JanKK

Hi, Joe, You didn't mention how you checked for the doneness of your caramel. Candy thermometer readings, at least in my experience, are not always consistent and can vary with room temp, pressure, etc, etc, etc. When I do caramel, I usually use a thermometer AND always check with the 'cold water' test (ie: soft ball, hard ball, etc). Not very technologically advanced, but I get better and more consistent results. Doubling the batch may be the problem too ---I can't explain why, but I seem to recall when I learned to make caramels that I was told always to make one batch at a time. --Jan

Ok ...having never been a huge fan of RLB's cakes,I'm going to skip that one for now (maybe it's just me, but they always seem a little dry). Will try Trish's recipe and kthull's. (then I can have chocolate cakes AND white cakes in the freezer ;)

Yep --I did indeed get up in time to bake it --and leaving it assembled in the fridge over night didn't seem to hurt it one bit :) The dough is wonderul to work with --it looks like a gloppy mess to start out with and turns into something beautiful with rolling.

Hi all :) Baked up 1/2 a batch of the Danish dough tonight into individual pastries with almond filling. Took this picture before they were most promptly devoured ;) Made the second half of the dough into a Danish Braid with apricot filling. Trying something a little different -- put the assembled braid in the fridge and plan to bake it in the morning to bring to work. Not sure if this will work, but I *think* so. And I am REALLY bad at getting up in the morning, so the more I can do the night before, the better. If it turns out well, will post that picture as well. :) And Yorhskire ---your brownies and breads are beautiful!!!

Ok ..had the taste testing of the Fudge Brownie Cake. I tend to shy away from chocolate cakes that use only cocoa powder. They just don't seem to be as good as the ones made with melted chocolate. That being said, I decided to put aside that notion and expand my horizons ..and was pleasantly surprised. On the 1-5 scale, I think I would give this one a "4". I used a combination of Ghiradelli Cocoa and Scharfen-Berger. Nice crumb and decent flavor. But as others have noted, it does seem a little delicate to slice and fill. So ....I know we're probably got too many recipes out here, but I'm going to give you my favorite. I made it again last night so I could do a side-by-side comparison, and I still like this one better. The recipe was originally my Mom's and I have no idea where she got it from. I've played with a bit over the years and made a couple more modifications last night when I baked it. Based on the Fudge Brownie Cake recipe, I decided to try lowering the oven temp to see what that would do ..and I do think it makes for a better crumb, strange as it seems. So anyway ...here's the recipe as I last made it. If anybody tries this, let me know what you think :) Feathery Fudge Cake 1 cup butter, softened 2 cups sugar 3 eggs 2 tsp vanilla 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled 3 1/2 cups cake flour 2 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 2 cups ice water 1 Preheat oven to 325 degrees. 2 Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Blend in cooled chocolate. 3 Sift together the flour, soda, and salt. Add to creamed mixture alternately with ice water, beginning and ending with flour. 4. Pour into pans and bake at 325 degrees until done. (this will make enough for 2 -10" cakes. I did one 10"x3" and then one 8" square. Square took about 30 minutes, 10" round took about 45-50 minutes)

Mel ....thanks so much for sharing your story! I just started reading tonight and couldn't stop. I'm not a professional PC but I love to bake. I've had many people say "you should open a bakery!" and even had a couple of folks willing to finance it. I explained that I had no idea what was involved with that kind of venture, but I knew it would be lots of money, lots of time, and lots of work ---not like whipping up a couple tortes or cookies at home. Now I know where to send them to read up on the rigors of opening a bakery! That being said, it also sounds incredibly exciting and looks like you're headed in the right direction with the right attitude ... Wishing you success and happiness beyond your wildest dreams!! --Jan

So who said anything about thawing them?? I used to put cookies in the freezer so I would NOT eat them all --and knew they would keep better in the freezer anyway. But then I discovered that many cookies ---most especially peanut butter and Spritz are excellent eaten straight out of the freezer.

Damn. No I suppose I have to admit I'm lurking over here ;) I just always like to get the lay of the land before I make a fool of myself. So I do appreciate you're making me feel welcome here, Wendy (and all!) And the chocolate cakes are cooling on my countertop as I write this. The smell is heavenly. And I'm actually very impressed with the way they look. I know doming and cracking was noted as a potential downful, but both of mine turned out almost perfectly level.........slight cracks, but nothing monumental. Made one 10" round and one 7x11 rectangle. Will give y'all the taste-testing results tomorrow! (of course, I have to admit it's more than likely there will at least be a corner missing from one by then ...who cares if it's still warm?;)

Any btw...my Danish Pastry dough is in the fridge!! ;) That's one of the great things about this stuff ...at each stage you refrigerate it, you can leave it for up to several days (whatever fits your schedule, as Julia says! ;)

Hi yorkshirepud!! I've made both the White Bread and the Challah recipes and both are fabulous. The white bread is strange to make, because you beat the butter in *after* kneadiing, but it makes huge beautiful tasty loaves. This was the first Challah recipe I tried, so I can't compare it to others, but I think it's excellent ---and when it's a few days old it makes PERFECT french toast :) I do sometimes have a problem with it getting too browned, but maybe that's just my oven. Look forward to seeing how they turn out for you! --Jan

Actually, the danish is really pretty easy --the dough is fabulous to work with -not nearly as difficult as croissants. And is it OK the next day? Hmmm.....I don't think I've ever had any make it to the next day :X My personal favorite is about an hour or two out of the oven. Actually, I do think once there were some left the next day and while not AS good as the first day, still pretty damn fine. --Jan

Hi everyone! I'm the new kid on the block here and I think I'm ready to stop lurking and start baking! ;) I've stumbled on this site one day while looking for info on a recipe in Sherry Yards book and I got hooked and joined up! I'm not a professional pastry chef (or any other kind!), but I love to bake and do it passably well. (Of course, anybody who makes anything better than box cake is hailed as a goddess these days ;) I also have cookbooks stacked up everywhere! So, of course, I have Baking with Julia. And it's one of my favorites!! I was excited to see y'all baking from it. If I might be so bold as to offer a suggestion, I saw, several pages back. that someone had suggested the Danish Pastries and I would heartily endorse that recommendation. They are absolutely superb and actually pretty easy. My favorite filling is the Almond, but they're all good.

Well, as it happens I do like Chocolate and Strawberries ...but I think there's something even better..... Since I don't see that anyone's mentioned it here, let me share my favourite ......serve up a plateful of beautiful fresh strawberries, along with bowls of sour cream and brown sugar. First dip in sour cream, then in brown sugar. It's right up there in the "sinfully easy-food of the gods" category. --Jan