Samaki

OK, here's my report. This is a fabulous cake. It came out beautifully, no doming or cracking, with a delectable, moist crumb. It's a bit on the delicate side. I wouldn't want to try to split it without partially freezing it first, but for eating purposes the texture is perfect. There is some room for improvement in the flavor, though I'm pretty certain this is an effect of the cocoa powder I used. The cocoa is a German brand that my in-laws bring me when they visit. It's nice and rich, and even though it's NOT dutched, lacks the bitterness that many natural cocoa has. Well, usually lacks the bitterness. In this cake it did come out rather bitter. I think either a dutched or a lighter natural cocoa powder would have worked better. Final report: texture 5, flavor 3. It's so hard for me to envision the perfect chocolate cake, though, because there are so many types. For it's class, an ultra dark, moist cake, I don't think this recipe can be improved upon. However, there are some applications where I don't want such an assertive cake. For those occasions I'll still go with Mary Bergen's recipe. Yes, technically it's a chiffon, but it's texture is much more versatile than your average chiffon cake.

Hi Wendy, I'm hoping to make the cake tonight and will report back. I'm looking forward to it. Just a note, for when you get to the white cake, I've found that by subbing cornstarch for about 1/4 of the flour you get a much better texture.

Point taken. My appologies for sounding so harsh.

Trust me on this, I temper chocolate for a living. If the room is too warm, and/or the chocolate is too thick (i.e. it cools too slowly), it can go out of temper, even if it started out in perfect temper. I also think you're being a bit extreme in your denouncement of thermometers. They can be very useful, though I do agree that they are no substitute for knowing what the chocolate should look and feel like.

I don't know about that. In my experience when chocolate cools too slowly it tends to lose its temper. My anser to the blooming problem would be to cool the dipped brownies in the fridge.

Interesting. That never occured to me. I was taught to refrigerate, but after a bit of trial and error have been taking the molds out and letting them warm up to room temperature before doing the bottoms. It never occured to me I needn't refrigerate them at all!

Huh?

That's from an old issue of Fine Cooking. It's my absolute favorite lemon curd. The recipe also uses whole eggs instead of just yolks, which gives the curd a somewhat lighter texture, which I prefer.

Hey, that's why I use Cacao Barry. I'm just lucky that where I am I can get it cheaper than Callebaut. If cost weren't an issue I'd be using Valrhona.

I order it from a confectionary supply company in Quebec. Here's their website: http://www.clicshop.com/magasin/chocolat1/

I've had success making it in a sheet pan in very thin layers with a rather hot oven. If youe ver get to Germany you absolutely must get yourself to the town os Salzwedel. It's just a bit East of Hamburg, and it's the home of the Baumkuchen. The whole town is filled with it. The KaDeWe in Berlin also sells Salzwedeler Baumkuchen if you want to buy the original but can't make it to the town. I've had many versions, but the cakes from Salzwedel are the best. P.S. Master baker means he's done some extra schooling and gotten himself a degree.

OK, another tempering question: I've been experimenting with darkening my milk chocolate by adding a bit of 75% (1/8th the weight, to be precise). The taste is just where I want it, but it's winding up slightly out of temper when it sets up - just a hint of a haze. Am I correct to think that I should try raising the temeperature I'm molding at? Although that seems the logical thing to do, somehow it doesn't feel right, though I can't say why.

Ditto what everyone else said. I don't like Callebaut (except, oddly enough their white chocolate, which I find easier to work with than others). For me the best quality/price ratio is Cacao Barry's single origin line.

Just a few more cents to add to the pile, a bit belatedly, I know. For my money the best chocoatles are still those produced by la maison du chocolat. Torres is very good too, though I'm not a consistently fond of his flavors as I am of Robert Linxe's. Payard I haven't yet tried. I used to be quite fond of Li-Lac, but now that my palate is accustomed to high end chocolates I find I can't eat them anymore. I haven't tried Burdick's in ages, but I used to love them. The one I really don't recommend, though, is Richart. They used to be excellent, and their pralines still taste terrific, but their workmanship has gotten sloppy over the years. Pick up a few pieces and look at the bottoms - you'll find many poorly enrobed. For taht kind of money I expect perfection. Now I feel kind of guilty for complaining, because I'm not that expert at it either, but then I'm just a one-person operation, and my prices are much, much lower.

Yes, but they're not necessarily the same thing. For example, I add butter to my truffles, many chocolatiers also throw in a bit of alcohol, and sugar syrup. While you certainly can make ganache with these things in it as well, the basic, and what was likely used on those cookie bars, is just chocolate and cream. I was just trying to help out, not knowing what sort of truffle recipe the original poster might have used. Phaelon, ganache can be very soft or very firm. It just depends on how much chocolate you add. If it's not firm enough, add more next time. Another possibility - was the cheesecake filling baked? If so they may have simply dumped a bunch of chopped chocolate on top of it when it came out of the oven and spread it into an even layer after it melted. I've got a brownie recipe that uses this trick, and the chocolate winds up reasonably soft and pliable once it cools down.

Hurray! I'm so glad you found what you were looking for.

Hey, I remember when Cafe Decadence opened too (class of '91). I don't remember this cookie (unfortunately), but I'll bet the top layer was a simple ganache - just chocolate and cream. If it's too soft, try upping the amount of chocolate added. The bottom layer probably had something else added. I have to think about this a bit.

Some sort of Dacqoise is what I'm thinking too. Those chewy layers were most likely chocolate meringue. When you sandwich it with butercream it goes nice and soft like that.

Hey, this sounds like fun. I promise to participate when I can. Baking with Julia is a great book. After the brioche, I vote for making the twice baked brioche. I know so many people who have raved about it, but I haven't had a good excuse to try it yet.

The Cake Bible is a great guide for doing wedding cakes. I've used it many times. As for the transportation issue - just to help you keep your options open, when I myself got married I was living thousands of miles from the wedding location. I baked the cake layers ahead of time, froze it, well wrapped, and took it on the plane in my luggage. It worked out just fine. Lavender hoopskirts?

That's a lot of piping. Trust us all when we tell you not to attempt to bake, decorate, and assemble this cake in one day. You're setting yourself up for a nervous breakdown. bake and freeze teh cake layers ahead of time. If they're well wrapped they won't lose anything in texture and flavor. In fact, most cakes taste better after a day or two anyway. If you haven't worked with fondant before it might be a good idea of make a practice layer ahead of time.

In Baking Across America, Greg patent has a recipe for Boston cream pie using a baked custard filling. It's out of this world.

OK, here are the results so far. I finished up my last batch of truffles made with reduced puree just before Christmas. I chilled them before dipping, and it definitely made a difference, though I still had some leakage. For my next batch I'll try switching to juice. Looking at bfujimoto's formula, I noted that I'm also using quite a bit more cream. I wonder if that's also contributing to my problems? I do add a bit of glucose, but I'm also using 70% chocolate, so it can take it without becoming too sweet. As an aside, the last batch I dipped half by hand and half with a dipping fork. The ones that leaked by hand leaked from the top, and the fork dipped ones that leaked did so from the bottom.

Many many thanks for the additional advice. I've got to dip more centers this week. I'll try a lower temperature and see how that works (yes they do leak from the top!). If that doesn't fix things, I'll try pure juice for the next batch. Hi Jango

Hi Rhea! Aaah, now I understand. Next time I'll remove the pulp. Hopefully, that will solve my problem. P.S. I'm so glac you didn't really mean that about the wax