lemon curd

I've been away from my kitchen for around 2 weeks now and can't wait to get started on another recipe. SethG, Patrick S and momlovestocook, your Pave's look so good and I'm intrigued with all the comments on the lightness of the ganache so I think I'll try that next. Everyone has really been doing such great baking from this book - it makes me really appreciate the quality of this book! FoodMan's macaroons look exactly like the picture in the book - absolute beauties! I don't have the 'Desserts' book yet (I'm still patiently waiting for mine....) but since I'm a big fan of lemon curd I think I'll try that recipe after the Pave.

Thanks so much for the contact info Just Loafing - I'll be giving her a call. BTW had to check out on a map where Neville Sask. actually was!

Thanks for all your suggestions on alternatives to the KA professional mixer. I noticed that the Fine Cooking Holiday Baking magazine (special issue - Winter 2005) recommends the KA Professional 5 Plus as its 'best all-around'. The Hamiliton Beach Eclectrics was considered 'Best Buy'. Both the Electrolux and Bosch brands sound like good alternatives.

The 6 QT Professional KA mixer was going to be my Christmas present this year. A Vancouver store had it for $399 CDN with a coupon (which is the best price I've seen in Canada), but a mixup at the store resulting in my order getting lost. After reading all the posts in this thread, I guess the store error was a blessing in disguise. I have a 15 year old 250W KA and was looking to upgrade in power and size. I'll have to check on some of the other mixer brand suggestions discussed in this thread.

OMG kthull that is beautiful! Can you bear to cut into it? I think I would cry if I had to cut into it since it's such a beauty! I still have a borrowed 'La Patisserie' at home and your pine cone cake is an absolute replica. Did you end up doing the scales the same way as described in the book (i.e. using a spatula to make the small tongues on acetate or parchment out of tempered chocolate). If you have time I'd also be interested to hear what you would do differently. You've motivated me to perhaps venture into actually doing some from the pro book (instead of just dreaming about making them) but I'd like to work my way through many more from the 'Chocolate Desserts' book first. Swisskaese - I piped the whipped cream with a 11mm star tip on the top of the cake as close to the outside edge as possible. I then did an second row at a 45 deg angle beside the first row but right on the very edge of the cake. Ling - I'm not a pastry chef, but I took a four month pastry/desserts course a while back. I rarely get to put much of what I learned about cakes and decorating into practice so this thread is great for getting me back into it.

Nicely done Patrick S. The gelee/glaze on top looks gorgeous! I can't tell from the picture how thick the gelee/glaze is. I'm wondering what the best way to cut through it would be? Warm but dry knife?

I completed my black forest cake today. I was making the cake for my parents who were supposed to arrive today from Ottawa. Unfortunately, they didn't make it due to severe winter conditions in Ontario - guess my neighbours just got lucky... It was really easy to put together. The only change I made was with the kirsh flavoured cream. I tripled the kirsh amount to three tablespoons. I consider it to be the best black forest cake I've eaten - the actual cocoa cake itself was really good as well. Here's my pictures: and Great job on the apricot cake Richard and the grenobloise SethG. I think my next project in January will be the grenobloise. Edit: picture references fixed.

I can find out the infrared thermometer brand/model tomorrow at work and post it for anyone interested. It has held up to lots of use and has never caused us any problems.

We use an infrared thermometer at work mainly to double check ganache temperatures before piping into chocolate shells. I don't know what the brand is that we use (the owner bought it in France). One thing you need to ensure is that the mixture is well stirred prior to taking a reading. The reading tends to be more of a surface temperature and there can be a 'big' variation in larger volume liquids. We haven't used it for sugar as we tend to go by sight/colour.

I just finished baking the cocoa cake for my Black Forest Cake. I used a tall 8" spring form pan and will end up putting my cake together in it as well. As my pan is slightly smaller than the suggested 8 3/4" diameter, I needed to bake the cake for longer than the recommended time. I had one minor dilemma when making the cake (heads-up to the Pave makers as you'll find the same problem when you go to make the cocoa cake). There appears to be an error in the conversion between volume and weight for the sugar. The recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups or 150 grams of sugar (which I assumed to be granulated sugar). 1 1/4 of granulated sugar weighs closer to 250 grams. I checked a few other recipes for similar type cakes and I thought that the 250 gram amount of sugar was reasonable and it did seem to work fine. Another possibility is that the sugar type was confectioners sugar, but I checked and 1 1/4 cups of confectioners' sugar weighs closer to 130 grams. I'm curious to know what 'you' would (will?) do in this situation...

forever_young_ca: Thanks for posting the link to recipes.egullet. I had searched in the baking forum as I was pretty sure I remembered a discussion on the chocolate sparkle cookies and was hoping to find a link but had no luck.

Daddy-A, the Sparkle Cookie recipe was in the Vancouver Sun a long time ago. I still have it in my recipe folder if you would like it, just let me know - might be a bit cheaper than $8 for 1/2 dozen.

Both the Pave and Grenobloise are something I could try in January. I am savarin moldless so I'll pass on the savarin for now. I'm not quite sure how I'll finish decorating my Black Forest Cake, I don't have a block of dark chocolate - only pistoles, so shavings for the top decoration like the picture might be difficult. I may pipe some dark chocolate decorations for the top (called run outs I think?), and reserve some of the whipping cream as described in the recipe. I'm interested some time in making the cookies - kthull your hazelnut sables looked awesome! The viennese sables are another type that I'd be interested in baking.

Wow! This is one of the neatest things about eGullet - having feedback right from the source. Thank you so much Dorie for taking the time to read and contribute. My next project from this book is the Black Forest Cake. I'm planning to serve it mid next week. I'll likely bake the cocoa cake this weekend, freeze it, and finish the rest of the recipe on the day of 'consumption'. I just have to find a good source for the sour cherries. I've been working from a borrowed copied of 'Chocolate Desserts' but my own copy will arrive in the mail any day now. BTW - thanks tan319 for the Balaguer website.

Oh yes I do want it! But at $275 CDN, I definately have to save my pennies (or better yet save my toonies!). A little off topic, but I've also borrowed "Oriol Balaguer Dessert Cuisine" which is another amazing professional book. sigh - someday!

I've included a picture of my caramels (my very first time with IMG ). I'll be taking them to a Christmas party this afternoon, along with some cookies from the Vancouver eGullet cookie exchange. I like the idea of adding the lemon zest much closer to the end. Based on the posts previous to starting my caramels, I added the zest of a whole lemon (instead of 1/2 as per the recipe) and it made no difference, as the lemon flavour is not apparent. However, the aroma of the sugar/corn syrup/lemon zest while cooking was very nice! By the way my coworker also lent me Pierre Herme's "La Patisserie de Pierre Hermes" which is an absolutely beautiful book. For home use, it's one of those books where you would tend to look at the pictures and read the recipes, as few of us would have the specialized equipment and ingredients at home (but you never know with eGulleters ).

I borrowed the Chocolate Dessert book from a coworker for the weekend and just finished a batch of the caramels. Similar to Seth G, my caramels appear darker than Patrick S's. I let the sugar/corn syrup/lemon zest mixture get to what I thought matched the 'rusty mahogany' colour described in the recipe (but I guess that's pretty subjective...). I also found it took a while after adding the butter, w/cream and chocolate to get back up to 243 deg F. I didn't use Valrohona Guanaja as I had Cocao Barry Guayaquil (64%) on hand. I can't remember if Guanaja is a lighter colour or not - I will check at work on Monday. If it is that could be another reason for my colour differences. I'm looking forward to cutting and tasting them tomorrow. My first test off the spatula is good but as with Patrick S, I didn't discern much lemon flavour.

I echo ellencho on this - Alton's chewy recipe is the best. As a matter of fact they are baking right now in the oven as I type this.

I tried the C restaurant new caper and red onion crackers at the Feast of Fields event in September and they were extremely good. I've been on the look out for them as I thought they would become my new favourite snack. I saw them for sale for the first time at Les Amis du Fromage last week, but they were so expensive for a very small amount that I just couldn't bring myself to buy them.

I printed out nightscotsman's recipe a while back and finally got around to making my batches today. First one was chocolate, second was vanilla and third was peppermint (thanks to Toliver for the peppermint suggestion). My first batch did not get very fluffy. From reading completely through this entire thread I suspect I may not have done a proper sheet gelatin conversion. I used 3 sheets per 1 envelope but I think it might have been too much as my sheets are very long. Another explanation might be that my cocoa powder had too high of a fat content. I used 1/3 cup of Cacao Barry Extra Brute. My second and third batches (both 1/2 batches) were much more successful. I switched to packaged gelatin for both and also did a soft ball test in addition to using my thermometer. I discovered that 240 deg F on my thermometer is not soft ball stage. I needed to go closer to 246 deg F. I slightly overwhipped the second batch as it was a bit thicker than I expected when removed it from the mixing bowl. It didn’t quite have the “pillowy” look of Patrick S’s batch, but was still good. I backed off on the whipping time for my third batch (about 6 mins as it was a 1/2 recipe) and the texture was much better. BTW I used about 1/16 tsp of peppermint extract for the 1/2 batch and added a bit of green food colouring. I was extremely (!) pleased with the results. I’ll let them sit overnight and experiment with cutting them into shapes tomorrow. I will be making the peppermint batch again next weekend to bring to the Vancouver Canada egullet Christmas cookie exchange. They will be awesome with hot chocolate as suggested by Toliver. Thanks nightscotsman for the recipe!!

Mooshmouse, Mr. Mooshmouse, Jeffy Boy and I enjoyed an excellent meal last night at West. On reflection, I also believe it is the best service I've ever received in a restaurant and the best wine pairing. We all ordered a la carte and requested wines to be paired with each of our courses (appy and main). As Moushmouse mentioned in another thread, conversation rather got the best of us, and although we were all advised of the wine details, we sadly have no record of them. I had the special stuffed artichoke appetizer, which came with an unexpected addition of seared foie gras (Thank you Chef Hawksworth!). My main was the veal t-bone with saskatoon berry braised red cabbage, which was outstanding and the wine pairing (something from Sardinia) was perfect! I believe I uttered the words “I have died and gone to heaven”. For dessert I had the chocolate souffle. The souffle had a lemon marzipan center and was served with mandarin sorbet. I’ve never encountered a marzipan that I could say I really liked till last night at West. As well, the mardarin sorbet was a hit! All helped of course with a well paired late harvest. We were seated within good viewing range of the kitchen, which is always my favourite dining vantage point. Any time I get the chance, I like to spend some time observing the kitchen activities. The West kitchen ran like a "well-oiled machine"; quick, efficient and quiet. This is definitely a “do again”!

I will always make sure the latch on a springform plan is properly closed BEFORE putting it into the oven. A while back at work, I was pre-baking cheesecake crusts. When I went to remove one of the pans from the oven, the ring part detached from the bottom. Somehow I managed to hold on to the bottom part of the springform pan and save the crust. The downside was that the HOT ring did a few rotations around my forearm.

The 'new' Whole Foods store carries the Dagoba chocolate bars. I think they had about 8-10 different ones on my visit about three weeks ago. I haven't seen them any where else in Vancouver...

Very interesting eatrustic!! I suspect Fieldstone's which is the next closest bakery to the new Cobs Cardboard in South Surrey (other than the Safeway 'bakery' next door), will survive just fine, due to their high quality and hopefully loyal customer base. I'm not sure if other independent bakeries such as Straight from the Hearth would be impacted as they are further away...

Cobs Cardboard strikes again! A bakery in the South Surrey area is now starting to 'transform' into a Cobs Cardboard. The bakery being replaced is Parkside Bakery (it wasn't really all that great of a bakery in my opinion) located in the Ocean Park Mall. This is now the second Cobs Cardboard in the South Surrey area - the other is across the street from the Southpoint Mall (152nd close to hwy 99). I wonder if Cobs Cardboard is doing some sort of aggressive expansion where they offer existing bakeries a deal they can't refuse? Anybody in the know?