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Samaki

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Everything posted by Samaki

  1. It won't give you evenly sized chunks, but the fastest and easiest way to "chop" chocolate is to wrapit up well in a plastic bag, set it on a hard surface and whack it with a hammer. It you whack it enough all the chunks will be small enough to melt easily. That's what I used to do anyway, on the occasions when I had to deal with 5 kg bars.
  2. Have you tried it yet? IMO, lemon goes surprisingly well with, of all things, milk chocolate, better than dark, better than white.
  3. Hi Mer, I've been thinking about this since you asked the same question on CooksTalk. In fact, I've got a test cake going right now, though in the fridge instead of the freezer. How did you warm the cake back up - wrapped or unwrapped? Someone suggested that the freezer would be worse than the fridge, but my intuition, at least based on experience with frozen versus fridge-chilled bread, is the reverse.
  4. Thanks for your replies everyone - and thanks for the link to the older thread. You'd think I would have thought of searching before I asked, but of course I didn't. The thing I like best about not boiling the cream is that it seems to give the ganache a fresher taste. I just need to be sure it will still hold for a couple of weeks when made that way. I guess some testing is in order. I haven't tried the stick blender yet to get a good emulsion, but will.
  5. Hi everyone, it's been ages since I've visited - I took time off to have a baby, but am now back at work. I've been playing around with ganache methods and have discovered that I get the best flavour and smoothest emulsion if I stir the cold cream and solid chocolate together over gentle heat, until the chocolate is almost, but not quite finished melting. Is there any reason, from a professional standpoint, not to do this? Will it affect shelf-life in any way? The cream I'm using is ultrapasteurized, if that's important.
  6. My guess is that it was underbaked. Like bakerboy, it tested done with a toothpick before it really was. I find a touch test more reliable (press the center of the cake lighly with your finger, if it bounces back, it's done). I wouldn't add more leavening. If anything I'll bet that would make it fall even more. And Alice Medrich usually has quite well balanced recipes.
  7. It's either that or you left the yolks and sugar together too long before blending and adding the other ingredients. That can also lead to graininess. The sugar kind of "burns" the yolks. As for recipes, I liked Sherry Yard's a lo. I'm also a big fan of Fine Cooking's recipe, especially because of the foolproof mixing method.
  8. Samaki

    Soft Caramels

    I've seen soft caramel recipes that only go to one temperature, like the original one posted, and made them many times. They do, in fact succeed in making decent soft caramels. I've abandoned them for the two temperature method, though, for two reasons: (1) the flavor is better when you caramelize the sugars and not just the cream, and (2) the resulting caramels are much more stable, i.e. resistant to unwanted crystalization.
  9. For what it's worth, I also think the cocoa butter would make the hardened chocolate more brittle.
  10. No appologies necessary. I take your points, and I agree.
  11. But I don't add any water. I'm talking about chewy caramels, where the sugars are first caramelized, then you add cream and butter and bring it back up to an appropriate caramelization temperature. The liquid boiling off is from the cream. Your idea about uneven heating is interesting. Once I add the cream I stir constantly, so that should alleviate uneven heating problems, no? Anyway, the color isn't what concerns me so much as the fact that taking the caramel up to the exact same temperature still yeilds a harder or softer finished product depending on the speed at which it gets there. Perhaps your explanation still holds, though - with high heat, even with constant stirring, some of it is bound to get better "cooked" than others?
  12. Interesting. I didn't know that about sugar coloration or custard. taht implies that it is more than just an evaporation issue, I guess. Hmmm, now I'm really curious. I'm going to continue sleuthing.
  13. Thanks for the replies. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's noticed this. I've tried looking for answers as to why, but none of my books seem to cover it, and internet searches have revealed little. I hadn't thought about batch sizes, but you're right, when I double it does change things.
  14. I have two types of hand-dipped caramels in my current chocolate selection, which means, of course, that I find myself making caramels fairly often. One thing I've noted over the past year or so, is that the speed at which I bring it up to temperature seems to affect the firmness of the caramel - the longer it takes, the firmer the finished candy. What I don't understand is why this should be so. Is it an evaporation issue? Something else? And what is the ideal length of time I should shoot for anyway? I know there must be someone around here who knows.
  15. I've just finished baking enough chocolate cake for 100, and made some observations along the way that might be of help to someone. 1. All the times I've baked this as a 9-inch cake at 300 I've never had any trouble with doming or cracking. When I baked it as a 12-inch, though, it both domed and cracked (and even tunneled a little). In retrospect, I realized I'd forgotten to adjust the leavening for the larger pan size. I'd say this recipe is extrta sensitive to the amount of leavening. A tiny bit too much leavening and poof. I've never had a cake react this dramatically before. 2. I also baked one 12 inch layer at 325. It domed and cracked more than the 300 degree layer. 3. Unlike the last time I made this, I used dutched cocoa - what a big difference in flavor. No more bitterness, just rich, dark chocolate. 4. I also managed to overbake one layer slightly, and I mean by at most 5 minutes. The edges went all dry and crumbly. I'd say this cake is extra sensitive to overbaking. 5. It's still my favorite for a moist, rich butter-style cake.
  16. I don't know if they still ship to the U.S. or not, but I get all mine from www.chocolat-chocolat.com They're in Montreal. They have excellent prices, expecially when you take the exchange rate into account. The boxes you're looking for aren't on their website, so you'll have to give them a call.
  17. Samaki

    Banana Cake

    Hmmm. You might try separating the eggs, beating the whites, and folding them in at the end. Perhaps add an extra white as well?
  18. Have you tired it yet? I'm another big fan of RLB's orange and lemon chiffon cakes. In fact, I think they're the best cakes on the book.
  19. Lime also works well with blueberries, and cinnamon. FWIW strawberry shortcake to me is definitely hot, flaky biscuits, lightly buttered, topped with sliced, lighlty sugared strawberries, and softl whipped cream. Mmmmmmm.
  20. Samaki

    Cake problems

    You're right that chemical leavening can also result in tunneling, particularly if the batter is very liquid. A lot of cakes are overleavened, so you could probably reduce the baking soda a bit.
  21. Samaki

    Cake problems

    That would be my guess too.
  22. thanks for doing all that testing wendy. It's interesting that you found the curds to be on the runny side. When I made the Sherry Yard curd it came out very thick, almost too thick for my liking, actually. The FC curd was a little looser. I wonder if maybe the mixing methods make a difference here? Personally I prefer whole egg curds over those made with just yolks, though I agree they tend to be softer. I prefer a softer curd, though. And I like the flavor better. All yolk curds taste too eggy to me. Just my opinion. As soon as I get my hands on some more lemons, I'm going to try Neil's recipe as well. Oops, I almost forgot to add that I was surprised at how much the flavor profile of the curds changed when they were blended with whipped cream. I hadn't expected that at all.
  23. Yesterday I blended my curds with whipped cream for a follow-up taste test. It's amazing how much this changed the flavor profiles of the curds. The FC curd outshone Sherry yard's by far. The complexity of Yard's curd was sort of muffled by the cream, while the clear lemon taste of the FC curs really shined through. The difference in sweetness between the two also came to the fore, with Yard's curd tasting almost too sour (and I love sour).
  24. I think this might be the key. I used natural cocoa, though it's a brand I've used for years without having any bitterness issues, so go figure. I'd like to try this again with dutched. The natural cocoa I use is from Germany, and I'm sure most people around here wouldn't have access to it. I have some dutched Cacao Barry cocoa around, though. I'll use that next time. I also used canola oil, so that might have caused the off flavor as well. Or it could have been baking soda, though it didn't seem overleavened. As far as moistness goes, the cake I baked was exceptionally moist, so I'm not sure why others had trouble with this. One guess would be overbaking, another would be adding too much cocoa powder (since the recipe gives volume and not weights). I find cocoa powder to be the hardest this of all to measure accurately by volume. While bitter, my cake was also very chocolatey. I'm sure the degree of chocolatiness is an effect of cocoa powder brand, though.
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