Bakery Review: la Terra Bakery

La Terra Bakery - visited October 4, 2013 & October 25, 2013

la Terra Bakery is in the same little strip mall as Gochi Japanese Fusion Tapas so I discovered it when I went to Gochi for the first time.  Anything that says "bakery" demands my immediate attention and investigation. So I popped in to take a look and see what I could get for dessert after lunch. The inside can be considered spacious or sparse, depending on your interpretation. Upon chatting with the lady behind the counter, we discovered they had only been open a little more than a month from the time of our first visit back in early October. 

While it has some of the same elements as a typical Asian bakery in its filled breads, individual packaging and baked wares spread out on trays on a table, it's also got a few differences.  The price points are a little higher and some of the flavors and offerings were more inline with an American bakery.  There was a nice lady behind the counter who offered us samples from a covered tray and explained what the different products were, including that they made most of the products from organic and natural ingredients.  Some of their offerings were also gluten-free.

By the counter was a refrigerated glass case of their more fancy, individual desserts as well as small, whole cakes.  The packaging on the individual desserts was reminiscent of a fancy French bakery which I thought added a touch of class.  Individual cake slices were prettily decorated, on a silvery foil liner and - a stroke of genius - carefully covered with a stiff plastic wraparound to protect the cut slices from drying out. You don't see that kind of care in packaging in most bakeries and, as abhorrent as dry cakes are to me, is much appreciated.

I bought a slice of red velvet cake to have for later and was pleased with the care they took in packaging it up for me to take. But - unfortunately - the packaging was the best part of the cake. I tried to like it because I wanted to write a rave review about the bakery and give them some positive exposure, especially since they're so new. But in all honesty, I couldn't based on the red velvet cake alone.  It didn't really taste like anything.  The cream cheese frosting overwhelmed the more subtle (very subtle) chocolate of the cake so it seemed like I was eating more of a red-dyed cake than a chocolate red velvet cake.

Red Velvet Cake Slice - $3.75

Which is one reason why I had put off writing this blog post - I wanted something more positive to say and I didn't want a negative review to be based on only one of their products.  So there was nothing left to do but return to la Terra Bakery the next time I met a friend for lunch at Gochi and try out a couple of other products.

Nutella Rolls - $2.50

I sampled the sweet potato bread (not pictured) from the sampling section by the cashier.  I liked the texture of the bread (similar to Hawaiian King sweet rolls) but, just like my sweet potato biscuits, I couldn't taste the sweet potato. So I didn't buy the for-sale version of the sweet potato rolls but instead bought the hazelnut chocolate version of the sweet rolls (2 to a package) and a container of a mix of chocolate and vanilla shortbread cookies.

I fared better with these two selections than with the red velvet cake.  I warmed up the nutella rolls in the microwave for 10-12 seconds, like I do with the breads I buy at Asian bakeries, and they were good. The texture was soft and the chocolate added some decadence. The shortbreads were good as well although, in all honesty, they were something I could make myself.  But they made for a sweet snack and saved me the trouble of making 2 different shortbreads just for a few cookies. They had the added advantage of not being too sweet, too chocolaty or too buttery - they were just....nice.

Vanilla & Chocolate Shortbread Cookies - $3.75

I can't say this is the most glowing review I've written for a bakery but it's an honest one and I still think it's worth going to la Terra to try out their products (I plan to try a few more next time I'm in the area in case I hit upon any favorites), especially to support a small business just starting out.

Vanilla Shortbread Cookie

Chocolate Shortbread Cookie

Bakery Review: Crixa Cakes Bakery & Cafe

Crixa Cakes - summer 2013

I've never been to Crixa Cakes personally but my niece has brought me baked goods from there a couple of times and everything has been pretty good so they're well worth a write up, sight unseen. Their website is a little bit odd and somewhat hard to navigate if you're trying to find out more about the origins of the company or what their storefront looks like.  It appears their site is catered more to letting people know about their offerings and how to order them rather than much about the bakery itself.  But that's okay; what I've tried of their products is worth showcasing.

Their offerings appear to change on any given day or season.  The two cakes pictured here are what my niece brought me on one of her visits over the summer but neither appear to be on offer on their current website.  This is a chocolate layer cake with a raspberry filling.  The cake itself was pretty good, a light chocolate sponge with a light-textured, not-too-sweet chocolate frosting.  I don't care for raspberries with my cake so I ate around them.  It looks like they either used a raspberry soaking syrup or that was just from the raspberries themselves and their juice soaked into the cake.  I would've preferred something more purely chocolate but any raspberry-chocolate lover would enjoy this cake.

The coconut cake, the next one I tried, was absolutely delicious. The vanilla cake was perfectly baked, the filling appeared to be a coconut pastry cream and the coconut frosting married to it very well.

I still scraped off some of the frosting because I'm not a frosting person but it helped that it had coconut flakes in it as well. This is something I'd get again if I could.

The two other things I've tried from Crixa Cakes were their flourless chocolate cake and some kind of apple cake.  Both appear on their website so if they have it available when you go there, I recommend them.  From what I can remember, the flourless chocolate cake was silky yet also had a light, airy texture, presumably from beaten eggs or egg whites but it was more like a mousse than a chiffon because of its moistness. The apple cake was pure deliciousness, not too sweet, not too tart but just good.

Someday I will have to visit Crixa Cakes in person and peruse their offerings myself.  I'll probably walk out with more than 2 cake slices but it would be worth it to try more of what they have.

Spinach Quiche (paleo, Whole30)

Spinach Quiche - made October 30, 2013 from Paleo Diet Lifestyle

Ooh, look, something healthy on my blog - can you believe it?  AND, I actually ate it too. This is a spinach quiche that is paleo friendly and Whole 30 compliant.  I heard about Whole 30 from online fitness friends and, in seeking to shed some poundage before the holiday eating begins, I thought I'd give it a try. I want the wiggle room in my waistband for the serious holiday eating, you know.  And that was even after I found out eating the Whole 30 way means no sugar, no dairy, no grains, no legumes and, for any drinkers out there (I'm not one), no alcohol.  In other words, all the food that makes life worth living are probably not on this eating plan.  The lengths I go to in order to keep my clothes fitting, preferably loosely.

I will confess up front that I did not make it the whole 30 days.  I lasted 11 days and lost 3 pounds which so far have remained off.  It was too restrictive for me with my baking tendencies and social life of eating out.  But hey, while I was on the program, this quiche met all the Whole 30 guidelines.  As long as you use canned coconut milk instead of the one in cartons (try an Asian grocery store or the Asian aisle at Target or regular grocery stores for canned coconut milk).  And preferably organic spinach if you can get it.  Cage-free eggs help too.  You get where I'm going with this: all natural, healthy ingredients grown and harvested in the most humane way possible with very little to no additives and preservatives. I like eggs and I don't mind spinach if it's cooked enough and I can eat it with something else.  This quiche was easy to make but I forgot to salt and pepper it before I baked it so it came out a little bland.  But it was decent and filling. If I sound lukewarm about it, well, yeah, it's because it doesn't have cheese, milk or a crust underneath it.  But it'll do.

5 large eggs
1 ½ cups fresh spinach, chopped
½ medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup coconut milk (canned)
½ tsp baking powder
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and coconut milk together. Continue whisking while adding the rest of the ingredients.
3. Grease a 9” pie dish and pouring in the mixture. Bake the quiche for about 30 minutes, or until cooked through in the center.

Mississippi Mud Brownie Pie

Mississippi Mud Brownie Pie - made November 9, 2013 from Key Ingredient

I'm renaming this pie to make it a little more descriptive.  The pictures don't look as good as if I had taken them when the frosting wasn't set and still glossy.  But when it sets, the chocolate appears dull.  Fortunately, that didn't affect the taste.  With its original elements of chocolate, marshmallows and more chocolate, this defines Mississippi Mud the way it should be.  As is my new habit, I swapped out the marshmallows called for in the original recipe with Midnight Milky Ways from my Halloween candy stash. I was dealing with a bunch of coughing and sneezing on Halloween so I ended up NOT passing any candy out that night (parents can thank me for not sneezing on their little costumed darlings).  Which meant I was left with the bags I had bought beforehand, unopened and with absolutely no interest on my part in consuming them.  Except in baked books. 

This was called a "pie" so I baked it in a 9-inch round springform as it called for but I think it would've been better either in an actual pie pan for that pie authenticity or even in an 8-inch square baking pan to easier cutting and portioning to give away.  Because you know I only bake to give away. Whichever pan you bake it in, you're probably going to want to cut this into small pieces.  I thought the brownie part was really good, moist and fudgy.  I'm less enamoured of the Midnight Milky Ways; while they're a better substitute for me than pure marshmallows because I don't like marshmallows, I didn't like them in this as much as I did in the Mississippi Mud Brownies I made previously.  And I think that's because I didn't like the frosting on this one - it was too sweet for me and somewhat gritty.  I think it would've been better with a cooked frosting or at least something hot enough to melt the powdered sugar and make a smoother frosting.  As it was, the topping made this a little too rich for my blood.  If I did it over again, I would keep the brownie base, top it with chunks of Milky Way Caramels and drizzle it with a little chocolate frosting but not blanket it completely. Sometimes less is more.

3/4 cup flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans, optional (I left them out)
1 cup chopped Midnight Milky Ways

Frosting
2 ounces butter, melted
1 ounce (1/4 cup) cocoa powder, sifted 
2 ounces (1/4 cup) evaporated milk
8 ounces (1 cup) powdered sugar, sifted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch spring form pan set aside. 
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 
3. Beat together the butter, eggs and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir in the toasted nuts. 
4. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake on a middle shelf of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
5. Immediately sprinkle the marshmallows on top and return to the oven for a few minutes to melt the marshmallows. Remove from the oven and carefully spread the chocolate frosting over top. 
6. To make the chocolate frosting mix all ingredients together in a bowl, beating with an electric whisk until smooth and thick. Spread on the hot marshmallows. Let cool completely. Cut into wedges to serve.

Bakery Review: Sheng Kee

Sheng Kee Bakery - visited several times

 

Sheng Kee Bakery was started by a mother in Taipei, Taiwan and her children have continued with their baking tradition in the Bay Area.  They have 12 locations and I've been to three of them without even realizing they were a chain.  I just knew I liked their products.

Like many Asian bakeries,they have a plethora of filled breads and rolls, individually wrapped and displayed along with cakes.  The packaged breads and pastries fill trays lined on the shelves and, like Paris Baguette, it's a self-serve model where you take a tray and a pair of tongs and help yourself.

Whole cakes are displayed in a refrigerated glass cakes and are also typical of the cakes offered at most Asian bakeries: lots of fruit adornments inside and atop the cakes, leaning towards chiffons and whipped cream frostings and nothing too sweet. As a stereotype, many Asians don't like things that are all that sweet.  So it goes without saying that I'm not your stereotypical Asian since my sweet tooth works just fine and is happy to put in overtime.  Not surprisingly, cakes are something I don't get at Asian bakeries, not because of the sweetness level but because I don't like fruit in my cakes.  And I'm not a huge fan of chiffon cakes either. 

What I do get at Asian bakeries, however, are their bread products.  My top 3 go-to favorites are the cocktail bun, the baked pork bun and the coconut roll.  The cocktail bun is similar to what's served at dim sum but they're sold in bigger sizes at the bakeries and dwarf their more petite dim sum brethren.  The filling for a cocktail bun is coconut, butter and sugar so don't confuse it with a custard bun which is filled with, you guessed it, custard.

I like to get the baked version of the pork bun rather than the steamed one because the bread is better.  Asian bakeries sometimes sell the steamed version as well but they serve it hot or at least from the warmer near the cash register.  I can't remember if Sheng Kee does but I think I've been in one that does.

My last favorite is the coconut roll.  It's similar to the cocktail bun and I'm sure the ingredients are the same but might be proportioned differently. Think of the coconut roll as akin to a cinnamon roll but shaped like palmiers without the palmier flakiness.  Instead it has the bread-y consistency of the cocktail bun and instead of the cinnamon filling that a cinnamon roll has, it has a coconut filling. It's hard to describe if you haven't had it before; all I know is I love it because I love bread and coconut.

Lastly, you'll notice the prices for each of the products I've mentioned and yes, another plus to Asian bakeries is you can get cheap, tasty baked goods.  My normal trifecta of filled breads comes to less than $4. While other Asian bakeries have similar pricing, I prefer going to Sheng Kee because their particular versions of what I get are better (to me).  The ratio of filling to bread is just right in both the cocktail bun and coconut roll.  The baked pork bun could use a little more filling but the bread is pretty good. I like to pop each one into the microwave for 10-12 seconds before consuming.  The bread will warm up just slightly and be the perfect consistency with the filling.

Caramel Chew Coconut Bars

Caramel Chew Coconut Bars - made October 26, 2013 from Land O Lakes Cookies

A more somber note: as you may have seen in the news recently, Haiyan, the worst typhoon in history, has just hit the Philippines with winds up to 200 mph.  Thankfully, all of my relatives are safe but the death toll is climbing into the thousands from the devastation and many are cut off without power, supplies or aid.  Save the Children, along with other organizations, is launching disaster relief efforts.  I don't do this often on my blog but in case you're inclined to help, here's a link to just one of many organizations sending aid for rescue and relief efforts to countries in Haiyan's path, including the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam.  Thanks.

Back to the original blog posting: If you ever wonder why I sometimes have the oddest combination of recipes, it can be easily explained by my recipe ADD.  I have a ton of baking books and, in my pre-pinterest days, I would often flip through them, type up whatever strikes my fancy at the time, and file in my "baking recipes I need to make someday" folder. Recipes languish in that folder in my computer until the fancy strikes me again and I move it from the folder to a "draft" post on blogger. It might then hang in limbo in that status for some time until I get sick of having it "nag" me to make it. So I do.

I'll make it regardless of the time of year, any theme I'm working on or whatever seems logical. I'll make it because I have the ingredients for it.  I'll make it because I just want to bake something.  And honestly, I'll make it because I'm tired of a recipe mocking me in the draft form of a blog post, asking me, "are you ever going to make me and get me out of draft status?"

Hence this random bar cookie thrown in.  It must've appealed to me at the time I wrote it up but when I looked at it recently, I thought "hmm, I don't know if I would like orange glaze on a coconut pecan bar cookie". But I had extra glaze from the Orange Bundt Cake that I made earlier so I thought I might as well (finally) make this bar cookie too.

As bar cookies go, this was very easy to make.  Can't say I really loved it though and it turns out I didn't like it with the orange glaze and would've preferred a vanilla glaze instead.  I like the shortbread layer, I like coconut, I like pecans.  But adding the orange glaze added another flavor I didn't think was necessary because the coconut and the pecans already had it going on. If you like this combination of flavors, this is a good bar cookie.  If you don't, substitute milk for the orange juice to have a simple vanilla glaze instead.  If I make this again, that's what I would do.

Crumb Mixture

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

Filling

¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

Glaze

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

¼ cup orange juice

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

1.     Heat oven to 350˚F.  In small mixer bowl combine all crumb mixture ingredients.  Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed and particles are fine (2 to 3 minutes).  Press on bottom of 13 x 9-inch baking pan.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned.

2.     Meanwhile, in same small mixer bowl combine all filling ingredients except coconut and pecans.  Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).  By hand, stir in coconut and pecans.  Pour filling over hot partially baked crust.  Continue baking for 17 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

3.     In small bowl stir together all glaze ingredients.  Drizzle glaze over warm bars.  Cool completely; cut into bars.

Lemon Chicken Pasta

Lemon Chicken Pasta - made October 26, 2013, recipe adapted from The Mother Huddle

My lemon tree

My lemon tree is exploding with lemons.  In hindsight, I should've probably thinned out some of the blossoms earlier but it was just so thrilling to see real, actual lemons growing on a tree I've had for almost 3 years and had hitherto only produced 2 or 3 lemons than I just let them be. You can't have too many lemons, right?  Uh, we'll see.  Some of the branches are so loaded now that they're almost touching the ground.  And I can't pick most of them yet since they're still green.  I have been giving one particular lemon the hairy eyeball though as it's been pretty yellow for the past few weeks. It still seemed rather hard though so I left it alone - not hard to do since I only go out to the backyard when I guiltily remember I haven't watered the lemon tree or the orange tree.  A green thumb, I possess not.

Overloaded branch

But I did finally snip the first large yellow lemon off my tree this past weekend and put it to good use with this lemon chicken recipe I found on pinterest.  I used chicken breast tenderloins instead of chicken thighs since that's what I bought from Costco and also subbed out green onions for the onions in the original recipe since that's what I had.  I also had some parmigiano reggiano cheese so I grated a bit of that and threw that in as well.  I'm reminded why real cooks enjoy cooking.  There's something satisfying about using up a bunch of random ingredients from the fridge and making something edible out of it.

This recipe made enough sauce that I actually paired it with some whole wheat noodles and baked it off as a casserole to make lemon chicken pasta.  I liked how easy it was to make although if you want more lemon flavor, I'd increase the amount of lemon juice to at least 1/3 to 1/2 cup.  This wasn't super lemony so it might also be good to place sliced lemons on top of the chicken before baking.

8 boneless chicken thighs, skin removed or breast tenderloins
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 tbsp butter
1 cup chicken broth, I use a bullion cube and a cup of water
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese, optional
1/3 cup green onions (green tops), chopped plus more for garnish if desired
whole wheat noodles, boiled to al dente and drained

1. In a large Ziploc bag, combine, flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and chicken a few pieces at a time. Shake to coat chicken with flour mixture
2. In a large somewhat deep frying pan, Brown chicken in butter until both sides are a nice brown color.
3. Add chicken broth, lemon, cream and onions or mushrooms if desired
4. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or so, until meat is tender.
5. Place noodles in baking dish and pour lemon chicken over.  Sprinkle with grated cheese, if desired, and bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes. Garnish with more green onions if desired.