[Sourdough Starter - Hows, Whys, Whats]

greetings all,

i have a noob question. ordering sourdough culture online that is supposedly taken from exotic places, after a few generations of feeding, wont that culture become filled with local yeasts and eventually lose its original yeasties?

["The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz on ice cream]

hey everyone,

new guy here who just got a ice cream maker for a present. i have a question....in a recipe that i am following for vanilla gelato, it states to add mile, sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla bean to a pot and heat at medium until bubble form around the edges. would anyone happen to know at what temp this process is complete?

also, i like the ice cream to be on the less creamy side, so i assume id have more milk to heavy cream ration and less time for the mixture in the churner (thus incorporating less air?)

thanks all! hope to be updating this thread with pics of my progress!

[activating sourdough culture from sourdo]

hi, here is my culture at 4 days old. how can i tell it is ready to be placed into the refrigerator? it hasnt change much since yesterday. i did however have a small amount of hooch in the center on monday, but it seems to have disappeared, not sure what to make of that. also,

some say to wait till the whole culture is full of tiny bubbles, however in the directions it states to wait for 1-2 inches of foam and mentions nothing about the rest of the cultures appearance. also, should this culture be kept at 85degrees or at 70-72 room temperature? i am going

thanks for any help! i hope to join the bread bakers thread!

[hersheys chocolate cake: frosting got hard!]

hi,

not really, i like the way the frosting tastes slightly cooked. i feel it blends the ingredients better. the recipe failed because i added a cold liquid to the chocolate mixture. i remade the cake, but this time using warm milk and it came out the preferred way.

i find that cooking the frosting on a low heat gives a better/smoother texture. for me, just combining the ingredients, i can taste to much of the powdered sugar.

You aren't supposed to "cook" the frosting, you are just melting the butter.  That's my take on it.

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Try making this according to how it's written and sift the powdered sugar.

It goes without saying that if you're not making the recipe according to the directions you'll have problems.

An idea for you is to find a cooked recipe because this one is not cooked which of course is why it failed.

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[hersheys chocolate cake: frosting got hard!]

i find that cooking the frosting on a low heat gives a better/smoother texture. for me, just combining the ingredients, i can taste to much of the powdered sugar.

You aren't supposed to "cook" the frosting, you are just melting the butter.  That's my take on it.

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[hersheys chocolate cake: frosting got hard!]

the problem was when i added additional milk, the milk was cold into a hot mixture!

[hersheys chocolate cake: frosting got hard!]

hi,

this morning i frosted the hershey chocolate cake, but i may of overcooked the frosting. would this cause the cake frosting to become hard? im cooking another cake, this time not cooking the frosting too long. how do i know the frosting is done?! is there something i should look for? thanks!

"PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE" CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

[how can i adjust this bread recipe to make it...]

all-purpose flour 3 cups

whole milk 1/2 cup

butter, melted 1/2 cup

granulated sugar 1/4 cup

kosher salt 2 tsp

instant yeast 1 tbsp

large eggs 2

i am thinking maybe 1 egg, add 1/2 cup water, and cut the butter to 1/4?

making this

http://www.applepiepatispate.com/bread/fil...o-pan-de-leche/

[Using unripe apples and bananas in bread?]

hi,

i am following the raisin walnut bread recipe from the bread bakers apprentice by Peter Reinhardt. now, id like to try a banana walnut cinnamon bread and a apple walnut cinnamon bread. i was wondering if i can saute the apples or bananas with some butter and sugar to sweeten them before adding them to the bread for the second rise. any suggestions for this?

thanks all

[Single deck commercial steam injection oven?]

hi all,

after doing some small research, it may seem like the forno bravo primavera may be a good choice. id like to get a small doyon hearth oven but i wont be able to power it up at my home address for it requires some extra electrical kick.

as far as baking cookies and cakes, do they benefit from a steam environment?

[Single deck commercial steam injection oven?]

hi,

can someone recommend me a small steal injection oven for bread baking? i would like to turn out the best breads without having to build a brick oven and hacking my home oven.

thanks all

[cooking wood supplier for the east coast?]

Hi,

I'm located in south jersey near Philadelphia.

Where on the east coast are you? I might have a lead in the SE NE area (I'm in Providence RI).

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[cooking wood supplier for the east coast?]

hi,

i am starting a catering business sometime next year and so i am getting my plan together. would anyone know where i can purchase cooking woods? like from a supplier who sells cooking woods for restaurants like carrabas/redstone grill/ wegmans?

[Ice cream & Sorbet recipes and tips]

i have a silly question, will a good home ice cream machine make better ice cream than hagan daz? can home made gelato match the gelato shops in italy?

[alluminum wedge in the middle of the cake]

hi,

i saw a thread here about cake decorating and noticed that the awesome cake baker placed a small wedge made up of alluminum foil in the middle of the cake. does this just help in cooking the middle?

[quick question about preping the day before?]

thanks all for the replies, appreciate all the help!

[quick question about preping the day before?]

hello,

can i do these the day ahead?

1. boil the pasta a day before for mac and cheese cooked the day of.

2. boil the potatoes a day before for mash potatoes cooked the day of.

3. cut up vegies i plan on roasting the day before cooked the day of. (squash, onions, carrots, potatoes, etc...)would they turn that brownish color?

i never tried to prep the day before and i get kind of crazy that when something works good one way, i am very stubborn in changing. =)

thanks!

[target buffet server food warmer?]

thanks, i guess i will purchase. i think i found a better deal though at costo. its 54 dollars but has 3 2.5 quart holders as suppose to targets 2 2.5 quarts.

Providing the foods placed in the servers are hot, this type of server will keep them warm. They work better than sterno (for a home setting) and are less messy and potentially dangerous. Don't expect to heat anything up by using the server, though.

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[target buffet server food warmer?]

hi,

i saw this the other day hanging out at target with my wife...

http://www.target.com/Aroma-Stainless-Stee...%3Aaroma&page=3

i dont know too much about buffet servers but i do know for a 2 2.5 quart server, price range anywhere from $49 dollars to $199. any idea if this would be decent enough to hold food at parties? my wife and i enjoy having bbqs over the spring/summer and would like to keep the typical mac cheese/ vegies/ mash potatoes etc... nice and warm.

thanks.

[can someone point me out to a cake layering]

once again thanks.

[can someone point me out to a cake layering]

hi thanks for the thread, thats exactly what i was looking for.

question, i like how the cake split was performed. now i see she used a metal sheet to take the cake off after the cutting, could i use a thin plastic? its one of those thin cutting boards used to cut vegies.

Wedding Cake Demo

while this is a square cake and specifically a wedding cake, if you scroll to post #12 you'll see a good demo on layering a cake with filling and then finishing it with icing.

if you're not confident with your slicing skills, then baking the cake in two pans is fine.  rather than do the dishes, i'd bake the cake in one pan and then level and slice the cake horizontally into two or three layers.

then proceed to fill, ice and decorate as described in the demo.  there aren't too many differences between icing a square and round cake and you can obviously do it as finished or as rustic as you see fit.

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[can someone point me out to a cake layering]

hi,

thanksgiving is approaching and would like to step up my cake skills by layering. i am baking 2 cakes, the frog commissary carrot cake (havent yet tasted a better carrot cake)and a hersey chocolate cake that i both came accross here at egullet.

question, for a layered cake, must i

cut the final cake mixture into 2 cake containers and line the bottom of the cake pan with parchement paper

when both layers are finished baking, cool them off

cut the rounded top so its flat, flip over, remove the parchement paper,

do the same with the other one

and then proceed to the layering?

thanks!

[what kind of oven do bagel businesses use?]

thanks alanamoana. so the same oven can also be used for pizzas and that is the case.

for cookies, im sure its the convection style to go. well thats at least what i see from the cookie company in the mall ginnys.

having lived in nyc for several years, the bagel operations i've seen mostly use hearth stone lined deck ovens.  don't know about steam...probably not necessary since bagels are boiled before being baked.  some of the older/bigger operations use conveyor/rotating gas ovens.

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[what kind of oven do bagel businesses use?]

hi, i was wondering what kind of oven would be best for bagles.

gas oven with hearth floor made of fire brick?

gas oven with hearth floor made of fire break + steam injection (most expensive)

or do they use a plain convection oven.

thanks!

[Pizza Sauce]

hi,

i now starting venturing off into pizza. id like to use this marinara recipe that i really like. the marinara sauce, when cooking, requires a 45 min simmer before i use it for pasta.

if i am making pizza, do i cook the marinara sauce or do i use uncooked marinara sauce on the pizza before the bake?

also, can i freeze left over uncooked marinara sauce? and roughly how long is freezer life?

thanks