jgarner53
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Posts posted by jgarner53
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I've taken simple ganache and let it cool until it's thick enough to spread. At that point, it's fudgey and is easy to make into a smooth surface. Then, to gild the lily, I use the Sarah Bernhardt glaze (above) to top the cake - but you could just leave the ganache alone as a finish.
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I have a similar recipe to the BHG cookie, that was published in the LA Times from Some Crust Bakery. They aren't especially chewy, more truffly, but you can reduce the amount of coffee to reduce the mocha flavor.
4 1/2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
9 oz. bittersweet chocolate (70%), coarsely chopped
1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter
4 eggs
3 TBS. instant espresso powder
1 3/4 C. sugar
1/2 C. pastry flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2-inch chunks (or use semi-sweet morsels)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
Combine eggs, espresso powder and sugar in mixer and mix on low speed until blended, then on high speed until mixture becomes lighter in color and thickens, about 2-3 minutes. Add melted chocolate mixture (do not cool beforehand) and beat on medium speed until just mixed.
Add pastry flour, baking powder and salt, scraping down the sides of the mixer as necessary, mixing at medium-low speed, just until combined. Fold in the remaining chocolate chunks.
Scoop or spoon one-fourth cup batter per cookie onto parchment. Bake until set, about 15 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.
My other favorite chewy chocolate cookie is this one:
Chocolate Crinkles
4 oz. high quality unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 C. canola oil
2 C. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
4 large eggs
2 C. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 C. powdered sugar
Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Pour into a large bowl and stir in the oil, then the granulated sugar and salt. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in flour and baking powder until combined. Dough will be loose and sticky. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350F. Form heaping teaspoons of dough into 1-inch balls and roll in powdered sugar to coat. Place about 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets and bake 8-10 minutes. Tops will crack, but the dough in the center will still look moist. Let cookies rest a few minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.
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Oh, Abra, you make me want to leave San Francisco for Seattle just to enjoy your cooking! That duck confit salad (I'm a little behind and just catching up) looked and sounded divine! Even your capuccino shots make me want some, and I don't even like it!
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I do my bark with a layer of about 60% chocolate, topped with a layer of white chocolate, then the canes. I add a few drops of peppermint oil (not extract) to each of the chocolates to hike up the peppermint flavor a bit.
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I have to say, for all the hard work I put in last year making a variety of candies for Christmas presents, by far the most popular was the peppermint bark (and by far the easiest).
But yes, like Becca said, you should temper the chocolate.
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Also, has anyone tried making nougat with a lavender honey? Is it something that is done commercially?
Actually, I believe that traditionally, nougat de montelimar is made with lavender honey.
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On the actual counter: toaster oven, coffee grinder, Cuis food processor (11-cup and mini).
On the microwave cart: microwave (duh)
On the stove: tea kettle and Bialetti moka pot
On the metro rack (which takes the place of a pantry): Waring blender, KA stand mixer, Cuis ice cream maker, Sunbeam juicer (circa 1960), Foodsaver.
In cupboards: stick blender, waffle iron
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Am I the only one to have noticed the new "yogurt" trend in cereals? Total, Life, and Cheerios (among others) all now have some variety of "yogurt" covered something. With Cheerios, it's yogurt-covered o's, with Total and Life, it's yogurt-covered clusters.
What's with the yogurt? Is it an attempt to get breakfasters back in the cereal aisle with the demise of Atkins? Are they trying to take what amounts to sugar-frosted bits and make them seem more adult?
The other thing I've noticed is the packaging. Yogurt's "color," as far as packaging goes, appears to be a light purplish blue.
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How brave you three are to tackle puff! I remember being terrified of it, too, at first, but when I actually got down to making it, I found it really wasn't so hard after all.
You can use the scraps to make parmesan (or any other hard cheese) twists. Roll out a sheet thin, brush half with egg wash, sprinkle that half generously with cheese, then fold over the "clean" half, pressing gently to seal. Roll a little bit to seal the pieces together and thin things out a bit, then cut into one-inch strips (a pizza cutter works great), twist, and bake. Puffy, cheezy, crispy snacks. What could be better? they're amazing with champagne. Well, they're amazing, period.
Or make palmiers.
As to how long puff will keep in the fridge, ours doesn't last long at work, but even graying, oxidized sheets will bake off nicely, as long as you can get over the less than appealing color.
I vacuum seal my homemade puff and freeze it. I made 5 batches of it for my pastry school final (got into a rhythm, starting the dough on one day, then doing the turns the next, etc.) that I split and wound up freezing. I shouldn't have to make puff for quite some time. -
I didn't have rice paper when I made it last Christmas. I wrapped the pieces in waxed paper, and that seemed to be fine. My nougat was dense and chewy, but held its shape when cut. Sugar and corn syrup (with a little water) were cooked to 295, honey just to the boil.
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The CCA here in the bay area recently sent us 2 students who clearly were not taught the basics yet they came in with these padded resumes stating how much they knew and all the great places they worked.
Interesting point. I was chatting the other day with one of my school classmates, who works at Absinthe here in San Francisco, and she said basically the same thing. They'd had a couple of people come in from the CCA, who didn't know much. One didn't even know how to make pastry cream (she didn't want to bring it to a boil because she was worried that the eggs would curdle
). OK, if you don't know the difference between pastry cream, which is used in massive amounts in nearly every pastry kitchen, and a crème anglaise, what on earth were you doing in school when you were supposed to be learning? 
But, we did just hire someone at my bakery, fresh out of the CCA, who seems to be reasonably knowledgeable (OK, she's only been there one day so far), or at least has a good attitude, which is ssooo much in this business!
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We always refrigerate our muffin batters at work, but given the quantity of muffins we bake, I don't think a batch (about 20 quarts) lasts more than a couple of days.
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At the risk of stepping on brioche57's toes, I think he means to find a restaurant or bakery in your area that you really like (you like their product). Find out who the pastry chef is. Call (during non-service hours if it's a restaurant, or not first thing in the morning if it's a bakery) and ask if you can set up a meeting or come in one day to trail, or basically stand by to observe what's going on.
If you do go in, for heaven's sake, wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty (this is for trailing or if you're allowed to do any work). Don't go in in a skirt and heels or a suit!
Many businesses shy away from unpaid apprentices solely because of the worker's comp/liability issues. God forbid you get hurt, and there's no worker's comp to cover you because you were just an apprentice.
But trailing for even a few hours could give you a clearer picture of what life in a restaurant or bakery is like. Everything everyone here has said is true, in spades. You have to really love it, or else it isn't worth it. If you're in a bakery, expect to work odd hours (I go to work at 5am). There are very very few pastry jobs out there that are 8-5.
By all means, take some classes to improve your skills, and I think the suggestion, at least initially, to offer specialty cakes to co-workers, friends, and family is a good one. If you have a particular interest (say, specialty cakes, or breads), start doing them. Give them away for free, at least to start, and let people know that you're available to do a cake like the one they just tasted, for their next birthday, or party. If you don't think you can deal with the salary cut, it might be the best way to take your hobby to another level without giving up a corporate job.
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When I made the Sour Cream Ganache, I wasn't thrilled with it either. Maybe I should have left the sour cream out so that it was room temp, but it was hard to work with, and unlike an ordinary ganache, I found I couldn't soften it up more and rework it. The cake I used it on (the banana cake, btw) looked so horrible that I threw a chocolate glaze on it to help improve the look (though I was also trying for a smooth finish, not the quick icing look).
For my money and effort, I'll stick with a regular ganache that I know I can work and soften enough when I need to and get a smooth finish on a cake.
I did like the downy yellow cake, though, as far as basic butter cakes go. I made them as cupcakes and topped with the chocolate mousseline buttercream. My only complaints about chocolate buttercream is that in spite of the great flavor, the color was wimpy (I was using 61% chocolate) and pale.
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If I get a food gift, it's usually a gift certificate to Sur La Table. My SIL gave my husband and me both gift baskets one year (the year we were all supposed to be giving handmade gifts and I did chocolate and caramel sauces AND threw handmade ceramic bowls for the ice cream
) with "gourmet" gifts like hot chocolate mix, cans of mini cookies, and the plastic spoons covered in coating chocolate.The past couple of years I've done the chocolate and caramel sauces, and last year it was all candy, each selection hand-picked based on what I thought the people would like: peppermint bark, sea salt caramels, chocolate candied almonds, pâtes de fruits (5 flavors), nougat de montelimar, candied orange and lemon peel, and English toffee.
And for all that work, what was the most universally preferred treat? The peppermint bark, followed by the caramels. Right. This year it will just be bark and caramels.
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I dig on the chunks of banana left in a banana milkshake. As a kid, when I hit one, I'd close off the top end of my straw and pull it up out of the thick, cold liquid, dripping shake all the way, and lick it off the straw, finally getting to the bit of banana held to the end by suction. There was usually a straw full of shake, too. Yum!
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So glad to see that your toaster oven is just as, uh, well-used as my own (I have the same one). I have a hyper OCD compulsive cleaning friend who cleans hers (same model) EVERY TIME SHE USES IT.
As a result, it looks brand new, but I'm afraid to even so much as make toast with it when I visit for fear of the Crumb Police! 
Eggplant....must...make...eggplant...
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Leave it to the internet. A quick google search netted me these, but they ARE pricey. If you have a natural foods coop near you, you might look there. I know I have seen naturally colored decorating sugars (that coarse sugar)
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A cat that's 36 inches tall?
Wow! What did you feed him when he was a kitten? Miracle-Gro? I don't know how tall my cats are, but MAYBE if they stood on their hind legs, they MIGHT be that tall. Cashew is very cute. -
For things like flourless chocolate cakes, we heat up knives on the stove and let the heat of the knife melt through the cake. It makes for a clean cut, and while it does produce a fair amount of smoke (from burning chocolate), we can usually get at least 3 cuts before the heat in the knife dissipates, and we have to wash it off and stick it back on the stove. All depending on the temp of the cake, of course. The colder the cake, the fewer cuts you'll get.
For our napoleons, we have a specially made trough for assembly and cutting. It's got slits at regular intervals (to produce a total of 12 slices), so once it's assembled, you just use a serrated knife to carefully saw through each slit.
For cakes with buttercream, it's the knife in the hot water trick.
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I use cream, a ton of spices, maple syrup, and molasses in mine.
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Not only does my oven heat up the house (well, mostly the kitchen), it is equipped with its very own heater!
And no, I'm not being facetious. The makers of my stove thought that perhaps the housewife of the late 40's might want to heat her kitchen using this grand new appliance, and rather than giving me a broil-o-vator, or a second oven, put in a radiator shaped device, vented the door, and put the heater controls up along with the knobs for the oven and burners.
Sadly, this feature no longer works, but the oven alone does a dandy job of taking the chill off the kitchen.
I have never seen any other stove of this vintage with its own built-in heater, nor do any of the websites I've visited with old/refurbished stoves ever feature them.
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I regret not being adventurous enough as a kid to even TRY a single bite of the fresh abalone my dad would bring back from day diving trips. I don't even remember how my mom prepared it, except she'd pull out the meat mallet. I remember the little grid marks in the raw flesh. I could never be coaxed to eat even one little bite.
I went for fish sticks instead.
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I have to admit that I am a bit disturbed by the coffee flavor options Dunkin' Donuts is offering. Blueberry?
And, uh, how is the "vanilla spice" different from "french vanilla" (and if it's french vanilla, are there egg yolks in it?) And glad to see a less than perfectly clean kitchen/fridge. Love the yellow and black tile on your backsplash. Is that original to the house, or did you do that (judging by the black granite countertops and newish looking cabinets)?
Just mulling it over ... 'tis the season and all
in Spirits & Cocktails
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OK, I admit it. I cheat. I pick up three or four bottles of Glögg at IKEA every winter and add one to a bottle of wine. Heat gently. It's one of my favorite things about the holiday (to avoid the nutso crowds at IKEA, I go in through the exit directly to their food stall and purchase it there).
I even have a bottle leftover from last year, so I'm all set for this week's tree-trimming. I can't wait!