cookman

Thanks, Linda. One other question: the original recipe from Janet says to use either a chocolate liqueur or brandy/rum/etc. Do you think the fruit will be too sweet if macerated in a chocolate liqueur?

You want to use a low protein flour. I find that cake flour gives me the best caneles.

Just want to be sure: when you make this cake, do you drain the fruits, or add them with the rest of the alcohol that they didn't absorb when macerating?

This post is directed to anyone who has baked in silicone pans. I taste a chemical residue in the bake goods whenever I bake something in a silicone pan. I have baked several different chocolate cakes in a French-made Flexipan, and, every time I do, I detect an unpleasant chemical taste in the final product. I think I can also detect an off taste when I bake cookies on Silpats. Am I the only one who finds that cooking in silicone pans leaves behind a detectable taste?

I'll be interested to hear what you think. My experience with the cookbook has been that all of the recipes that I have tried have been overly sweet.

Patrick, I like this technique. What do you use to cut the circle of dough which has the correct diameter? ← I use a set of circular cutters, like this. You can also improvise and cut your dough out with things like lids, drinking glasses, large prescriptions bottles. Plastic caps from, say, pan coating spray works pretty well as a cutter. ← Thanks, Patrick. The reason for my inquiry is that I have not been able to easily find a round cutter large enough to cut out a circle of dough that will be the right size to fit into a 4 inch tartlette pan.

No, I think only the groom can fork the bride. ← A++ for the best pun of the day!

Patrick, I like this technique. What do you use to cut the circle of dough which has the correct diameter?

I've made it, and liked it. It was very soft, but had good strong chocolate flavor. As I recall, I thought it could have been improved with a little more sugar.

I agree. I'm delighted when a new cookbook I pick up gives measurements in cups and grams. It gives me greater faith in the author and the recipes. The last breadbook I purchased lists ingredients in the following format: 1/3 cup (80 grams/2.6 ounces) warm water I can't understand why publishers remain so reluctant to adopt this simple format.

Interesting product, andiesenji. The website says it keeps a consistent temp of 98-101. A bit off-topic here, but that sounds like the ideal temperature for slow-melting chocolate and keeping it in temper. Any experience with this?

isn't that a bit strange...this is the web, isn't it? and there are some people here that are well informed...and there's other information on the web aside from eGullet that can lead you astray. hopefully people are smart enough to use their common sense to figure out what is right and wrong. ← I want to thank everyone for their well-researched replies. The reason I posed the question on eGullet is because I could find nothing on the web other than the statment that the FDA cautions against cooking in unlined copper pots. I knew that there had to be a more precise answer than this, and, as usual, the eGulleteers have come through!

I know that unlined copper pots are supposed to be great for caramelizing sugar. I also read that the FDA does not recommend cooking in unliner copper, because of the risk of copper leaching into the food. I'm assuming that acidic foods would create the greatest risk. Is it safe to add cream to caramel being made in an unlined copper pot, or could the lactic acid in the cream be a problem? I guess what I'm asking is if there are ingredients that might pose a heath risk if added to sugar cooking in a copper pot.

While leafing through this book again recently, I re-read PH's technique for candied citrus peel (p.257). He does the traditional 3 blanches in boiling water, but I noticed that he uses the same water for each of the blanching steps. I thought it was important to use fresh water for each blanch, as the bitterness of the pith is leached into the boiling water. It would certainly be faster to use the same pot of boiling water for each of the 3 blanches. Any thoughts on this?

I'd probably butter the parchment to make it easier to peel off. Let us know how it works. ← In my experience, the parchment has to be coated with something or it will stick terribly. Butter or canola oil or even (God forbid) Pam will do the trick. ← Try brushing the parchment with cocoa butter.

A source for Molini 00 Flour: http://www.goldaskitchen.com/merchant.ihtm...olini%7CPizzuti

I kicked this thread back up to get opinions on adjusting the leavening in the Black Magic Cake. I made this cake for the first time recently (requested by daughter for birthday cake, with a meringue frosting). I'm not a big fan of cakes leavened with baking soda and powder, as I seem to be very sensitive to their presence in the final product, which always tastes somewhat off and "soapy" to me. 2 tsp of soda and 1 tsp powder seemed like a lot to me, and the DCC recipe uses just over half these amounts, with only slight differences in the other ingredients. How minimalist of an approach to these leaveners do you think you can go without compromising the texture of the BMC cake?

Anyone have a great recipe for chocolate frozen yogurt, that actually has a good mouthfeel?

This is a fascinating thread. I'm aware of Adria's techniques for making "liquid ravioli", and was thrilled to see that it's possible to try this at home. Is there a thread on eGullet that I missed that discusses the basic techniques outlined here? Are there some basic starter recipes that one can begin with? General ratios of food to sodium alginate? Discussion of when sodium citrate is needed? Fruits or other foods that won't work? Specific "cooking" times in the calcium chloride solution? Best way to heat the "spheres", if one wants to serve a food warm? Thanks for any advice. I've got to buy the stuff and start playing with my food!!

There are probably a number of ways to make this cake "safely", depending on how the mousse is made. If you give us a better idea of the actual recipe, there may be some obvious solution to make it salmonella-free!

I emailed them today. Unfortunately, minimum quantity for purchase is 1 lb., at $130/lb.

Found a few recipes for those who may be interested: Pavlova: http://www.foodiesite.com/recipes/2000-08/wattlepav.jsp Souffle: http://thepassionatecook.typepad.com/thepa...eseed_choc.html Ice cream: http://www.6pr.com.au/recipes/recipes_wattleseedicecream.pdf Creme brulee: http://www.nirmalaskitchen.com/australia_recipe1.php Another ice cream: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe...LL-PAGE,00.html Amazingly, Amazon.com actually sells wattleseed: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001M2DU...lance&n=3370831

I used the pastry cream recipe that is now posted in the RecipeGullet. Having not seen the "original" from Lady M, I wasn't sure how thick to make the pastry cream layers. I knew I wanted very tender crepes, so I reduced the flour and substituted some cornstarch to make them less "toothy". I also didn't want to have the filling gush out with each forkfull, so I deliberately kept it thin between the layers of crepes.

Here's the recipe. And now, if you'll pardon me, I have to go buy almond paste. ← On the topic of almond paste, whenever I buy it, I always think about making my own. Does anyone bother making your own paste, or is the commercially-available product better, finer textured, etc.? ← At home I make my own since it's hard to find fresh almond paste at a reasonable price in stores. With a good food processor it's very easy. Maybe not as smooth as the best commercial brands, but perfectly fine for baking. I use the recipe we did in school: 125 g blanched almonds 100 g powedered sugar 80 g simple syrup Grind almonds with powdered sugar in food processor until very fine. How finely you grind in this stage determines the smoothness of the final paste. Add simple syrup and process until a smooth paste is formed. You may not need all of the syrup, so add gradually. ← Thanks for the recipe. I noticed that some recipes use a 1:1 ratio of almonds to powdered sugar. Do you have a sense of what the "standard" commerical product ratio (like Solo brand) would be?

For all of those who need another image to inspire you, here's a slice of the cake I recently made: