cupcakes are $3.25 each.  They have some amazing flavors listed and I wish I had taken a picture of their display cases with mouthwatering-looking cupcakes but at the time, I hadn't planned on writing up this post.  Anyway, after some dithering, I chose a regular-size cupcake of their Salt 'n Sweet which was a chocolate cupcake filled with salted caramel topped with chocolate ganache and drizzled with caramel. I also bought 3 minis: Coffee Toffee Crunch (chocolate cupcake frosted with chocolate buttercream which was covered with chocolate-covered toffee bits), Rose Velvet (red velvet with cream cheese frosting) and a banana cupcake topped with frosting and a banana chip.  4 cupcakes might seem like a lot to consume, albeit 3 of them were "mini" size but the sacrifices my waistline, running shoes, treadmill and I make in the name of research....

I really, really want to say these were the best cupcakes ever and it was no wonder they won Cupcake Wars.  Unfortunately.....I can't.  I cringe to even write those words because I really want to be supportive.  But I also have to be honest.  The regular-size Salt 'n Sweet cupcake was dry.  The caramel was good but the chocolate cupcake itself was dry and I wasn't hit with a lot of chocolate flavor.  The Coffee Toffee Crunch in the mini size was more moist but again, not a lot of chocolate punch.  I'm not fond of a lot of frosting on my cupcakes so I scraped off most of the frosting (it was light and airy so if you're a frosting person, I'm sure you'd enjoy it) and ate the toffee crunch bits which were the best part of the cupcake.  The Rose Velvet wasn't very moist either although it wasn't as dry as the Salt 'n Sweet.  The banana cupcake was "okay", not quite moist but not quite dry.  Instead, the texture was a bit tough, like it had been overmixed.  I honestly don't know if I just tried Frost on an off day but in my defense, my coworkers who came with me and got other cupcakes in different flavors had the same view of their cupcakes: most were on the dry side and nothing really stood out in terms of flavor.

After that road trip, I went home that night and re-watched their episode on Cupcake Wars.  I discovered 2 of the flavors they had on the show were also in their display case that day: Tear-I-Miss-You (presumably a tiramisu cupcake) and Peanut Butter Moon Pie.  It was too bad I hadn't tried either of those cupcakes, just in case those were really knockouts.  I'm willing to give Frost another try and see if they do have cupcakes that would blow me away because I want to like them and promote them but they're a bit of a drive so I don't know if I would go there just for the express purpose of getting a cupcake.  It'll have to be when I'm there "someday" for another reason.

Oh, and in case anyone does want to try them out, they just published their summer flavor calendar.  Similar to Sprinkles, they have certain flavors they make every day and some flavors they only make on certain days of the week.