devlin

Just saw a thing on PBS recently along the same lines, only the chef used the oven first, finishing the steaks off in a hot skillet. Two 8 oz steaks, salted and laid on a sheet pan, into a preheated, 275 degree oven to bake for 20-30 minutes, to an internal temp of anywhere from 90-100 degrees. Heat skillet over medium-high heat til oil just starts to smoke, sear steaks each side for about a minute/minute and a half, and then using tongs, take both steaks together to sear the sides. They did a side-by-side demonstration, using the strictly pan-fried steak method for comparison. The goal was to get a beautifully juicy, tender steak (rare, roughly 120-125 degrees) without cooking through the roughly quarter inch surface of the steak which you typically get when cooking steak over high heat using only a skillet or a grill. From the look of them, it worked. The side-by-side comparison was pretty compelling.

Pat, the original recipe calls for a greased pan, I just threw the silpat in to keep from having to wash the pan, though you still have to wash the silpat so it's really a moot point. I haven't used parchment because of the stirring. The silpat keeps down, but I thought the parchment would tend to buckle, etc. so I didn't try it. If you opt for the greased pan, you should have relatively easy clean up. The sugar and eggwhites make a shell that's hard to clean if you don't grease well. They're worth making just for the smell. Kind of gets you in the mood for the holidays. ← The stirring, Of Course! (Slaps head with hand.) Thank you! These really sound wonderful and perfect for adding to goodie gift bags at Christmas. Thank you for posting the recipe. Devlin, I apologize for this thread drifting off course. pat ← Heavens! No need to apologize. I love drifty threads. All useful stuff. Drift on!

Maybe I'm misremembering not including water, but the more I think about it, it was a simple matter of melting sugar in a large frying pan, adding the nuts, stirring, and voila. I'm going to try both ways, with and without water to see how it goes. At any rate, the method rendered a perfectly candied, hard coated walnut, and they were wonderful. Thanks for the Torres recipe.

I'm looking for a very hard finish to the walnut, and one that's not spiced as it's to accompany a cake that just wouldn't work with a spiced, candied walnut. I'm going to go on the assumption here that Jaz's would work, minus the cayenne. Thanks.

I used to have a tiny slip of paper I'd scribbled a very easy recipe for candied walnuts on, but after a gazillion moves I can't find it. After googling all the heck over the place, I came up with about a gazillion of instructions for baking the walnuts in sugar, or boiling with water and sugar. But I swear the recipe I used to have called for granulated sugar and walnuts only. But I'd like to have a better idea of the values of those elements before I screw up a bunch of walnuts which seem to get pricier by the nanosecond. Anybody have a simple ratio of nuts to sugar to share?

or so it seems to me.... Here's a link: http://www.americanchocolatedesigns.com/in...transfer_sheets

That's exactly what I want. Yes, thank you. I'm experimenting increasingly with torted cakes and with torted, banded cakes, which has been going pretty well, but I'm wanting a showy finish like that for the top. I'll keep you posted how it goes, if it does. Thanks a bunch.

OK, if this bakery was all that and then some.... can you please post the recipe for the chocolate one you have? Thanks! ← Yes Oli, could you? Or at least PM it? ← Just remember that my favourite wine does that mean it will be your favourite. ← Me too!!?? Would love to have it.

Thanks to you all, and those are exactly the sorts of issues I'm addressing -- loose crumbs, and also wanting to simply have a thin glaze, nothing to swirl. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm using a soaking syrup between layers. And I did wonder whether a buttercream crumb coat would add anything beneficial. I had thought freezing would be the best bet before coating with a ganache, but no?

I'm wanting to use a ganache over a chocolate genoise. I'm assuming I should freeze first, but should I use anything between the genoise and the ganache? Also, because I want to put a chocolate band around the thing, will it work to pour the ganache first and then to band? Or should I band first and then pour the ganache on top?

The Herme version sounds good. I'm gonna try that. Medrich's version, though, is actually very easy. Not troublesome or difficult. The first time I tried it I worried it sounded a little finicky, but once it was done I was surprised by how lovely it was. I'll try Herme's next time.

What's the final consistency like? Is it light? Does it whip up easily and hold a shape?

Here's Alice Medrich's method: melt chocolate first with a little bit of water or cream (she suggests a tblspn of water or milk per 2 oz of chocolate).... stir to completely smooth (no problem with unmelted flecks this way) and then allow to come up to room temp. Whip the cream, not too stiff, and then gently fold into the chocolate. She recommends using it quickly, otherwise it will harden too much. My experience is that once you use it in a cake, it remains creamy, not hard.

Wunderbar. Thanks! Sounds like a great treat. Gonna try this soon.

Jaymes, does it package and mail well? I'm intrigued.

I was just reading that thread last night. What a fabulous story, and it's lovely to read about the evolution of your success having just been reading your early posts here. This place is really such a treasure. Congratulations!

Yes, that's been my dilemma and also my solution as well. Since I've amassed enough 3" pans in various shapes and sizes already, I figured I might as well revisit the depth issue again, and wondered whether the 2" would actually lend some better value to the cake in some way, and apparently it does. I'm avoiding suggesting to my husband I might have to buy something some day soon to hold all this stuff because my cabinets are by now overflowing.

See, I knew a pro like you would give me an answer like that. Looks like I'll have to buy some of both. Thanks! Despite my desire for a definitive answer one way or another, I appreciate your wisdom.

I'm looking to buy cake pans (more cake pans), and am wondering whether when producing, say, wedding cakes, the 2 or 3 inch depth is preferred.... Feedback?

Just to validate the general consensus here, I freeze bread routinely and deliver it frozen. As Linda noted, it's one of those baked things that freezes really well, really well. Don't even think twice about it. It's a fabulous way to preserve bread. http://www.thevillagebakeryonline.com

The restaurant industry in the Louisville area is struggling right now, and we've seen a lot of closings over the past year, especially over the past three months. And many restaurants are cutting back on buying breads and cakes from independent bakers and specialty stores and making easier, less labor-intensive products in-house. Frankly I don't see that changing for a good while.

Because we use a lot of garlic (both in the bread bakery and at home), we decided to try the peeled, whole garlic a couple of years ago, and thank goodness because peeling that much garlic is a major pain in the neck. I was skeptical at first, but I agree that there's little discernable difference between the peeled stuff in the jars and whole, unpeeled stuff. If you use a lot of garlic, it might be worth trying.

Depending on where you live, it might be worth finding out whether there are any sawmills nearby. We use a mix of our own trees for our wood-fired oven and also buy massive bundles of wood staves that burn really hot and are really cheap, and there are also local sawmills who will allow folks to haul away as much scrap as they're able for free, which often means whole, round log ends. You'd have to arrange for delivery if you don't have a means, and probably somebody to cut the larger stuff, although I saw through the staves myself (which is easy, and I'm just a puny person), but if you do a huge lot all in one fell swoop, you might save some money in the long run. Or look in the want ads for cords of wood. Some folks prefer you pick it up, but others will deliver, for a fee. If you need it chopped into smaller pieces, I'm assuming they'd do that also for a fee. But frankly, if I had to pay for wood (with the exception of the staves which are super cheap and last forever), it would eat into my profit pretty substantially.

It occurred to me as I was measuring and adding the cocoa powder that it seemed excessive. I suspect (rather than the suggestion that I'd done something wrong) that is the culprit. I've read and reread the instructions several times and I keep scratching my head. Not that I never do anything wrong, but I always read and reread a recipe several times before I start a thing, make sure everything is measured and ready beforehand, and I refer to the recipe several times over as I go. I did everything according to the directions. When I went back and compared the NYT recipe to the other recipes here and elsewhere, I was surprised by the the marked difference in cocoa in the NYT recipe and also by the mixing instructions, which are also markedly different from what I'm used to performing for most every other cake I've made. I noted it as I went along, thinking to myself, That sounds off to me, but figured whoever wrote the thing must have known what they were doing. As Abra and others have suggested I should do, I'll try Jaymes's recipe. Thanks all.