ambra

Hi All, I am not new to this site, but I don't post often. I guess I am shy I am hoping someone could help me perfect a recipe I found in a magazine that I am trying to make for my step-daughter's 18th birthday. The recipe calls for her favorite sweets- meringue, white chocolate and whipped cream. It's for a White Chocolate Bavarian Cream Cake that I found in an old edition of La Cucina Italiana. Here it is... http://www.italiancookingandliving.com/rec...ate,pt=nc,.html I have never made Meringue in my life...so I don't know if it's supposed to get hard or remain somewhat soft (sorry, I'm lame.)- I assumed soft because it's a cake and you have to cut through it, no? The recipe specifies Dry. Dry sounds to me like crunchy? Is that right? But after an hour in the oven (as specified) they didn't even turn 'beige' as the picture in the mag suggested. Also. the recipe called for white chococate bavarian cream- which came out WAY TOO sweet. So I would like to reduce the sugar. Can anyone suggest how much? It called for 4 oz of white chocolate (the only one I have is Guitard, and it's pretty sweet already.) plus 1/2 cup of regular sugar. Or should I reduce the amount of sugar in the meringue?? Or both? Each component is too sweet in my opinion. However, I'm told Meringue is supposed to be sweet. I am asking because the one I made now is inedible, and I don't feel like wasting another round (or two) of ingredients to figure this out. Then, to top it all off, the gelatin didn't make the bavarian cream harden in any way! but I am guessing that is just because of my baking lameness. I used powdered gelatin called Tortagel (that's what they sell in my neck of the woods.) Next time, I'll try the sheets. (They cost double!) Thank you for any help anyone can offer even if it's a better recipe containing some of those components!! LOL!

I'm with you Fat Guy. I recently moved overseas and was forced into Metric Conversion, and I am sick of running back and forth to my computer to check and recheck weight conversions for recipes I am trying to convert. I would LOVE some tips on how to make that go faster and smoother. Anyway, I just bought a fancy new scale and bookmarked some websites containing convesion tables and have just starting trying to create new habits. Point being, Tips would be appreciated from this front too!

That sounds great- would you mind sharing the dough recipe? I'd imagine the original no-knead bread dough recipe would be too wet to work with as pizza dough... ← I live in Italy, so maybe the ingredients will be somewhat different. I don't know the exact amounts of salt and olive oil, because I don't measure them! I am sorry!! I am really terrible at giving recipes, here's my best! 500 grams of 00 flour- I'm sure you can do it with AP Flour though 355 mL of warm water, I guess about a cup and a half salt (i usually grab a few fingers worth) olive oil (a few tablespoons?) one cake of fresh yeast (about 25g)- (Maybe it's the equivalent to 1 package of Rapid Rise?) I don't know that you actually need to do this, but I do it anyway: I dissolve the yeast in the warm water first. Then I combine the salt and the flour. Then I add the water/yeast mixture and combine, but just until all the flour is encorporated so not to over mix, then I add the oil and combine again- I use my hands. Dough should be wet. Then it goes into a Ziploc bag without air for a minimum of 10 hours and a max of....see Fat Guy for this! When you take the dough out of the bag to shape, you don't need to let it rise again, just shape it and use it. Wet or oil your hands to shape the dough. In the fridge, the dough reallllly grows.....it's really flavorful. Good Luck! edited to remove a double quote!

Ok. I will try again. Thank you. That's a good secret- to flip the dough. I'm going to try that too. Happy Pizza making!

Fat Guy, do you find that your dough cooks all the way through? I usually cook the dough with the tomatoes for a little while first, and put the cheese on towards the end. Otherwise I have raw-ish dough and burnt cheese. Yours however, looks delicious. Since I can't really buy dough where I am-I too, don't see the big difference, I make a no knead dough like the no knead bread recipe from Sullivan St bakery. In the morning, flour, yeast, water, olive oil, salt. In the fridge until dinner time. I then take it out and shape it-without flour- and make a delicious pizza...

There used to be a tiny little whole in the wall specializing in croissants at the corner of 23rd and 5th (on 23rd,) whose name escapes me, that made them fresh daily. More than one type. I am by no means a croissant connoisseur, I don't even like them-but I remember them being extremely fresh and flaky. I don't live there anymore so I don't know if it's still there.

Thanks, so as long as I use the correct amount I can let it rise just as long as with the Instant Yeast?

Hello All, I am not a big baker and know nothing about baking bread, but reallllllly wanted to try this recipe. Where I live, the bread is delicious, but saltless (on purpose) and I am getting really bored of it! I am however having trouble with the ingredients! Four supermarkets later, I cannot for the life of me find instant yeast as required for the recipe. It seems strange living in such a bread-centric part of the world (Italy) but alas..... Maybe I will find it in a different city, but for now...this may be the single stupidest question on record as of yet, but like a said, I am a baking neophyte. Would the recipe work with fresh yeast? And if so, how much? There is a however, a flour with instant yeast already in it. (?) I don't know what I think about it. Also, I'm guessing I should use Grano Duro (translated to Hard Flour) in place of AP Flour as opposed to 00 flour which is used for pizza. Or not? Any help would be greatly appreciated...Thank You. (I looked through all the pages and didn't find anything about fresh yeast, sorry if it's there.)

How about the over use of a certain spice? I went to a Southern place recently where they literally put some kind of Cumin/Chili Powder mixture on every element of every dish we ordered. Quesadillas, Fish Tacos, Side Of beans, Chicken Fajitas, Skirt steak-whose sides of fried potatoes were dusted with said mixture and it's side of green beens were sauteed in said mixture... Maybe these are important to the cooking, I personally don't know, but on EVERYTHING??!!! Just as bad as when you go to eat Mexican Food and everything on every dish is covered in Cilantro or when you go for Italian, and it seems that garlic is main event.... The sad thing is, I love ALL these spices! But how 'bout a little creativity?

My grandmother told me if you sang at the table, you'd marry a dumb husband!! For a musically inclined family, that's just evil! I recently heard one I've never heard before, but immediately put it into practice. If you are waiting for the phone to ring, or to receive some kind of news, put a chicken (with aromatic herbs) in the oven. It supposedly makes it happen. Really it just soothes you, I think. And finally, an old Italian one that we still practice is, Eat lentils on the first day of the year. It brings money to you in the New Year. So every year, we make Cotecchino with lentils.

What if you are cooking a roast beef and you want it to come out Medium Rare? At what temp should you remove it in from the oven? In other words, how can you tell how much more it is going to cook once outside the oven? If weight matters, let's just say Medium Sized? I ruined (overcooked) a standing rib roast AND a leg of lamb over the holidays and have been terrifed to cook either either since. thank you!

I heard they fired Emily after Rocco got locked out. Rocco got locked out? Is he still locked out?

A salad is SO much better when it is tossed in the dressing, but I have to agree that many restaurants drench the salad. A salad just isn't the same if you don't get dressing in each bite. But there are some salads that aren't worth ordering if you want the dressing on the side, like for example, a caesar salad.

Many years ago, I had the great displeasure (for many reasons besides the following) of working in a bakery in Italy. We were making sesame cookies, and it was my job to roll the dough through the sesame seeds. When I noticed that some of the sesame seeds were moving ,I quickly asked the boss what to do. To which he replied, "eh, a little bug never hurt anyone, besides no one notices!" (!!!!!!!!!)

Nutella Pizza Or Focaccia....delicious.

Sometimes no matter how nice you are.....it just doesn't matter. I've been in this business so long that I NEVER complain when I go out, because I've been the reciever before, and I know how bad it sucks. But.... I once complained about a steak I ordered Medium RARE arriving at my table, Medium WELL. The waitress took the steak to the kitchen, and came back 5 minutes later with the same steak. (I know this, because I had cut it into three pieces. I received back the same three pieces.) I looked at my friend confused, and asked the waitress, what was going on? She said "Thats what the kitchen gave me." I asked her as politely as I could, how could it be possible for them to reverse the cooking time, Once again repeating that I had requested a Medium RARE steak. She said, "I dont know, but that's your steak." I then asked to speak to the manager and he looked at the steak and said, "That may not be Medium Rare for you, but that is Medium Rare for us." I am the most non-confrontational person any one of you has ever met. It's just not worth it to me to argue over 25 bucks, but this was so aggravating, that I was close to losing it. I tried to explain the difference between a grey steak and a pink or red steak, but it was falling on deaf ears. Finally, I said to the manager, please take it back, I won't be eating it, and please bring the check (we had appetizers and drinks.) I just wanted the miserable Twilight Zone-esque experience to be over. 10 minutes pass. I say to the manager, can you PLEASE bring the check. He tells me "I'll be right back." He then comes back and says, out of the blue, " It turns out you were right about the steak. It wasn't Medium Rare, it was pretty well done, in fact. The chef confirmed it. We would like to bring you a new steak." Completely dumbfounded, I declined, saying I just wanted to go home, but thanks (?). He then said, why don't you let us bring you dessert then. To which I replied, "No thank you, I prefer to go home." He asked again and I just kept declining, saying I just wanted to go home, PLEASE just bring the check. He said Ok, he will bring the check. Another 10 minutes pass. Check still no where in sight. Finally, my friend and I get up to leave. If they don't want us to pay, WE WON'T!! Finally, a runner bolts over to the table with DESSERT!! I know what it's like to desperately want to turn around a table, but this was so rediculous, we just wanted to GO HOME. We finally just got up and left. And yes, they did land up bringing us a check. But on another note, I always speak to the manager when I receive great service. I may be going to the wrong places (I'm not going to any 4 star restaurants,) or just have bad luck in general, but great service is somewhat hard to come by these days. That may be why I am so appreciative when I do recieve not good, but GREAT service. I also grew up in th service industry and worked in it for so long, that I know compliments are much harder to come by then a complaint.

Plain old fashioned s'mores.....mmm, toasted marshmellows.........

I use oil in my recipe, but that's really because my mother in law told me to. Her recipe calls for Flour, Eggs, Water, a little salt and a little olive oil. The dough comes out very smooth and managable. I don't know if thats because of the oil or not though, so I guess I am not that much of a help. Lately I have been using durum flour that I found at the Italian deli and the pasta comes out absolutely fantastic. Before that, I was using 00 flour, but I really like this durum flour better. Oh, and with my Imperia machine I use the thinnest setting for ravioli and then one setting up for pasta. -Ambra

Yes, dont you worry. 2 weeks ago, I might have suggested Blue Ribbon Bakery, but alas, no more. I didnt enjoy it as much this time around (too much bread and not enough juicy burger. So juicy that you didn't even need ketchup) I will have to try it again before recommending it. But inconsistency is really disappointing. I too, will skip Chumleys. And I think I said on another thread that I keep hearing about this Paul's Palace. I've never been there, I just heard that it's a hole in the wall in the East Village that serves up amazing burgers. Anyone been there?

Oh yes, Thank you!! It was the 1pm on the 11 th of Oct at Mollys, right?

I've been away so I missed out on the first 9 pages of burger talk, but I was wondering if there would be room for a newbie at the burger lunch.

The staff at my old job used to joke all time that the difficult customers should have to work in a busy restaurant at least once in their lives.....maybe, just maybe, they would be different. One thing, though, non-difficult pleasant people definitely make dealing with that one difficult guest worth it.

This to me says it ALL. In the end, you built your rep, I guess that means you have every right to tear it down (or not.) Although, I'm sure he's laughing ALLLL the way to the bank. (I'm sure he didn't do this for chump change. Who's better then him?) But I dont see how it is so surprising that he did this. Visiting his website, you see how commercial he is, hes got advertisements, tons of pics of himself (cus its about the FOOD,) hes got a whole line of tortilla chips, salsa, Margarita Mix, GIFT SETS (!!) that you can PURCHASE! Doesn't that make you think he IS looking to make more money, more money, more money? He's not the only one anyway, theres bunches of them. We have an collection of Master Pimp chefs now.

A slice of Rye bread with nothing on it.

But who could eat just one?