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chefpeon

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Posts posted by chefpeon

  1. Croissants do better in proof boxes; if you have one, use it.

    If you don't, then investing in a good plastic rack cover is a good way to go.

    Croissants are properly proofed when they've increased in size significantly, about 2-3x, and you can

    begin to see the layering of the dough at the edges. Then give them a quick egg wash, and stick them

    in a well heated oven (375-400 F).

  2. I think the thing you have to realize is that you can't compare a gluten free cake to a cake that has regular wheat flour in it. It's just never going to be as good or the same. It's kind of an apples to oranges kind of thing.

    Perhaps you should try making a flourless chocolate cake? They are excellent tasting and easy to make.

  3. Here's a recipe for orange flavored ones. You could eliminate the orange juice, extract and zest for plain ones adding plain sugar as a topping. But, the orange ones are very tasty.

    How did you find that? I spent a half hour searching last night and came up empty handed. But then I ignored all the spanish written links, since I couldn't read them. The google translation isn't bad on that particular recipe. I had to laugh when it translated the title, "Orange Mattresses". :laugh:

  4. I have a recipe for a large apple nougat tart, that uses puff pastry and cooked apples. But the topping, which looks similar to this is made of 100g sliced almonds, 100g white sugar and 3 egg whites. You beat the egg whites lightly with a fork and then combine all the ingredients and pour on the tart. I will admit this topping looks a bit more caramely than mine. But you could try the tart with raw apples piled up and the nougat poured and shaped on top of them. The nougat might set before the apples shrink, creating the effect.

    That looks awesome.....I have to make it. If it doesn't look caramely enough when it comes out of the oven, then I will pour some caramel over the top (the sugar/water kind). If you look really closely at the picture, it looks like something was poured over the top after it came out of the oven. :unsure:

    Or the sliced almonds were really doused in the egg white/sugar solution?

  5. Ha ha! Well, my Google search only told me that "colchones" is the spanish word for mattress. I couldn't find a recipe to save my life. However, I know the executive chef at Las Chicas Locas in NY, and I put the question to him if he knows what they are......he's an expert in Mexican food.

    If he replies to me with some valuable info on them, I'll pass it along!

  6. I just looked up Thermomix on Google, and now that I sort of know what it is, my question is, is this thread just for Thermomix recipes or any recipe in general? If the latter, that's what RecipeGullet is for............

  7. All it is, is the amount of sugar you add to the egg whites. The more sugar you add, the thicker and creamier the egg whites are. The less sugar you add, the foamier the meringue.

    To get the thick and creamy kind, just use a ratio of 2:1, meaning for every lb of whites, add 2 lbs of sugar. You can do it using the swiss meringue method....that's the easiest.

    Another example: 8 oz whites to 1 lb of sugar, etc.

    If you don't know, the swiss meringue method is to put your whites and sugar in a metal bowl, and put that bowl in a simmering pan of water. Heat the sugar and whites til very hot, whisking occasionally. Then beat until stiff peaks form. :smile:

  8. sorry chefpeon but if you are a real pro you always want to temper your couverture when making ganache. EVERY pro in france i know of does it, and its no big deal cause if you are a pro you always have tempered choc in continous tempering machine anyway.

    Um, you know you really didn't have to make this a personal attack. I am a real pro, but I don't live in France. No employer of mine has ever furnished me with a continuous (or any, for that matter) tempering machine. Does that make me not a pro? Gee, I'm sorry.

    I still don't see the scientific point of tempering chocolate, only to pour hot cream over it, and bring it right out of temper. I've used ganache for 18 years, a LOT of it, and I've never tempered the chocolate or seen the need to.

    Don't accuse me of not being a pro because I don't temper my chocolate for ganache. Everyone has their own way of doing things and I don't begrudge them that. If you want to temper your chocolate you go right ahead....if you think it makes a better ganache than not tempering, great.

    If you want to debate the scientific and logical points of tempering vs. not tempering, I'm all for it.

    Just don't make it personal. :sad:

    Edited to add: Every place I've worked had me make ganache using chocolate chips, and of course you cannot temper chocolate chips, since they aren't pure chocolate. *GASP* I know, it's so very American. :wink:

  9. and if it is not to be served frozen? The original question was for a mousse cake whereby the mousse was from chocolate and whipped cream. The maker wants to serve it "half frozen" and experiences drooping if served half frozen or if it wasn't ohmy.gif gobbled up right away.

    As Tri said, you don't NEED gelatine or mycryo for chocolate mousse. The chocolate itself is what makes a chocolate mousse stable. I make chocolate mousse cakes all the time. They are frozen in rings then I de-ring the cake and decorate it. From that point on it's refrigerated. It's very stable and slices like a dream. No drooping.

  10. Greweling's butter ganache for example uses tempered chocolate and soft butter.

    Ok, when I think ganache, I just think "cream/chocolate". I forgot about the butter kind. I suppose the chocolate is tempered for the butter kind, so it won't melt the butter down, right?

    I don't imagine the tempering would be for stability purposes.......... :unsure:

    When you're in a commercial setting and you go through 10 lbs of ganache in a day, if someone told me I had to temper my chocolate first I'd slap 'em in the face. :laugh:

  11. Ditto what Tri said.

    I've never heard of, or made, unstable ganache. Besides, how would you temper chocolate for ganache anyway? Sure, melt and temper the chocolate, then add boiling cream and zing, your chocolate is out of temper. So I'd say it's pointless.

    For mousse, if I tempered the chocolate, it would be too cool for me to fold it in to the other ingredients fast enough and I'd end up with grainy bits of chocolate.

    Tempering would just be pointless for both applications. Besides, just having chocolate in a mousse makes it very stable, whether it's tempered or not.

  12. I'm doubtful of any brownie recipe employing cocoa powder. When cacao beans are processed into chocolate (I've done it myself), most of the flavor is in a fatty mass, sometimes extracted with solvents. "Cocoa" is the dry fiber left over. It has historically been heavily promoted in the US and is less often found in recipes elsewhere. But traditionally, intensely chocolate-flavored foods, including "hot chocolate," are made from whole chocolate, not cocoa.

    I sort of disagree. Cocoa is not a bad thing. Almost all great brownie recipes I have used over the years as a professional pastry chef have used cocoa. Cocoa solids are the most concentrated form of chocolate there is. With cocoa you have a greater chance of adding chocolate flavor to your recipe without adding additional fat to throw your recipe off balance.

    I would agree with you in the sense that whole chocolate has cocoa butter as it's fat, so there is a heightened cocoa enhancement.

  13. Caveat: Virtually every eqpt. mnfctr, including Hobart, will void the warranty on new mixers if they have been used for bread doughs.

    Is this really true? Why do they include a dough hook when you buy a new mixer?

    How can they expect a bakery not to mix the occasional yeast dough once in a while. What a rip off.

    Don't buy a belt drive mixer! I had a Blakeslee belt drive once and that thing couldn't even carry a load of cake batter. Always make sure you get a gear drive mixer. Other than Hobart, I've had fairly good luck with the Thunderbird brand. But face it, there is no mixer out there that will last as long as a Hobart.

  14. Watermelon cheesecake? :blink::blink:

    Anyway, do you want to bake these "seeds" into the cheesecake, or just use them as a decoration?

    If you want to use "seeds" as a decoration, why not just pipe chocolate teardrops on top of the cake? You could tint the cheesecake pink if it isn't pink already and it will look like a giant watermelon slice.

    Or you could forego the seeds altogether and just call it seedless watermelon cheesecake. :cool:

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